The value of Ethereum has increased by nearly 10% following the Shapella hard fork upgrade on April 12, pushing the price of Ether (ETH) above $2,100 for the first time in 11 months.

More than 1 million Ether, worth $2.1 billion, was seen withdrawn from Ethereum’s Beacon Chain within just four days after the Shapella upgrade went through. The 1.03 million ETH in withdrawals were executed from nearly half a million withdrawal requests.

Data from beaconcha.in reveals that April 15 saw the largest ETH withdrawals in a single day since the upgrade, amounting to nearly 393,000 ETH. Members of the Ethereum community were quite split over the impact which the Shapella upgrade would have on the blockchain and the price of its native token, but four days after the upgrade, Ethereum traded close to 10% higher.

Chief executive of blockchain consulting and development firm Labrys, Lachlan Feeney, highlighted the fact that the network’s validators are re-staking Ether back into the Beacon Chain:

“Much of the stake that has been withdrawn over the last few days is actually going straight back into The Beacon Chain as validators are looking to compound their interest. So much so that net stake is currently increasing.”

This may suggest quite the positive outlook for the renowned Ethereum network and the value of its native token, said Feeny:

“Because Shapella is a massive de-risking event, over the medium to long-term more, not less, ETH will be staked. We anticipate that in the not too distant future, we will reach a record high of Ether being staked.”

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/ether-hits-11-month-high-as-post-shapella-withdrawals-pass-1m-eth

https://www.cryptopolitan.com/shapella-hard-fork-triggers-1m-eth-withdrawals/

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/