Interest in staking ether, i.e., locking coins in the Ethereum network to earn passive yield, has surged since implementation of the Shapella, or Shanghai upgrade on April 12. Data tracked by Glassnode shows more than 4.4 million coins have been deposited into the staking contract since April 12, taking the total amount of staked tokens to 22.58 million. “The surge in demand for staking probably originates from large ether holders, who prefer not to liquidate their holdings and instead seek to generate passive income,” analysts at Bitfinex said in a weekly report shared with CoinDesk Tuesday.