Ethereum developers push forward with Shanghai upgrade to enable withdrawals of staked Ether

• Ethereum developers support prioritizing staked ETH unlocking in the Shanghai upgrade. 
• The upgrade could potentially cause some turbulence in the ETH market but is long-term bullish. 

Ethereum developers have decided to move on with plans to carry out the Shanghai upgrade that will enable the withdrawal of staked Ether (ETH).

Bloomberg reports that the developers reached the resolution during their first virtual meeting of the year. The upgrade was already tentatively scheduled for March 2023 and intended to bring a slew of improvements.

With the latest resolution by the developers, only the feature to enable the withdrawal of staked funds is receiving priority. Tim Beiko, who coordinates other Ethereum developers, stated during the meeting that the other feature will probably be moved to other upgrades.

We should probably be just removing stuff at this point,

Shanghai upgrade is the next cornerstone upgrade after the Merge upgrade that migrated Ethereum to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network. The merge allowed Ethereum to secure the network using staked tokens. This is in place of the proof-of-work consensus mechanism that required power-hungry mining rigs.

With the Shanghai upgrade, the Ethereum network is hoping to make staking more attractive for individuals and even institutions. According to data from Beaconcha.in, about 15 million ETH tokens are currently staked by more than 495k active validators.

These tokens are worth more than $20 billion and are inaccessible to their owners. This is likely deterring other investors from locking up their ETH to secure the network. With the Shanghai upgrade, the amount of staked ETH is likely to rise significantly as more ETH holders become confident to stake and earn yield.

Meanwhile, the developers also touched on EOF, which is also known as EVM 2.0, during the call. The proposal is one of those that was voted to be removed from the Shanghai upgrade as it could cause delay.

Will the Shanghai upgrade drive ETH price up?

The anticipated Shanghai upgrade is likely to be the next catalyst to drive a bull run in the ETH market. According to analysts, Ether has usually surged in the build-up to key upgrades. The token surge in the months preceding the Merge. But has plunged 15% since the upgrade shipped.

However, others are also cautious as there is speculation that the price of ETH could plunge massively following the Shanghai upgrade. This is because of the sell-side pressure that the unlocking of the tokens could exert on the market.

James Mullarney, the host of the widely followed investment-focused podcast Invest Answers, is one analyst that holds this view. He shared that this is because many stakers who have been waiting a long time to withdraw their staked ETH and rewards will initially rush to withdraw and sell.

Mullarney still admits that in the long term, the upgrade is highly bullish for ETH. ETH currently trades at around $1,240, down 0.09 perrcent in the last 24 hours.