The upcoming Shanghai upgrade on April 12 is expected to bring several new features and improvements to the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. This has caused some public sentiment to be largely positive and has sparked anticipation among those in the cryptocurrency and blockchain fields. The most significant of these features is the introduction of the ability for validators to Unstake the 18 million ETH – worth around $34 billion – currently locked in the network. To prevent major repercussions on the market, however, the large amount of ETH will not be able to be immediately unstaked and only roughly 1,800 validators will be able to unstake ETH each day. Despite these supports, some investors may still have sold off some ETH leading to the minor 1.0% price decrease over the past 24 hrs.

The other features introduced by the upgrade include gas fee reductions, which should improve usability and make Ethereum more attractive to the developers. During the hours leading up to the upgrade, the ETH price experienced a minor loss, falling from $1,921 to as low as $1,888, despite the positive optimism and while other assets such as Bitcoin were mostly going up. At the time of writing, the asset is currently valued at $1,895.

The Shanghai upgrade is expected to unveil the newfound flexibility of Ethereum's staking system, allowing validators to withdraw their funds. This should result in an influx of ETH back into the market, although it remains to be seen how big of an effect this will have. The upgrade is scheduled to take place at exactly 22:27:35 UTC on April 12.



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