Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Ethereum (ETH) has been unstaked in the last 24 hours as the smart contract platform launches its new Shapella upgrade.
New data from crypto analytics platform Nansen reveals that over 89,000 ETH tokens, worth over $170,000,000 at time of writing, have been withdrawn from staking protocols during the last day, an action enabled by the new update.
The withdrawal spree, which started on the night of April 12th, saw the overall amount of staked ETH drop by 0.4%, bringing the number to 14.5%, according to Nansen.
The market intelligence platform also finds that the average price of staked Ethereum is $2,136, higher than its current price tag of $1,966.
The data also unveils the entities that withdrew the most Ethereum from staking since the update, the largest by far being the Lido DAO (decentralized autonomous organization), a liquid staking protocol for smart contract platforms.
Ethereum’s Shapella update, a portmanteau of “Shanghai” and “Capella,” is actually two simultaneous upgrades happening together. While the Shanghai update bolstered the platform’s execution layer, the Capella update changed its consensus layer.
The update also allowed those who staked ETH to withdraw their assets and the awards they earned from the proof-of-stake protocol.
Recently, crypto analytics platform Glassnode predicted that 170,000 ETH worth about $300 million would be sold after traders could unstake their tokens, adding that at worst, $2.95 billion worth of the top altcoin could flood the market.
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