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Ethereum Prints 9-Month High as Investors Anticipate Shapella Upgrade

Ethereum (ETH) has joined Bitcoin (BTC) to lead the rally in the digital currency ecosystem today as key stakeholders and investors are religiously awaiting the upcoming Shapella Upgrade.

At the time of writing, Ethereum is changing hands at $1,913.45, up by 4.34% over the past 24 hours as the industry’s biggest smart contract platform sought to build on its 5.17% in the trailing 7-day period. The current growth rate is the highest Ethereum has printed since August 2022, culminating in a 9-month high as of today.

Ethereum’s growth is being driven by sentiments bordering on the Shapella Upgrade in which early backers of the transition of the protocol from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) will get access to their staked coins. Many are optimistic that the future of the Ethereum network post-Shapella will be a very bullish one, hence, are making a bullish commitment to Ether tokens at this time.

“Allowing withdrawals, boosted by the recent popularity of liquid staking platforms, will make ETH staking much more accessible to retail investors who were previously unwilling to stake ETH for an undetermined amount of time,” said Chen Zhuling, CEO at staking service RockX, in a note to CoinDesk.

Many investors have been staking their coins since as far back as December 2020 when the deposit contract for the PoS Ethereum was first released. At the time, the minimum stake amount was pegged at 32 ETH, however, numerous supporting platforms have made it possible for retail investors to join in the staking event by contributing a fraction of the required minimum amount.

The Shapella upgrade is a precursor to the Shanghai and Capella upgrades, both of which will take place simultaneously in just about a week’s time on April 12.

The growth in the price of Ethereum has also stirred a rub-off on the major Liquid Staking Derivatives Platform (LSD). These platforms including Lido Finance and Marinade Finance amongst others help users to access the yield on staked Ether while also freeing up liquidity that is otherwise inaccessible via the main ETH staking platform.

The popularity of LSD tokens has grown over the past year and at present, the upsurge in Ethereum is also stirring a corresponding positive rally in the price of these tokens. Lido Finance’s native token LDO is up by 8.25% to $2.68, and RocketPool (RPL) another prominent LSD platform has seen its token price jump by 8.48% to $48.14.

With innovation and evolution at the forefront of the operations of these protocols, we are bound to see them release many unique products following the ability of Ethereum to permit the unstacking and withdrawals of staked tokens post-Shanghai upgrade. As such, these LSD coins are bound to keep seeing upsurges in the native coin’s price and valuation.

Ethereum Prints 9-Month High as Investors Anticipate Shapella Upgrade

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