Centralized exchanges — Kraken, Binance, and Coinbase — are responsible for roughly 90% of the full-staked Ethereum withdrawals on the Beacon Chain, according to data compiled by 21 Shares Research.
A Research Analyst at 21Co, Tom Wan, noted that these exchanges were responsible for withdrawing over 877,000 ETH — amounting to 87.5% of all ETH that has been fully removed.
Kraken Leads Exited Validators
In terms of validator exits, Kraken tops the list with over 15,000 exited validators. This is three times higher than the closest entity to it, Binance, which has only seen 5,676 validators exit — Coinbase rounds off the top three with 2,849.
Meanwhile, Nansen’s Shapella dashboard shows that these exchanges are only responsible for 77.8% — 785,742 ETH — of these complete withdrawals.
Regulatory Struggles Forcing Exchanges Withdrawals
These centralized exchanges staked ETH full withdrawals, and validator exits are unsurprising considering the regulatory shakedown they are experiencing in the United States.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined Kraken $30 million for failing to register its staked ETH service. Due to this, the exchange said it was processing withdrawals for its U.S. clients immediately.
Meanwhile, Coinbase also received a Wells Notice from the regulator over some of its product offerings, including its staking service. While the exchange has promised to fight back, the full exit of some validators might be a way to limit liability.
Although Binance is not subject to the authority of the SEC, the exchange is also facing its share of regulatory battles with a lawsuit from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Staked ETH Deposits Outpacing Withdrawals
Despite the spate of withdrawals from these exchanges, staked ETH deposit is at a record high of 18.85 million, according to Nansen’s Shapella dashboard.
During the last 24 hours, over 46,000 ETH was deposited, while 24,567 ETH were withdrawn during the same period.
BeInCrypto had reported that Ethereum staking deposits were gathering pace as of April 19. This trend has continued over the last seven days, with the total value of assets locked on liquid staking protocols like Lido, Rocket Pool, and Frax Ether increasing by an average of 5%, according to DeFillama data.
Meanwhile, according to Token Unlocks data, the net staking balance since the Shanghai hard fork is only down 458,170 ETH.
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