When levees break, liquidity flows — Analyzing Ethereum Shapella and liquidity staking derivatives By Cointelegraph

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The network’s planned Shanghai hard fork is nearly here. Planned for April 12, this is the first major upgrade since The Merge in September 2022. The “Shapella” upgrade (a combination of the two major proposals Shanghai and Capella), includes EIP-4895 which enables validators to withdraw staked ETH from the Beacon chain (Consensus layer) to the EVM (execution layer). The execution layer is the fun and friendly Ethereum users have come to know and love.

Why is this a big deal? With just over 18 million ETH currently staked (valued at just over $33 billion at the time of writing), some of which has been locked up for years, the possibility of these tokens flooding an already teetering market is enough to get some holders ready to sell the news once withdrawals are enabled.

Liquid Staking Derivatives could exert influence over Beacon Chain unlocks

RocketPool, Lido, Coinbase (NASDAQ:) and Frax

LDO versus ETH price. Source: TradingView
Ethereum LSD providers share of staked ETH. Source: DeFi Llama
Total value locked in Frax. Source: DeFi Llama