Institutional investors flock to Ethereum, staking over $1 billion worth of ETH in a week

After the long-anticipated Shangai/Capella (also known as Shapella) upgrade of the Ethereum (ETH) ecosystem enabled withdrawals of staked ETH, the staking activity on the platform has not only seen an uptick but is writing down record-breaking results.

As it happens, the Ethereum network has received an inflow of 571,950 ETH in the week of April 17, according to the Dune Analytics data dashboard featuring the weekly staking interval of Ethereum, created by digital asset investment firm 21Shares, and retrieved by Finbold on April 25.

Specifically, according to the chart, the staking activity has visibly soared in recent weeks, recording the highest daily number on April 24 (126,080 ETH staked). 

Institutional interest

As 21Shares’ research analyst, Tom Wan, explained in a tweet and dashboard screenshot that he posted on his profile on April 24, this surge is largely driven by institutional staking service providers and large investors seeking to reinvest their rewards following withdrawal.

Indeed, Freddy Zwanzger, Ethereum ecosystem lead at the blockchain infrastructure platform Blockdaemon, which deals with many institutional clients, had predicted the increase in interest post-Shapella. As he earlier told Cointelegraph, large professional investors would take an interest in Ethereum staking opportunities as they would have a clear withdrawal option:

“There’s probably going to be a queue for the first couple of weeks. (…) So they might be better off waiting until that comes down to normal levels.”

Ethereum price analysis

Meanwhile, the price of Ethereum at press time stood at $1,956, up 7.01% in the last 24 hours and 10.10% over the previous 30 days, as it recovers from the losses of 6.98% accrued across the past seven days, according to the latest data seen on April 26.

All things considered, whether the positive staking momentum holds – and for how long – will depend on the continuation of interest coming from institutions and other major investors looking for new ways to increase their profit.

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