More than 650,000 staked ethereum units, valued at approximately $1.6 billion, were redeemed last week, the largest redemption amount since the Shanghai Upgrade was completed last year.
A Dune Analytics dashboard shared by Tom Wan, analyst at 21 Shares, presented that bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius and staking services provider Figment were the main contributors to this substantial increase in repayments. Together, they orchestrated withdrawals totaling 563,300 eth staked, making up an impressive 85% of the total redemptions during the reporting period.
cryptoslate highlighted the role of these companies in driving ethereum validator outputs to a record of over 16,000 validators on January 5. At the time, the two companies accounted for approximately 75% of the total withdrawals in the queue as they planned to eliminate over 550,000 staked ethereum.
Celsius previously revealed plans to de-stake 206,300 eth, worth around $470 million, as part of efforts toward its bankruptcy process. The failed lender said the withdrawals would be used to facilitate the distribution of assets to its creditors.
On the other hand, Figment was also making substantial withdrawals of over 350,000 eth staked on behalf of its clients.
After these substantial withdrawals, the total amount of ethereum staked now stands at 28.9 million, according to Nansen's ethereum Shanghai (Shapella) update. ai/public/dashboards/Hk93n66vsO0uvycfui8ypF2xcpNhpraxfwX5AWZJ”>panel.
eth price is not affected
Staked ethereum withdrawal activity did not negatively impact eth price performance over the past week, as the digital asset's value rose around 12% to a high of $2,700, its highest value since May 2022.
Suggestions that the US Securities and Exchange Commission could approve a spot ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) following similar approvals given to bitcoin ETFs have contributed to this bullish price move.
Larry Fink, CEO of asset management company BlackRock, further fueled optimism when bitcoin-etf-approvals-are-just-stepping-stones-towards-tokenization.html”>saying saw “the value of owning an ethereum ETF” during an interview with CNBC.
ethereum-etf-approved-by-may-31?tid=1705075825280″>Data from Polymarket shows that around 55% of bets on the platform anticipate the approval of the ethereum ETF by the end of May.
