Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade went live on Thursday, allowing those who have staked their ether to begin the unstaking process. Kraken leads the exit queue breakdown with 62%, according to on-chain data tracked by Rated network explorer. The number of validators in the exit queue has surpassed the 15,000 mark at press time, per Parsec Finance. Kraken's dominance in the unstaking queue is largely expected due to the legal issues it faced with the Securities and Exchange Commission, resulting in a $30 million settlement. The Shanghai upgrade appears to have had a marginal effect on the Ethereum protocol and its token, with only a -0.25% change in staked ether, according to Nansen.ai data. Nansen's data shows that 4.35 million ether, or about 24%, is staked at above $3,000.

(By Sam Reynolds)