The upcoming Ethereum upgrade, known as Shapella, is expected to unlock a vast amount of Ether that is currently being staked on the Ethereum blockchain. According to analysts from the traditional banking sector, Ethereum prices may face some selling pressure as a result of this upgrade, with one million Ether staking rewards becoming available for traders. This week, Glassnode reported their projections for the amount of Ether that may be sold after the Shapella upgrade - estimating that approximately 170,000 Ether, with a worth of $190 million, will be withdrawn and sold.

Bulls may be relieved to know, however, that this amount of selling pressure is likely to be absorbed quickly and not have a large negative effect on Ethereum prices. Glassnode concluded that even in the extreme case that the maximum amount of rewards and stake are withdrawn and sold, the volume still falls within the range of the average weekly exchange inflow volume. Therefore, there will likely be an acceptable - if not minimal - impact on the price of the cryptocurrency.

It appears that hundreds of Validators have already started to confirm their intention to kick off the unbundling process and begin staking tokens again. Once the Shapella upgrade begins, they will be able to freely move their assets around and as a result, a larger amount of Ether may become available for traders to buy. Despite the potential to experience some short-term compressing of Ethereum prices, JPMorgan recently predicted that the cryptocurrency will eventually start to outperform Bitcoin over the coming weeks.



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