Ethereum market is preparing for a major network upgrade known as the Shanghai upgrade, which will take place in less than three weeks. The upgrade will allow more than 17.7 million ethers to be withdrawn after two years of lockdown. The core developers of ETH have scheduled the Shanghai upgrade to take place on April 12, when stakers can start requesting withdrawals.
Short-Term Sell Pressure
While the Shanghai upgrade is expected to cause some selling pressure in the short term, many ETH investors are expected to continue to stake in the future. Also, the upgrade will make it easier to stake and redeem ETH coins.
Ethereum’s Growth and Price Analysis
ETH, a leading smart contract network, has seen significant growth since its ICO in 2014 when the token was launched at $0.31. However, Ethereum price is down more than 63% from its all-time high set at around $4,878 in November 2021.
As we have reported as Koinfinans.com, the price of ETH has gained approximately 46% since the beginning of the year and is trading at approximately $1,752. For this upside momentum to continue, the bulls need to defend the $1,680 support level. Ethereum price broke out of last year’s logarithmic downtrend in the second week of March and has consolidated ever since.
While there are several rebounds in the logarithmic downtrend in the coming weeks, Ethereum bulls see $2,000 as the next hurdle to overcome. Moreover, bitcoinCash flow to Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens is expected to increase in the coming weeks.
According to research data provided by Glassnode, the number of Ethereum addresses holding more than 0.01 ether has grown exponentially since 2022. In addition, the cost of ether transfer has decreased significantly since the London fork, codenamed EIP-1559, introduced a base fee in 2021. Previously, Ethereum network users faced extremely high transaction fees, making small holdings nearly impossible.
