The upcoming Shapella hard fork on the Ethereum network will give stakers the option to unlock their Ether rewards or stop staking altogether on April 12 at 10:27 UTC. Although there had been more than 170,000 ETH withdrawal requests as of April 11, the total amount staked on the Beacon Chain is higher. Most of the movement, according to analysts, can be attributed to the upcoming Shapella hard fork of the Ethereum network, which is set for April 12 at 10:27 p.m. UTC.
It is necessary to look into alternative explanations for ETH’s poor performance in order to disprove the hypothesis. According to Paul Brody, the conflict to keep Ether decentralized is to blame for its price underperformance. Futures markets should be investigated to see if the Shapella hard fork has made investors more risk-averse. Ether derivatives show balanced bets between bulls and bears. Futures contracts should trade at a 5%–10% annualized premium when the market is in contango. There is currently no reason to think professional traders anticipate a price correction as a result of the staking unlock. The annualized premium for the Ether 3-month futures is currently 2%.
