• Ethereum trades above $2,000 for the first time in almost a year after the successful Shappella upgrade.
• Ethereum’s positive performance liquidated almost $40 million in short positions within the last 24 hours.
• Liquid staking tokens have risen by roughly 3% in the last 24 hours, according to CryptoSlate’s data.
Ethereum Trades Above $2K
Ethereum traded above $2,000 for the first time since May 2022 after the successful Shappella upgrade. According to CryptoSlate’s data, ETH rose more than 6% in the last 24 hours to trade as high as $2,007. Coinglass data showed that ETH’s positive performance liquidated almost $40 million in short positions within the last 24 hours. Bitcoin and Ethereum are up over 81% and 60% year-to-date, respectively.
The Success of Shappela Upgrade
The success of the Shappela upgrade mostly influenced ETH’s positive price movement. The Shappella upgrade is the first major Ethereum network update since the Merge and will enable validators to withdraw their staked ETH. Data from Token Unlocks showed validators had withdrawn over 130,000 Ethereum at the time of press. The data further shows that roughly $1.8 billion worth of ETH is pending withdrawals.
Liquid Staking Tokens Rally
Liquid staking tokens have risen by roughly 3% in the last 24 hours, according to CryptoSlate’s data. Except for Rocket Pool (RPL), all other cryptocurrencies posted gains during this period with StakeWise (SWISE) gaining 6.62%, while Frax Share’s FXS rising by roughly 3%. Other protocols like Lido (LDO), ANKR, pStake Finance (PSTAKE), and Stafi (FIS) also posted gains of less than 1%. DeFillama data shows that total value of assets locked (TVL) on top liquid staking protocols rose by an average of 4%. Over 8 million ETH tokens — worth $16 billion — are currently staked through these protocols at press time..
Positive Outlook
Despite some analysts predicting that Ether’s unlock would place selling pressure on its price; its current performance has put those fears to rest with it trading above $2000 for almost a day now with no signs slowing down anytime soon despite retracing slightly from its ATH just shy of 2k1$.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Ethereum has seen tremendous success over past months with steady increase in both price and adoption leading up to its ATH just shy of 2k1$ which was helped along by successful shappelle upgrade enabling validators to withdraw their stake pushing prices even higher! Liquid staking tokens rallied along side ether showing investors confidence despite some analyst predictions otherwise!
