Ethereum nears staking withdrawals with Shapella upgrade on Sepolia

Ethereum has completed the “Shapella” upgrade on its Sepolia testnet, according to tweets from various Ethereum developers on Feb. 28.

The upgrade was completed at epoch 56,832 at 4:04 a.m. UTC as planned.

The name “Shapella” is a portmanteau, referring to the fact that the upgrade combines two related upgrades: Shanghai (which adds features to Ethereum’s execution layer) and Capella (which adds features to Ethereum’s consensus layer).

The upgrade specifically brings Ethereum closer to allowing validators to unstake their ETH. Currently, validators who stake 32 ETH on-chain cannot withdraw their funds but will be able to do so when the upgrade is fully implemented later.

Developers previously introduced the feature on the Zhejang testnet on Feb. 1. Developers said today that the feature will next be introduced on the Goerili testnet.

The upgrade is expected to arrive on Ethereum’s mainnet in March. At this point, the unstaking feature will apply to ETH with real market value.

Journalist at CryptoSlate

Mike trained in library and information sciences before moving into crypto writing in 2018. He lives on the West Coast of Canada.