Ethereum Shanghai upgrade pushes price 10% higher to $2,100

Last year, the most important technological upgrade in cryptoland was one done by the Ethereum blockchain, when it the transitioned from proof of work to proof of stake. The event was called “the merge” and introduced the global media to the technical aspects of crypto in August and September 2022.

The transition, which drastically reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption, went quite smoothly, but did not achieve the hoped-for higher price, also because the large crypto platform FTX went bankrupt a about month later and sent a shock wave through the crypto world.

Staking contracts

This year, the biggest technology upgrade so far done by … you guessed it… the Ethereum blockchain.

This time it’s called the Shanghai upgrade and it allows users to withdraw their Ethereum proceeds from staking contracts (staking is when you lock your cryptos, in this case Ethereum, for a period of time to help support the operation of the blockchain).

The #Ethereum Shapella (Shanghai + Capella) upgrade went live! 💪

Here’s a quick update on the #ETH withdrawals situation, along with statistics regarding the total number of staked #ETH & its average price & so on. pic.twitter.com/s4BMpKyEN0

— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) April 13, 2023

This time round, the price did move and Ethereum shot up some 6% after the news broke that the upgrade took place without a hitch.

Vitalik Buterin, founder of the Ethereum blockchain, said:

We’re in a stage where the hardest and fastest parts of the Ethereum protocol’s transition are basically over. Very significant things still need to be done, but those very significant things can be safely done at a slower pace.

Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade is now successfully completed 🚀

🏦In less than 5 hours, over 48,193 ETH has been withdrawn out of a total of 18,168,679 ETH staked. pic.twitter.com/EhT5M0ohm3

— MetaMax (@MetaMax_labs) April 13, 2023

Social media commentators think that the Shanghai upgrade will make sure that the “flippening” (when Ethereum’s market cap will exceed Bitcoin’s) happens sooner than foreseen.

At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading for $2,100, a 10% rise over the past 24 hours.