- Ethereum’s Shapella hard fork enables validator withdrawals.
- 12,859 Ether unlocked in the first hour.
- 44% of validators are now able to withdraw.
Ethereum Mainnet Witnesses Shapella Hard Fork, Unleashing Locked Ether
April 12th marked a historic moment for the Ethereum community as the much-anticipated Shapella hard fork was successfully implemented on the Ethereum mainnet. The hard fork, which occurred at epoch number 194,048 at precisely 10:27 pm UTC, now enables Ethereum validators to withdraw their staked Ether from the Beacon Chain.
Following the execution of the Shapella hard fork, beaconchai.in, a well-known Ethereum block explorer, reported that an impressive 12,859 Ether were released in 4,333 withdrawals within the first 60 minutes. This development suggests a significant windfall for Ethereum validators.
Of the 559,549 total active validators, approximately 44%, or 248,043, can now request partial or full withdrawal of their staked Ether. Interestingly, the majority of withdrawals are between 2.8 and 3.2 ETH, indicating that staking rewards are the primary focus of withdrawal requests at the moment.
Data from Rated Network Explorer reveals that a mere 3,996 validators joined the exit queue just prior to the Shapella hard fork’s implementation. As Ethereum validators continue to withdraw their staked Ether, the true extent of the impact of the Shapella hard fork will become clearer.
In other news, in the eyes of crypto enthusiasts, The New York Times (NYT) is rapidly becoming a villain due to its recent criticism of bitcoin mining. They believe that the article is at best biased and at worst malicious.
