Ethereum Staking Exit Queue Hits New Highs, 851,000 ETH Stuck in Withdrawal Process
The queue for withdrawing staked Ether (ETH) on the Ethereum network has surged fivefold in just three days, reaching its longest point since 2026. As of October 2nd, approximately 851,000 ETH, representing 2% of the total 43.6 million staked ETH, were caught in the withdrawal process. This surge is primarily attributed to a security incident involving MetaMask.
Analysis of Validator Queue data reveals a dramatic increase from 166,000 ETH awaiting withdrawal on September 29th to 851,000 ETH by October 2nd. This figure significantly surpasses the 476,000 ETH seen in May of this year.
By early Monday morning in Asia, around 786,000 ETH, valued at over $2 billion, remained in the queue, with an estimated waiting time of 14 days. Ethereum’s design intentionally limits the speed of validator entry and exit to approximately 57,600 ETH per day to mitigate security risks. Large-scale movements of funds, therefore, inevitably lead to a backlog.
The primary driver of this withdrawal wave is MetaMask, a prominent cryptocurrency wallet provider that also operates as a validator for Lido, a leading liquid staking protocol. MetaMask disclosed a security incident on September 30th, prompting the immediate withdrawal of affected validators from its services.
Ethereum security researcher Kaden estimates that this precautionary withdrawal involved approximately 17,000 validators, totaling around 523,000 ETH. MetaMask has not yet officially confirmed this figure.
An update on October 1st offered some relief: MetaMask’s investigation found no evidence of compromise to wallets or customer funds. This suggests the withdrawal surge was largely a “better safe than sorry” defensive measure rather than a direct result of theft.
Lido anticipates that the affected ETH will be gradually withdrawn, balances settled, and then re-staked. This entire process is expected to take up to 45 days, during which the affected validators will forfeit their earned rewards.
Lido has explicitly stated that “stETH holders do not need to take any action.” stETH is a token issued by Lido representing users’ staked ETH. Lido projects that the last batch of affected MetaMask validators will cease staking on October 7th, after which their ETH will re-enter the queue to begin staking anew.
Meanwhile, the queue for initiating new staking deposits has shown signs of cooling. On Monday, approximately 1.5 million ETH (about $4 billion) were waiting to be staked, with an estimated wait time of 25 days. This demand has noticeably slowed compared to early September, when 2 million ETH were waiting for 35 days.
This slowdown in new staking demand may reflect a more cautious short-term market outlook for Ethereum or institutional capital awaiting clearer market signals.
The current situation highlights a bottleneck in Ethereum’s staking withdrawal mechanism. While the daily limit of 57,600 ETH is designed to maintain network stability under normal conditions, it creates lengthy queues when large operators withdraw en masse. The 14-day wait for 786,000 ETH not only results in lost revenue for operators but could also lead to market volatility due to a significant amount of liquidity being temporarily “locked.”
Proposals such as EIP-6110, which would allow builder bid rewards to be sent directly to validator withdrawal addresses, and future optimizations to the withdrawal mechanism, could potentially address these issues. However, if Ethereum aims to attract more institutional capital into staking, maintaining liquidity and fairness during large capital inflows and outflows will be a critical design challenge.
