Regulatory pressure sees ETH staking drop amid much-awaited Shapella upgrade

According to the on-chain analytics platform Glassnode, the amount of ETH being staked monthly has decreased despite the hype created by the much-anticipated Shapella upgrade.

The recent staking deposits have slightly declined in recent weeks mainly due to the increased regulatory pressure even as the much anticipated Ethereum Shapella upgrade slated for April 12 approaches.

The current state of ETH staking

Glassnode on April 9, 2023, reported on the current state of the Ethereum staking ecosystem revealing that “deposit activities are currently low due to regulatory pressure and the Shanghai upgrade.”

Financial regulators in the US have unleashed a slew of crackdowns on crypto projects. The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, is adamant that Ethereum’s Ether (ETH) is a security rather than a cryptocurrency as it claims to be. The SEC has even gone ahead to crack down on staking services offered by several crypto service providers including exchanges like Kraken.

According to Glassnode, there are two factors causing the drop in Ethereum staking deposits. The firm noted that popular cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Kraken, and Coinbase have lost a lot of the crypto market share to the liquidity-staking platform Lido.

Binance seems to be the most affected after the CFTC alleged that the exchange and its CEO were engaging in unlawful trading activities.

Glassnode stated:

“As the dust settled between the three giants, it was Lido who emerged victorious, continuing to dominate deposit inflows as of present.”

Currently, Lido accounts for a third of the total amount of staked Ether.

Ethereum Shapella upgrade

The Ethereum Shapella upgrade, also known as the Shanghai hard fork, will enable the phased release of the ETH staked on the Beacon Chain.

Analysts have predicted that liquid staking platforms such as Lido will get a boost when ETH is released from the Beacon Chain after the Shapella upgrade.