Ether Crosses $2,000 as Shanghai Upgrade Completed

Ethereum finalized its transition to the proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism after completing the ‘Shapella’ upgrade on Wednesday. The successful transition boosted Ether’s (ETH) price above the $2,000 mark for the first time since August.

Ethereum Completes its Shift to PoS

ETH’s price crossed the $2,000 threshold for the first time since August 2022 after the long-expected Shapella upgrade was completed earlier this week. ETH last stood at $2,000.06, rising more than 5.7% in the past 24 hours.

The price surge comes in the wake of the most recent upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, known as Shapella. Combining the Shanghai and Capella updates, the Shapella upgrade unlocked more than $30 billion of the ETH tokens for investors to withdraw, which they deposited in return for interest on the network over the past three years.

Shapella marked the most significant upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain since the Merge in September 2022, which initiated Ethereum’s transition from a proof-of-work (PoW) to the PoS model. With Shapella, Ethereum’s switch to PoS is now complete.

The transition dramatically reduced Ethereum’s energy usage, an advancement many Ethereum proponents said could help propel ETH’s price above Bitcoin (BTC). After getting battered during the 2022 crypto winter, the world’s second-biggest crypto token surged more than 55% in the past six months and over 66% since the start of 2023. However, it remains far below BTC, which recently crossed the $30,000 mark.

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No Significant Selling Pressure in ETH After Shapella, As Opposed to Expectations

Ethereum’s jump above $2,000 could surprise some market watchers who expected to see significant selling pressure upon the completion of the Shapella upgrade. However, as predicted by Glassnode, the selling pressure on ETH has turned out to be trivial.

The on-chain market intelligence platform expects only around 170,000 ETH to be sold following the latest upgrade, which unlocked around 18 million staked ETH, or around 15% of the cryptocurrency’s total circulating supply.

Meanwhile, reports from earlier today revealed that investors are facing delays in attempts to withdraw their ETH funds, according to data by blockchain firm Nansen. The data showed that around $1.4 billion worth of ETH tokens was stuck in a withdrawal queue. Nansen analyst Martin Lee said the delays are likely due to limits in the number of transactions Ethereum can process.

Do you think Ethereum’s price will maintain its upward trajectory throughout 2023? Let us know in the comments below.