Institutional and CEX Ethereum (ETH) Staking in Asia Suddenly Spike: Report

According to a recent report by IntoTheBlock on-chain data service, since the Shapella upgrade occurred on Ethereum chain recently, investors have not only begun to withdraw their formerly locked ETH but began depositing Ethereum even more actively than before.

Staking Ethereum inflows hit Asian platforms

Shapella took place on April 12. This upgrade, consisting of Shanghai and Capella, allowed validators to withdraw their Ethereum from the Beacon Chain deposit contract and also enabled Ethereum to fully transition to the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. After the upgrade was implemented, the price of the second largest crypto recaptured the $2,000 level.

After Shapella took place, over the first week, over 1 million ETH were withdrawn. However, by now, the amount of deposited Ethereum coins has surpassed it.

The tweet from IntoTheBlock shows that the number of deposits by staking providers has seen a drastic increase. While it has registered massive outflows from Lido, Coinbase, Kraken and RocketPool, centralized exchanges in Asia are facing enormous inflows of ETH — namely, Huobi and OKX.

Stakefish and Staked.us have also experienced big inflows. While U.S. stakers are actively withdrawing ETH, investors in Asia seem to be more eager about staking ETH long term.

Following the Ethereum Shapella upgrade, the share of deposits by staking providers has changed significantly. Most notably, we see an unexpected staking share increase for institutional staking providers and Asian CEXs.#ETH #Staking pic.twitter.com/RI5OU5qzZ4

— IntoTheBlock (@intotheblock) April 21, 2023

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Whale sells large ETH chunk

However, while many continue to stake their ETH despite the ability to withdraw, some are also selling their coins. @lookonchain crypto tracker published a tweet stating that, several hours ago, an anonymous "Smart Money" wallet sent 34,044 Ethers to the Binance exchange.

The tracker believes that this Ethereum was sold for $65.4 million.

According to @lookonchain, this whale has an interesting recent history of operating their Ethereum holdings.

This whale converted nearly 24 million USDC stablecoins into 15,551 ETH when the USDC dollar peg took a massive hit this year. He also managed to get his ETH and other crypto holdings from FTX exchange before the latter shut down withdrawals.

Some commentators wondered if this individual could have taken advantage of insider information on FTX.

The smart whale transferred 34,044 $ETH ($65.4M) to #Binance 3 hrs ago and appeared to have dumped.

The whale exchanged 23.96M $USDC for 15,551 $ETH during the $USDC de-pegging.

And withdrew all assets from #FTX before #FTX suspended withdrawals. pic.twitter.com/mlS41mSZ0H

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 21, 2023