The Shapella hard fork officially ran on the Ethereum Mainnet, meaning Ethereum validators can finally withdraw their Ether (ETH) stakes from the Beacon Chain.
The long-awaited update went into effect at 10:27 pm UTC on April 12 at epoch number 194,048.
Within the first hour of the hard fork, a total of 12,859 Ether was unlocked from 4,333 withdrawals, according to the Ethereum block explorer beaconchai.in.
Currently, around 44% of validators, or 248,043 of the active total of 559,549, can request a partial or full withdrawal.
Most withdrawals at the moment are between 2.8 and 3.2 ETH, which suggests that it is mainly staking rewards that are being withdrawn at the moment.
The Ethereum Shapella update has been activated and withdrawals are being processed! pic.twitter.com/Krly5GB2K7
— eric.eth (@econoar) April 12, 2023
The withdrawals come when only 3,996 validators signed up for the output queue moments before the Shapella fork went into effect. according to the Classified Network Explorer data.
Of the total amount of Ether mineable, cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has the largest share with 30%, followed by decentralized autonomous organization PieDAO with 17.7%. according to data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen.
A total of 284,622 Ether is awaiting a full withdrawal from 7,948 validators, Nansen data shows.
The price of Ether, currently $1,920, has barely moved in the first hour of the hard fork, something that was predicted in an April 11 report by blockchain intelligence platform Glassnode.
In theory, the hard fork can unlock 18.1 million Ether on the Beacon Chain, which currently equates to over $34.8 billion, however, there are several mechanisms in place to prevent a flood of ETH from hitting the market. according to the Ethereum Foundation.
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In its report, Glassnode estimated that less than 1% of that total would be released in the first week and the 12,859 Ether unlocked in the first hour only represents 0.07% of the total Ether staked on the Beacon Chain.
withdrawals in pic.twitter.com/0rdy49SHh2
— mariano.eth | (@nanexcool) April 12, 2023
Through the Ethereum investment proposal EIP-4895, the staked Ether was pushed from the Beacon Chain to the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), also known as the execution layer, making withdrawals possible.
It is the most significant upgrade since The Merge on September 15 and brings Ethereum one step closer to a fully functional proof-of-stake system.
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Update (April 12, 11:52pm UTC): This article has been updated to include Ethereum validator withdrawal figures immediately after the Shapella hard fork.
Update (April 13, 12:20 am UTC): This article has been updated with more information, metrics, and general information.
