More than $34 billion staked ETH has become eligible for withdrawals.
The Shanghai Upgrade, also known as “Shapella,” was triggered on the Ethereum blockchain at 22:27 UTC on April 12, and finalized at around 22:42 UTC
The highly anticipated event enables withdrawals of ETH staked in the deposit contract more than two years after the Beacon Chain went live.
Ethereum proof-of-stake chain has upgraded to Shapella. Withdrawal is now enabled 🎉
This closes the loop of the original beacon chain design. Validator can deposit -> withdrawal.
— terence (@terencechain) April 12, 2023
“We’re in a stage where the hardest and fastest parts of the Ethereum protocol’s transition are basically over. Very significant things still need to be done, but those very significant things can be safely done at a slower pace,” said Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in a livestream attended by thousands of people watching the network upgrade in real time.
Validators can withdraw their staked ETH, either fully or partially, depending on whether or not they want to remain a part of the network. The network has the capacity to process 16 partial withdrawal requests at each slot, which is around 12 seconds. Meanwhile, those opting for a full withdrawal will be added to the same queue, but these requests will be processed a lot slower.
In either case, the regulated exit won’t lead to a mass exodus of validators on day one, but rather, a more spaced out exit over the course of several days or weeks. Only 57,600 ETH is permitted to be released each day.
At the time of writing, there were 3,579 validators in the exit queue, with a cumulative total of 114,528 ETH to be withdrawn. This corresponds to 0.6% of the total amount staked, by Glassnode’s estimates.
According to data from Arkham, just 62 ETH has been withdrawn from staking validators so far.
The Ethereum Shanghai + Capella upgrades are now live!
Over $34.5B in staked ETH can now be withdrawn from validators.
However: as of right now, only 62ETH has been withdrawn from staking validators. pic.twitter.com/Q288w6BDca
— Arkham (@arkham) April 12, 2023