Ethereum devs confirm withdrawals to begin on April 12; Here's what to expect from ETH price

Ethereum is on the verge of bringing about one of the biggest upgrades to the blockchain since the Merge. The arrival of withdrawals has been anticipated for a long time now, however, it may not be as lucrative for Ethereum price as one might expect.

Ethereum withdrawal set to go live

Following the Merge, the next big thing for Ethereum is the Shapella upgrade (Shanghai and Capella upgrades), which recently went live on testnet. Since then, users have been awaiting confirmation from the network's developers of Shapella's mainnet arrival.

Speculated to be April 12, the date was verified by the developers on March 28 as a consensus was reached during the devs' meeting.

The upgrade will be activated on the network at epoch 194048, after which validators that have been staking their ETH will be able to withdraw it. At the moment, with over 557,000 validators, about 17.81 million ETH worth nearly $31.91 billion is locked into the network.

One of the biggest concerns regarding the Shapella upgrade is also the impact it would bear on ETH price, as validators could be willing to sell their tokens. An inclination to do the same would come from the fact that ETH is at a six-month high at the moment, trading at $1,704.

Furthermore, the 30-day Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) ratio is rising higher, standing above the neutral line. This zone has been synonymous with corrections in the past and could see some sell-off at the hands of investors looking to lock in profits. This could trigger a decline in Ethereum price.

Ethereum MVRV ratio

Ethereum price could take a turn for the worse

Ethereum price is already on a decline after failing to breach the critical resistance at $1,856. Treading right above the support level at $1,704, a further fall in price could result in ETH dipping through the support level towards the critical level at $1,569. 

Sitting at the confluence of the 100- and 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA), losing this level could push the altcoin toward March lows of $1,431. However, if ETH bulls can manage to stabilize the price to offset any potential selling, the cryptocurrency could be saved from a crash.

ETH/USD 1-day chart

This would also allow investors to push the price back up and potentially breach the barrier at $1,856. Flipping this level into support would not only invalidate the bearish thesis but also enable a rise to $2,000 to mark a seven-month high.