80% of Staked Ethereum (ETH) Withdrawals Made by Single Entity: Report

In its recent analysis, CoinShares highlights the current state of ETH staking withdrawals eight days after Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade. The Shanghai, or more accurately, Shapella, upgrade triggered on April 12, enabling staked Ethereum withdrawals.

CoinShares, in its analysis, observes that the wave of staked ETH withdrawals anticipated by many has not occurred — at least not yet. This is reflected in the Ethereum (ETH) price.

(4/7) The vast majority of withdrawals is @krakenfx (~80%) as the @SECGov forced them to shutter their staking service for US customers. pic.twitter.com/WaZPKWBKQJ

— CoinShares (@CoinSharesCo) April 20, 2023

Ethereum rose above the $2K mark on April 17, reaching as high as $2,142 before it embarked on a slight retreat. At the time of writing, ETH was down 1.06% in the last 24 hours at $1,972, having lost the $2K peg as a result of the market-wide sell-off.

CoinShares estimated that less than 5% of validators have withdrawn so far, as there are currently over 19,500 validators in the withdrawal queue, which implies a waiting time of nearly 12 days until all have withdrawn.

Similarly, there are over 7,800 validators in the deposit queue, which has a waiting time of nearly four days.

80% of staked ETH withdrawals made by single entity

As stated earlier, less than 5% of validators have withdrawn, while one entity represents 80% of withdrawals. CoinShares notes this in a pictorial chart.

It adds that the vast majority of withdrawals — over 80% — were undertaken by the Kraken crypto exchange as the SEC forced it to shutter its staking service for U.S. customers.

In February, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Kraken with failing to register the offer and sale of their crypto asset staking-as-a-service program.

To settle the SEC’s charges, Kraken agreed to immediately cease its crypto asset staking services or staking programs and pay $30 million in disgorgement.

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