Research from cryptocurrency analytics company Santiment has revealed that so-called ‘Shark’ addresses on the Ethereum blockchain have over the past year hoarded over $6.2 billion worth of the second-largest digital currency by market capitalization.
According to the platform’s data, these addresses possess between 10 and 10,000 ETH, or $17,500 and $17.5 million in cryptocurrency, and their supply has increased by 554,000 ETH in the last week.
Meanwhile, while ETH sharks have been amassing significant amounts, whales on the network have “together dumped 9.43 million in the same span.” These whales are addresses that have between 10,000 and 10 million ETH, or $17.5 million to $17.5 billion in cryptocurrency.
According to Santiment’s statistics, crypto communities are paying close attention to the different banking crises that are taking place around the world. “Future laws and policies may have a major impact on the trajectory of bitcoin,” the company warns.
Notably, on April 12, Ethereum will undergo its much awaited Shanghai-Capella upgrade, also known as Shapella. With Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 4895, the upgrade contains one major functionality.
EIP 4895 will enable withdrawals of staked Ether from the network, a feature that was not available when the network combined with the Beacon Chain and switched to Proof-of-Stake consensus.
The upgrade will also include three other enhancements aimed at lowering gas prices for specific activities. The upgrade is scheduled for April 12 at epoch number 620,9536.
Shapella is the result of extensive public testing on three testnets, including Sepolia, Zhejiang, and Goerli. The upgrade was launched earlier this week on the Goerli testnet as a final rehearsal before the mainnet deployment.
According to CryptoGlobe, the supply of Ethereum has decreased by approximately 64,457 ETH in the 180 days following the network’s merge update, with 120,456 ETH now circulating on the market. After the Merge, Ethereum’s supply has been decreasing by 0.1% per year, when it would be increasing at a rate of 3.42% per year without it.
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