Shock! Approximately 519,000 ETH are queued to exit the Ethereum PoS network, setting the longest waiting time in nearly a year and a half.
On July 23, the waiting time for Ethereum validators to exit the queue reached its longest duration in over a year on Tuesday, which may indicate that stakers are eager to withdraw after a significant rise in ETH prices. Data from the validator queue tracking site shows that as of Tuesday afternoon U.S. time, approximately 519,000 ETH (valued at $1.92 billion at current prices) are queued to exit the network. This is the largest exit queue size since January 2024, leading to withdrawal delays extending over 9 days. Andy Cronk, co-founder of staking service provider Figment, stated: "When prices rise, people unbond and sell to lock in profits. We observe that both retail and institutional players follow this pattern across multiple cycles." He added that large institutions changing custodians or wallet technology could also trigger large-scale unbonding.