Shanghai/Shapella Upgrade: Will it sink or swim Ethereum’s market valuation?

ambcrypto.com:

The upcoming Shanghai/Shapella upgrade of Ethereum [ETH] has left many pondering the potential effects on ETH’s market valuation. While some metrics pointed to a possible downturn, other indicators seemed to offer a more optimistic outlook.

– Read Ethereum (ETH) Price Prediction 2023-24

According to data from CryptoQuant and Dune Analytics, Ethereum’s stake has been on the upswing, despite the approaching upgrade. In fact, at the time of writing, the overall value staked had soared past 18 million, equivalent to over 15% of the entire circulating ETH supply.

Additionally, CryptoQuant’s statistics revealed a surge in staking inflows, with February registering the highest inflow rate of the year.

Source: CryptoQuant

Moreover, Dune Analytics’ data revealed that Kraken has currently staked over 1.2 million ETH, placing it third among the top stakers. Celsius, on the other hand, has approximately 158,000 ETH staked. When added to the over 1 million ETH rewards that will be unlocked after the upgrade, it comes up to billions of dollars in ETH value. 

However, partial reward withdrawals of over 1 million ETH could be dumped into the market. Celsius Network may sell its 158,000 staked balance as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, leading to almost 1.3 million ETH or about $2.4 billion in potential sell-side pressure facing the market.

Here, it is also worth noting that Kraken, which recently faced regulatory scrutiny for not registering its staking-as-a-service offering in the U.S., may decide to unstake all its ETH holdings.

However, not all unlocked Ethereum will flood the market. According to CryptoQuant’s analysis, out of the 18 million ETH currently staked, approximately 9.7 million ETH are at a loss.

According to Dune