Long Dormant Ethereum Whale Suddenly Stakes 49K ETH – Here’s How Increased Staking Participation Can Boost ETH’s Price

cryptonews.com:

A long-dormant Ether whale who participated in the Ethereum Initial Coin Offering (ICO) might be about to stake a massive 32,015 ETH tokens, according to on-chain analytics-focused Twitter account @lookonchain.

The ICO participant staked 48,992 ETH back in October, ending six years of dormancy at the time. According to @lookonchain, the whale transferred 32,015 ETH tokens to a new address earlier this week, which they think the whale may be about to stake.

The Ethereum ICO whale received 120,000 ETH tokens at the genesis of the Ethereum mainnet in 2015 across three separate wallets. If they do stake a further 32,015 tokens, that means the whale will have staked 67.5% of the 120,000 tokens they received at the Ethereum ICO.

The above-noted whale’s (possible) shift towards staking a greater portion of its ETH holdings reflects a shift in the ETH market. ETH staking first became possible on the beacon chain back in late 2020.

But up until now, most ETH owners have opted not to stake their tokens, despite attractive yields of currently around 7-8% for node operators and 4-5% for staking pool participants.

That’s because, at the moment, staked ETH tokens cannot be withdrawn. According to Ethereum, the lack of flexibility in staked ETH withdrawals was to protect the network's integrity as it transitioned from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

But that transition has now been completed (the “Merge” took place last September). And Ethereum developers are working on the blockchain ecosystem’s next big upgrade, the so-called “Shanghai” hard fork that is currently scheduled to take place before the end of March.

The upcoming upgrade will allow staked ETH to be withdrawn for the first time. While withdrawals won’t be immediate, the shift