ETH Price Retreats as Nearly $1B in Kraken Staked Ethereum is Withdrawn

Following a lull this week, staked Ethereum withdrawals have ramped up again. The pending withdrawal queue is being processed, and a large chunk of it is down to the Kraken crypto exchange.

On April 20, Nansen researchers observed that the second wave of full withdrawals was underway. They added that Kraken had over 330,000 ETH in full withdrawals with a further 175,000 left which is largely principal withdrawals. The total value of this Ethereum combined is around $975 million.

At the time of writing, that queue had been processed, and withdrawals had dropped back to their previously low levels, with deposits outpacing them.

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

In February, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took action against Kraken, which was forced to shutter its staking services as the regulator claimed they were offering unregistered securities.

Ethereum Withdrawals Stabilize

According to the Nansen dashboard, there has been 212,528 ETH withdrawn over the past 24 hours. However, with 103,823 ETH deposited, the net balance is -108,705.

It is reported that the total amount of ETH still staked is 18.6 million, valued at around $36.4 billion. However, this figure varies depending on what analytics platform you look at.

The Token Unlocks dashboard is reporting a lower figure of 17.3 million ETH staked at the time of writing. The net staking balance has declined by 615,790 ETH, it notes.

Furthermore, over the past few hours, deposits have been outpacing withdrawals once again. However, there are still 853,138 ETH valued at $1.66 billion in the pending withdrawal queue.

It appears that some of the withdrawn ETH are being re-deposited in liquid staking platforms. Lido’s total value locked in ETH has increased slightly since the Shapella upgrade, but the platform has yet to enable withdrawals for its users.

ETH Price Retreats

However, some of the withdrawn ETH has been sold as its price has retreated this week. Over the past day or so, ETH prices have dropped more than 8% to hit an intraday low of $1,928 during the Friday morning Asian trading session.

ETH was trading at $1,933 at the time of writing and looking likely to decline further today. It is also moving in the shadow of big brother Bitcoin which has pulled back 7% over the past couple of days.