Share this article
Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade Will Be a ‘Game Changer’ for ETH Token Holders, RockX CEO Says
The growing prevalence of staking could help establish benchmark interest rates for blockchain-based money markets, Zhuling Chen said.
Updated Apr 12, 2023, 10:56 p.m. Published Apr 12, 2023, 6:38 p.m.
The Ethereum Shanghai hard fork will change the landscape for ether token holders, said Zhuling Chen, CEO of blockchain services company RockX.
The growing prevalence of staking, where participants pledge ether to participate in running the blockchain in return for yield, could help establish benchmark interest rates for blockchain-based money markets.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Read more: Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade Is Complete, Starting New Era of Staking Withdrawals
“We do think this is actually a game changer,” Chen told CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” on Wednesday about the network’s Shanghai (or Shapella) upgrade. “If you think about it, this is the first time that Ethereum has a long-term, market-risk-free yield curve that can actually go for a long run.”
The upgrade, which is slated to take place on April 12 at 6:27 p.m. ET (22:27 UTC), will mark the network’s completing the transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus system. With the upgrade, token holders will be able to withdraw the ether they’ve staked. The upgrade is also intended to make it easier to participate in the network‘s validation process while increasing security, lower fees and create more room for the network to handle more transactions.
While concerns linger that Ethereum’s upgrade will cause a substantial withdrawal of ETH, Chen said that institutional investors see the event as more of a “trust vote” in the future of the blockchain.
He said RockX plans to “encourage some customers to withdraw” some ether out of the 240,000 ETH the company has staked, to show that RockX trusts the network’s upgrade.
From a technical perspective, Chen said the upgrade is a rather “boring and peaceful event.” However, he said use cases for decentralized applications, or dapps, may soon become evident.
“From the dapps or application layer, we’re expecting a lot of innovative financial products, and also, different types of new products,” he said.
Read more: Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade: Here’s Our Guide to Watch Parties, Blockchain Tools
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
New React bug that can drain all your tokens is impacting 'thousands of' websites
Attackers are using the vulnerability to deploy malware and crypto-mining software, compromising server resources and potentially intercepting wallet interactions on crypto platforms.
What to know:
- A critical vulnerability in React Server Components, known as React2Shell, is being actively exploited, putting thousands of websites at risk, including crypto platforms.
- The flaw, CVE-2025-55182, allows remote code execution without authentication and affects React versions 19.0 through 19.2.0.
- Attackers are using the vulnerability to deploy malware and crypto-mining software, compromising server resources and potentially intercepting wallet interactions on crypto platforms.
Top Stories
