Coinbase outlines actions after Ethereum hard fork Shapella

The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will begin accepting Ethereum (ETH) withdrawal requests from staking within 24 hours after the activation of the Shanghai and Capella updates, collectively known as Shapella.

5/ If you’d like to unstake, Coinbase will begin taking unstaking requests about 24 hours after the upgrade completes. All unstaking requests are processed on-chain, and we’ll pass the unstaked funds and staking rewards to you once released by the Ethereum protocol.

— Coinbase (@coinbase) March 15, 2023

“Although [the hard fork] Merge changed the Ethereum network from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake in September 2022, users still could not cancel ETH staking,” the company reminded.

The Shanghai upgrade, planned for roughly mid-April, will provide such capability. On March 14, Ethereum developers activated Shapella on the Goerli testnet, which marked the final validation of the updates.

Coinbase noted that no action would be required from users during the forthcoming forks. They will still be able to keep assets staking with an annual yield of up to 6%.

4/ There’s no need to unstake – you can continue staking your ETH and earning up to 6.0% APY. No action is required and your assets will be safe and secure during the upgrade.

— Coinbase (@coinbase) March 15, 2023

The exchange will begin accepting withdrawal requests within 24 hours after the hard fork. However, Coinbase says it expects the network could experience a backlog.

“Since the unstaking process is governed by the Ethereum protocol, and we are merely a conduit, we cannot precisely state the waiting period. We expect demand to be high right after the upgrade, and the network may take weeks to months to process requests,” the exchange’s specialists noted.

7/ We anticipate that demand for unstaking will be high soon after the upgrade and it may take the protocol weeks to months process unstaking requests.

— Coinbase (@coinbase) March 15, 2023

As a reminder, the team behind the liquid staking platform ликвидного стейкинга Lido Finance warned that it would open redemptions of stETH for the ‘original’ cryptocurrency in mid-May.