Ethereum on-exchange balances near record lows

Ethereum’s share of the total supply held on centralized exchange wallets slipped to 14.85%, the lowest since July 2016. The data come from Glassnode.

During the 2021 bull market, the figure stood at about 25–26%.

The trend is evident amid growing interest in staking. Since April 13, after the activation of the Shapella hard fork, net inflows of ETH to the deposit contract have surpassed 3 million ETH. According to Dune Analytics, the share of staked Ethereum rose to 17.77%.

“The trend will persist, given that deflationary forces are expected to significantly raise the price of Ethereum. Before this update [Shapella], investors were reluctant to stake due to fears that their funds would be locked for an unacceptably long period”, — said in an interview with CoinDesk analysts at Bitfinex.

In May, Lido opened the withdrawal of Ethereum from staking, deploying the second version of the protocol.