This artic is exploring the coalescing of narratives in liquid staking derivatives, the Shanghai Upgrade, eigenlayer, and beyond.

The liquid staking platform Lido has surpassed 6 million ether (ETH) in deposits, as investors seek to take advantage of the benefits of staking without sacrificing liquidity. The platform has seen a significant increase in deposits in recent weeks, with the recent Ethereum network upgrade in Shanghai cited as a key factor driving investor interest.

The recently implemented Shanghai upgrade in the Ethereum blockchain allows validators to access their staked assets and rewards. However, the SEC and CFTC are increasing their scrutiny of the staking arm of digital asset companies, leading to concerns about centralization. Over 30% of staked ETH is facilitated by exchanges, but regulatory actions against Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance regarding their staking activities have raised concerns. Some commentators argue that the SEC's actions are attempting to make staking completely decentralized, where users deal directly with the protocols without staking pools.

Early signs show that Ethereum’s seamless Shanghai upgrade has spurred institutional investors’ interest in staking.

Ethereum finally completed another step for it to be a fully Proof of Stake chain.

April 12, 2023 marked a significant milestone for Ethereum (ETH), as the long-awaited Shanghai upgrade (“Shanghai”) was successfully implemented.

According to a report from CoinShares, Ethereum-linked products saw little investment interest with inflows of around $300,000 in the week ending April 14, despite the recent upgrade of the blockchain. In contrast, Bitcoin received the lion’s share of $104 million, marking the fourth week in a row of inflows, which CoinShares believes is a flight to safety by investors fearful of ongoing challenges in traditional finance. On-chain analysis company CryptoQuant showed that during the period between April 13 and 17, cryptocurrency exchanges saw a net inflow of about 131,395 Ether ($273.3 million), with over 1.46 million Ether transferred to the exchanges, typically indicating selling intention from crypto holders. (forkast)

According to a research report by Coinbase, the successful upgrade of the Ethereum blockchain during the Shanghai Fork, also known as Shappela, supported better than expected price action for ether (ETH). The upgrade allows validators to withdraw staked ether and rewards that have been locked up, which has limited ether supply due to the majority of addresses receiving partial withdrawals not spending their rewards and a healthy number of new entrants in the validator entry queue. Furthermore, ether's relative underperformance versus bitcoin year-to-date has left room for catch-up post the upgrade, leading to some rotation from bitcoin into ether. The macro environment also remains conducive to risk-taking, which may support ether's price through the end of April.

Bitcoin (BTC) continued to trade in a narrow range over the weekend, around $30,000, after a week of volatility. Ethereum (ETH), on the other hand, has been relatively quiet and has remained around $2,100 after gaining over 13% in the past seven days, partly thanks to the recently concluded Shanghai upgrade.

As of this writing, Ethereum recorded an 8-month high, climbing north of $2,000 for the first time in 2023 and potentially reaching its next resistance area.