Analysts have stated that last week saw over 656,200 ETH (worth about $1.6 billion) being unstaked, marking the largest unstaking volume since the upgrade in Shanghai. However, a significant portion of the redemptions, as much as 85%, came from Celsius and staking service provider Figment.
In early January, the bankrupt cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius had announced its intention to unstake its existing Ethereum holdings in order to distribute them to its creditors. At the time, blockchain analyst Nansen had monitored Celsius’ staking address, which held 556,906 ETH valued at about $1.24 billion.
Since then, the market has closely observed the impact of Celsius’ large-scale unstaking, as the creditors may choose to sell the ETH they receive directly. According to 21.co analyst Tom Wan’s tweet, over 656,200 ETH (worth about $1.6 billion) was unstaked last week, marking the largest unstaking volume since the upgrade in Shanghai. Of this, a significant 85% redemption came from Celsius and staking service provider Figment. (Nansen had previously pointed out that Celsius had staked around 200,000 ETH through Figment.)
According to the Dune chart shared by Wan, Figment redeemed 356,400 ETH, while Celsius reclaimed 206,900 ETH (approximately $520 million).
Source: @tomwanhh
On Saturday (January 13th), the data tracking platform Arkham stated that Celsius had transferred $125 million worth of ETH to an exchange, possibly for sale, taking advantage of the timing of the Bitcoin spot ETF launch last week, which caused Ethereum to surge.
Despite the large-scale unstaking of Ethereum in the past week, Ethereum has seen a 9.3% increase, possibly benefiting from the potential approval of an Ethereum spot ETF this year. After briefly surpassing $2,700 on Saturday, it is currently oscillating around the $2,500 level, at $2,520.4 at the time of writing, with a 0.9% increase in the past 24 hours.
Source: Trading View
Last week, Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas stated that he believes the SEC’s approval of the first Bitcoin spot ETF indicates that an Ethereum spot ETF could be launched this year. The probability of approval by May has risen to 70%.
A sentiment survey released by Santiment on the X platform last week showed that 52.4% of respondents believe that the US will launch an Ethereum spot ETF by the end of this year. 9.8% of respondents are more optimistic, expecting approval this month, while 26.5% believe approval will come next year or later.
However, some institutions are skeptical. TD Cowen, a US investment bank, predicts that the SEC will not approve an Ethereum spot ETF until after the November US presidential election. JPMorgan believes that the likelihood of the SEC classifying Ethereum as a commodity and allowing an Ethereum spot ETF to be listed before May is not more than 50%.
Read more:
“When will the Ethereum spot ETF be approved?” 52% of respondents optimistic about before the end of 2024; TD Cowen, JPMorgan: Not approving soon
Related News
Countering Vitalik Buterin’s proposal to increase Ethereum Gas: Developers highlight three potential risks
Vitalik Buterin AMA: Raising Ethereum Gas limit to 40 million to enhance network throughput!
Now it’s Ethereum’s turn! Spot ETF expected to be approved for listing this year! Bloomberg analyst: SEC has tacitly acknowledged that ETH is a commodity.