According to a recent Twitter poll by Coin Bureau, ETH investors may not have much to celebrate when the Shanghai upgrade goes live this Wednesday. The poll, which received responses from 7,553 participants, revealed that 44.8% of respondents predicted a decrease in the price of ETH following Ethereum’s latest upgrade. Only 23.5% of respondents predicted an increase, while 31.7% expected no change. The bearish forecast is largely attributed to concerns surrounding the unlocking of nearly 18 million staked ETH, which represents approximately 15% of the total supply, scheduled under the upgrade.
The upcoming upgrade, affectionately named ‘Shanghai,’ is a hard fork of the Ethereum blockchain that will introduce EIP-4895. This new protocol will allow validators to withdraw their staked ETH from the Beacon Chain. However, implementing this protocol has sparked some controversy, as some fear it may lead to a sudden surge in the circulating supply of ETH. This could occur if validators rush to liquidate their tokens.
Regarding the poll findings, Coin Bureau expressed a more sanguine perspective. The publication highlighted that the withdrawal of ETH would be restricted by epoch, and the anticipated influx of sell pressure would be relatively insignificant compared to the daily trading volume. It foresees a favorable medium to long-term future for ETH, as it anticipates a surge in demand if fresh institutional validators begin staking in response to the upgrade.
Staking has been a fundamental aspect of the Ethereum blockchain ever since the Merge transitioned Ethereum’s consensus mechanism from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (PoS) in September 2022. The existing reservoir of staked ETH traces back to December 2020, when the Beacon Chain, which relies on PoS, was launched.
