Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade: Staked ETH Withdrawals Delayed To May

Lido Finance, the largest Ethereum liquid staking platform, on Wednesday announced that Lido staked ETH (stETH) withdrawals will likely be delayed to May after the successful completion of all pending audits of Lido V2 codes.

Lido in a tweet on March 15 revealed an update on staked Ethereum withdrawals from the staking protocol. As Ethereum developers prepare for withdrawals with the Shanghai mainnet upgrade expected in early April, Lido is falling behind as it focuses on completing the V2 audits first.

Lido DAO contributors started testing Shapella (Shanghai and Capella) functionality for the Ethereum Goerli upgrade on the Zhejiang testnet on Friday. However, the time spent on undertaking audits has caused delays in readiness for the Goerli upgrade.

Thus, the target date for the upgrade by Lido is postponed to next week. Ethereum core developers also noted that several validators didn’t upgrade with the latest client software releases causing issues after the Shapella upgrade was triggered on the Goerli testnet. This caused the upgrade to finalize after 15 epochs.

Lido asserts that node operators will require at least 3-4 weeks to fully implement and test validator exits. Moreover, all pending 5 audits related to on-chain codes will complete by the end of April. Therefore, stETH withdrawal is unlikely to happen on the mainnet until all audits are complete. The mainnet withdrawals are estimated to go live in mid-May.

Lido also revealed that 2 audits have been completed yet and 5 are in progress. It spent $1.2 million on seven V2 audits, with findings revealing a need for quick fixes.

Ethereum Price Fell After Massive Rally

Ethereum price fell over 3% in the last 24 hours, with the price currently trading at $1,672. The 24-hour low and high are $1,660 and $1,779, respectively. Furthermore, the trading volume is mostly flat in the last 24 hours, indicating a decline in interest.

Meanwhile, Lido Staked ETH (stETH) is trading at $1,665, down 2% in the last 24 hours. According to DeFiLlama, Lido has a dominant market share in ETH liquid staking derivatives, with 5,794,376 staked ETH.

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