$2 Billion In Ethereum Validator Rewards To Unlock Following Shapella Upgrade

Summary:

• Ethereum validators will finally be able to access 1.1 million ETH in rewards just days after developers unlock staked Ether with the Shapella upgrade.
• Validators will be able to make partial withdrawals from around $2 billion in rewards, with the option of full withdrawals depending on the validator entity.
• Staked ETH depositors and other users will also be able to withdraw eligible rewards accumulated since December 2020.

Validators on the Ethereum network will finally have the option to withdraw accumulated rewards worth $2 billion at current prices after ETH developers ship the Shapella upgrade later today.

The Shanghai-Capella update will also unlock 18 million ETH stock-piled by validators, regular depositors, and other entities since late 2020 when crypto’s largest altcoin blockchain introduced its staking smart contract on the beacon chain layer.

Shapella Unlocks More Than Staked ETH For Ethereum

On-chain data suggests that validators have 1.1 million ETH in rewards to withdraw from after waiting for over two years. After Shapella unlocks nearly $35 billion in staked ETH, two withdrawal options will go live for network rewards – complete and partial withdrawals.

Partial withdrawals will be paid out to validators automatically if they possess the ‘0x01’ withdrawal credential. A Glassnode report noted that only 44% out of over half a million validators have registered to claim automatic partial withdrawals.

These automatic withdrawals will disburse every 12 seconds to as many as 16 validators with each block that Ethereum produces. The withdrawals could take five days to complete and will help maintain the set validator balance of 32 ETH.

Complete or full withdrawal involves total exit from Shapella and Ethereum’s proof-of-stake network. Such withdrawals are capped at 57,600 ETH per day and can only be withdrawn by 1,800 validators daily. This comes to about $109 million per day in unstaked ETH. Developers set this limit to curtail a validator exodus and cushion the effects of mass unstaking.

So far, almost 4,000 validators are waiting to fully exit Shapella with about 141,000 ETH. Altogether roughly $2.6 billion in 1.4 million ETH should become accessible days after Shapella ships to Ethereum’s mainnet.