Half a Billion in ETH Set to Unlock: Lido Date for stETH Withdrawals Announced
• Lido DAO announced it will soon have a final vote for the Lido V2 upgrade, which will enable staked ETH (stETH) withdrawals.
• Around $500 million worth of ETH is set to be unlocked if the vote is successful.
• The withdrawal queue has been virtually cleaned, with beaconcha.in showing only one validator looking to exit the staking program.
Lido Announces Final Vote For V2 Upgrade
Lido DAO recently announced that it will soon have a final vote for its Lido V2 upgrade, which would enable staked ETH (stETH) withdrawals. The vote is scheduled for May 12th and can unlock up to $500 million worth of ETH if successful.
StETH Withdrawals To Be Quickly Serviced
The Ethereum Shapella upgrade that enabled staked ETH withdrawals has only one last puzzle left – Lido. The largest liquid staking derivatives protocol has set a date for enabling staking withdrawals and assures users their requests are “likely to be serviced more quickly during the first three days” after the upgrade goes live on May 15th.
270,000 ETH Currently Locked In Smart Contracts
Currently, there are around 270,000 ETH locked in Lido’s smart contracts, worth about $500 million at current prices. After the upgrade, users who had previously used Lido to stake their ETH will be able to swap back their stETH for regular ETH for the first time since December 2020 when the Beacon Chain was launched.
Mass Exits Unlikely After Uptick In Deposits
The amount of locked-in funds can fluctuate over time but it’s unlikely that there will be a mass exodus from stETH holders due to an uptick in deposits following the Shapella upgrade.
Lido Is Most Popular Staking Service
With over 6 million Ethereum deposits according to Nansen data, Lido is currently one of the most popular options available in terms of allowing users to stake less than 32 ETH at once. As of now, stETH holds an impressive market cap of almost $12 billion and stands as he 8th largest cryptocurrency in circulation today.