Lido DAO, Rocket Pool prices rise ahead of the Shapella upgrade

Liquid staking tokens drifted upwards on Tuesday as investors waited for the upcoming Shapella upgrade of the Ethereum network. Lido DAO’s LDO jumped by 6.5% to $2.47 while Rocket Pool’s RPL soared to $47.55. 

Shanghai upgrade ahead

The biggest Ethereum news of this week will be the upcoming Shanghai upgrade scheduled for Wednesday. This upgrade will make it possible for ETH investors to start withdrawing their staked coins. 

Data by Staking Rewards shows that Ethereum valued at over $30 billion has been staked in both centralized and decentralized platforms. Rocket Pool has over 443,900 staked ETH, which is worth over $887 million. Lido holds over $11 billion worth of ETH.

Therefore, most analysts believe that the ETH market will see some more volatility as investors start withdrawing their cash, Besides, Ethereum, like other cryptocurrencies, has jumped by double-digits this year.

Another risk is that American regulators are concerned about staking. In February, the SEC settled with Kraken and ordered it to stop offering staking solutions in the country. In March, the agency warned Coinbase about its staking services.

Transition to liquid staking

In the long term, most people will likely shift to DEX platforms like Lido DAO and Rocket Pool. Unlike centralized entities, these platforms are international and are controlled by their DAO members. In a statement, Ilya Volkov, the CEO of YouHodler said:

“Centralized exchanges are no longer able to offer staking services in the U.S. So, ETH will be withdrawn from these exchanges and staked elsewhere (e.g decentralized staking services). At the moment, the SEC cannot prevent users from staking ETH tokens via an individual note or via decentralized staking services.”

In a statement last week, Lido DAO said that its users will start gaining access to their tokens in May of this year. That’s because the developers need to conduct a update of its V2 test network to prevent security issues. This update is expected to be the biggest in its history. 

Rocket Pool is also working on an upgrade that will go live on April 18 of this year. The upgrade, known as Atlas, will have improved protocol efficiency, higher node operator rewards, and greater rETH rewards.