#ETHStakingExitWatch clearly shows a historical peak in withdrawal requests.
Recent technical analysis of #ETHStakingExitWatch
1. Exit Queue: historical record
Around August 20, more than 910,000 ETH, worth nearly $3.9 billion, are queued to exit staking, marking an all-time high since the switch to PoS.
The waiting times to process these requests reach between 15 and 16 days.
2. Inflow vs. outflow – persistent imbalance
By mid-August, only about 268,000 ETH were queued for staking, compared to nearly 1 million ETH waiting to exit.
This imbalance clearly favors outflows, which may add selling pressure to the market.
3. Key players driving the outflows
Withdrawals are concentrated in liquid staking platforms like Lido (~285K ETH), recently followed by EthFi and Coinbase.
These platforms account for a large portion of the outflows, suggesting strategic rebalancing or exposure adjustments by institutions and traders.
4. Motivations behind the validator exodus
Profit-taking after the ETH rally (from $1-2K to over $4K): many stakers take the opportunity to liquidate profits.
Strangulation of leveraged strategies, especially with LSTs like stETH: if financing costs increase or stETH diverges from ETH, holders may trigger sales.
Preparation for staking ETFs: withdrawals are expected to allow for liquidating ETH before re-entering via ETFs once approved—potentially by late 2025.
Reorganization of validation positions: small operators might exit to migrate to larger-scale staking.
5. And what about the price of ETH? Technical implications
The increase in unlockable supply may exert downward pressure on the price—especially if the ETFs do not absorb that liquidity.
Technically, indicators like RSI and MACD show bearish signals in the short term.