DEX vs. Liquid Staking battle eases as Ethereum Shanghai upgrade hype fades

Ethereum had a hold over the crypto market at the beginning of April, thanks to the Shanghai upgrade that arrived on April 12. However, the emergence of PEPE and SUI tokens, along with the banking crisis over the last two weeks, has taken the spotlight away from the biggest DeFi chain and liquid staking tokens.

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Ethereum staking withdrawal reign comes to an end

Ethereum Shanghai was one of the most important upgrades for the network as it enabled the staking withdrawal service for the second-biggest cryptocurrency chain in the world. Until its arrival on April 12, this was one of the most discussed topics in the crypto market.

Given the broader market conditions and the investor's focus shifting to other trending topics, this hype has come to an end. The launch of the PEPE coin towards the end of April, the launch of the SUI mainnet and token this week, as well as the second iteration of the banking crisis in the US, have taken the top spot when it comes to investors' attention.

Going forward, liquid staking protocols might have to suffice with the spot as the second biggest category of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications.

These Dapps were expected to take over Decentralised Exchange (DEX) protocols thanks to the Shanghai hype, but the same might not happen now, with DEXes retaining a $4 billion lead.

DEX vs. Liquid Staking protocols TVL

Liquid staking tokens, along with DEX tokens, are also now following the broader market cues,  resulting in significant declines over the last month or so. The likes of Lido DAO, Ankr and Stafi tokens have all declined by 16% to 23% in the span of four weeks in the liquid staking market. 

Liquid Staking tokens 30-day change

While in the DEX market, major tokens like PancakeSwap, Uniswap and 1Inch have lost between 10% to 40% of their value in the same duration.

Ethereum, too, is losing its dominance on social channels as the overall mentions of the DeFi mothership have declined by 37% since the upgrade. The overall social volume it commanded since the upgrade went live has slipped from 11,200 to 7,000 at the time of writing.

Ethereum social dominance

Thus, crypto stood the test of time for still being a trend-driven market and for the same reason, from now on, investors looking to invest their money in liquid staking should focus on fundamentals instead of relying on hype.

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