Crypto exchange Kraken has started the procedure for withdrawing all staked Ethereum associated with its users in the U.S. amid the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade scheduled today, April 12.
In February, the U.S. SEC charged Kraken for offering an unregistered crypto asset staking-as-a-service program to its U.S. customers. Kraken immediately ended its crypto staking, except staked ETH.
As the Shapella (Shanghai + Capella) upgrade will enable the withdrawal of Ethereum staked on the Beacon Chain to the execution layer, Kraken is withdrawing all staked ETH associated with their U.S. retail customers.
Ethereum influencer and educator Anthony Sassano in a tweet on April 12 noted that Kraken is unstaking ETH by exiting their validators. While validators can exit from Ethereum staking, but their 32 ETH staked and consensus layer rewards will remain on the network until Shapella (Shanghai+Capella) upgrade.
Amid regulatory pressure from the SEC on staking services, Kraken and Coinbase are likely to remove staked ETH after the Shanghai upgrade. Coinbase and Kraken have 2.29 million and 1.25 million ETH staked with the platforms. It will have additional selling pressure on Ethereum.
(By Varinder Singh)
All Comments