Second Ethereum Testnet Successful

Ethereum developers have finally made one of its biggest announcements after its September 2022 Merge, a second Ethereum testnet, dubbed the Shapella Sepolia upgrade, that successfully simulated withdrawals of staked Ether (ETH).

The upgrade activated at epoch 56832 on 28 February, at 4:04 UTC and finalized at 4:17 UTC, brings the Ethereum blockchain closer to the envisaged Shanghai upgrade.

The Shanghai upgrade, the network's first major development after 'The Merge,' is Ethereum's final rite of passage toward becoming a fully functional Proof-of-stake (PoS) network.

Scheduled for March 2023, this upgrade will enable validators and stakers to withdraw the rewards they earn from adding blocks or approving transactions to the Ethereum blockchain from the Beacon Chain.

One more Ethereum testnet scheduled

The ‘Ethereum Improvement Proposal’ (EIP-4895) explains the finer details of the process that will be involved to allow validators to withdraw ETH tokens staked as far back as the December 2020 launch of the Beacon Chain. Moreover, besides EIP-4895, the Shanghai fork has a few other EIPs that aim to reduce gas charges for Ethereum developers.

According to the announcement, the developers have one more Ethereum testnet scheduled, Goerli, before the highly anticipated upgrade goes live. The Shapella Sepolia test was designed to simulate the type of withdrawals on the Ethereum blockchain Mainnet.

Sepolia, the second and smallest Ethereum testnet among all the three planned due to the number of validators who participated, makes it the least important. That's because, unlike the Zhejiang testnet, undertaken earlier in February, it was reserved for only the Ethereum core developers. Goerli, expected in the coming weeks, would be the final tryout before the blockchain's Mainnet can successfully process staked ETH withdrawals.

A bullish or bearish impact on the market?

Goerli is the most anticipated Ethereum testnet, seeing that it will be the biggest of the three and will most closely impersonate the blockchain's activity. Projected to occur around 21 March, this will likely push the Mainnet Shanghai Upgrade into sometime in April.

Once the Upgrade goes live, approximately 16 million staked ETH tokens will be available for withdrawal. With the withdrawal of staked ETH successfully simulated on the Zhejiang and Shapella Sepolia testnet and Goerli in the coming weeks, there’s high anticipation that as a new era of unlocked ETH begins, the Shanghai upgrade could trigger a selling wave and have a bullish or bearish impact on the market.