Staked Ethereum withdrawals have picked up once again after a period of low activity. The Kraken crypto exchange is responsible for a large portion of the pending withdrawal queue, with over 330,000 ETH in full withdrawals and a further 175,000 in principal withdrawals. The total value of this Ethereum is around $975 million.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission previously took legal action against Kraken in February, which led to the exchange halting its staking services due to regulatory concerns.
Ethereum Withdrawals Stabilize
Over the past 24 hours, there has been 212,528 ETH withdrawn, with a net balance of -108,705 as 103,823 ETH was also deposited. The total amount of ETH staked is estimated to be 18.6 million, which varies depending on analytics platforms. The Token Unlocks dashboard reports a lower figure of 17.3 million ETH staked, with a decline of 615,790 ETH in net staking balance.
Currently, deposits are outpacing withdrawals again, but there are still 853,138 ETH valued at $1.66 billion in the pending withdrawal queue. It appears that some of the withdrawn ETH is being redeposited in liquid staking platforms such as Lido, whose total value locked in ETH has slightly increased since the recent upgrade, but withdrawals are not yet enabled for its users.
ETH Price Retreats
The recent drop in ETH prices has caused some of the withdrawn ETH to be sold. The price of ETH has decreased by over 8% to an intraday low of $1,928 during Friday’s Asian trading session. At the time of writing, it was trading at $1,933 and is expected to decline further today. Bitcoin has also experienced a decline of 7% over the past few days.
Second wave of full withdrawals underway so you’re definitely wondering who’s behind it and if it’s concerning
It’s Kraken, with over 330K ETH in full withdrawals. Another ~175K in ETH left which is largely principal withdrawals. pic.twitter.com/iLmf7AHKWx
— Martin Lee | Nansen 🧭 (@themlpx) April 20, 2023
