Ethereum (ETHUSD) surged last week as traders anticipated the coming Shanghai upgrade.
ETHUSD – Weekly Chart
The Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade will be the most significant Ethereum upgrade since The Merge. Users can finally unstake ETH and withdraw rewards from the Beacon Chain.
The Merge in September was the first part of Ethereum’s switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake architecture. Ethereum’s blockchain merged with a proof-of-stake chain to become the Beacon Chain.
Stakers were asked to put their ETH in a lock-up until the coming Shanghai Upgrade, and that could hurt the coin’s price if holders decide to sell their tokens. Still, the staked tokens are only a tiny fraction of the ETH trading volume.
Roughly 68% of the staked ETH is losing money, which may mean that holders will wait for gains before removing any staked tokens. Users had to skate 32 ETH, not a small sum, to become validators and lock their funds on the Ethereum chain.
The cryptocurrency market was boosted by a short squeeze rally in Bitcoin since the start of the year. The price of BTC has paused recently but was given another burst of support last week with a near 15% gain as traders absorbed the latest Ordinals craze.
Ordinals are part of a new protocol that brings NFTs and smart contract potential to Bitcoin. Some are happy that Bitcoin will become programmable. In contrast, others are concerned that the development activity has already led to congestion on the blockchain and higher fees. Ultimately, that could boost Ethereum if it can complete its own upgrades to a cheaper and leaner blockchain soon.
