The much anticipated Shapella upgrade of Ethereum is scheduled to roll out on April 12, and it has already started to move the prices. The CoinGecko data shows that Ethereum has managed to achieve a surge of 4.7%, as compared to Bitcoin's scant 1.3% increase in the same period. This upgrade will enable the ETH withdrawals from staking contracts and drastically reduce the risk of holding the staked Ethereum, also known as liquid staking derivatives (LSDs).

Colloquially, ether holders might stake their stored Ether and thus receive the respective liquid staking token in return. This token can be reused in the DeFi realm to, again, generate additional yield. Consequently, the tokens of the leading liquid staking platforms such as Lido DAO (LDO), Rocket Pool (RPL) and Frax Shares (FXS) have enjoyed an impressive increasing trend lately. All these said tokens posted double-digit percentage hikes within the past 24 hours.

In summery, one may recognize a clear pattern in the performance of LSD tokens. The top LSD tokens managed to record upto 150% gains compared to Ethereum's relatively minor 65% return from the start of this year to present. Further statistics tell that decentralized liquid staking platforms currently control 33.3% of the total staked ETH, with Lido DAO taking up the vast majority with a astonishing 93.79%.

To sum up, the Shapella upgrade is an important milestone for the second-largest cryptocurrency. With its implementation, Ethereum stands to benefit from a high liquidity of its held Ether, which might prove to be quite advantageous for potential investors. Additionally, stakeholders of LDO, RPL and FXS tokens may also expect to get high returns from stable liquidity and reasonable yields.



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