Ether rose to $1,994 on Thursday, reaching the highest point since August. The rally comes after the successful Shapella network upgrade, which enables withdrawals for users who have staked their ether. Ether has gained over 3% since the upgrade, while bitcoin has added less than 2%. The demand for unstaking ether has been moderate, and the biggest unstaker so far has been Kraken, which is shutting down its staking service for U.S. users as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Liquid staking solution Lido makes up around 31% of all ether deposits. Year-to-date, ether is up 65.25%, compared to bitcoin, up 82.04%.

(By Sam Reynolds, Omkar Godbole)