Shanghai hard fork may positively affect the price of Ethereum

An Ethereum hard fork called Shanghai is scheduled for March this year. It is expected that after the update, it will be possible to release the coins locked in staking.

“The positive scenario is that the majority of investors will prefer not to withdraw coins from staking, as it is now one of the most reliable and profitable offers for receiving the passive income in the crypto market. The negative scenario is due to the fact that the number of investors who decide to withdraw coins from the staking smart contract will be significant, which will put pressure on the ethereum rate and may lead, if not to a fall in the price of the coin, then to high volatility with falls and bounces, and so on”, says Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of the ENCRY Foundation.

In his opinion, volatility in the ethereum market will arise in any case since any increase in the inflow of the second most popular digital currency to crypto platforms for their sale will become a prerequisite for a significant fluctuation in the asset price.

0xprocessing co-founder Nikita Vassev believes that the upcoming hard fork can help strengthen the ethereum price.

“The upcoming Shanghai is able to strengthen ETH. The update will optimize network performance, reduce transaction costs, and unlock coins from staking. The last point can attract new users to the project,” Vaseev said.

And the head of the analytical department of AMarkets, Artem Deev, pointed out that now ETH does not show dynamics against the market. Cryptocurrency behaves in a similar way to BTC, however, “with less volatility”. According to the expert, the end of the crypto winter should not be expected until next year.

“Then, you should probably buy more of the asset in order to maximize profits after the start of growth. In a negative scenario, the recovery of the crypto market will take at least two years — therefore, even during this year, you can wait for the minimum cost of ETH for purchases,” said Artem Deev.

Interestingly, the current state of the cryptocurrency market has not affected the enthusiasm of financial advisors towards digital assets. This is stated in a joint study by Bitwise and Vettafi.

“Despite the sharp market correction in 2022, financial advisors are still actively involved in the crypto markets, with 15% of funds distributed in client accounts and 90% receiving incoming requests from clients,” analysts noted.

Nearly 80% of advisors who currently hold funds in client accounts intend to either keep or increase the amount this year. Also, the majority of respondents (60%) are confident that the bitcoin rate will be higher in 5 years.