Exit Queue Waiting Time in the Ethereum Staking Mechanism Has Reached 14 Days – What Is the Source of This?

The time required to unstake staked Ethereum ($ETH ) has reached unusually long lengths.

According to Beaconchain data, there are currently 355,919 ETH in the validator login queue on the Ethereum network, with an estimated wait time of 6 days and 4 hours.

There are 831,056 ETH in the exit queue, with a wait time of 14 days and 10 hours. There are 1,085,264 active validators across the network, and approximately 35.6 million ETH have been staked. This amount corresponds to 29.46% of the total supply.

Bitcoin maximalist Samson Mow commented on the matter, saying, “Flippening (ETH surpassing BTC's market cap) will never happen, but unstakening is coming.” According to Mow, as of yesterday, there were 768,400 ETH in the Ethereum validator exit queue. This figure equates to approximately $3.5 billion. The renowned investor also suggested that the ETH/BTC pair could fall to 0.03 or below.

Various theories are circulating in the market as to why validators are initiating mass unstaking. The cancellation of leveraged staking cycles is particularly noteworthy. It's being argued that investors who staked ETH to acquire liquid staking tokens (e.g., stETH) and then borrowed using it as collateral are reducing their positions due to rising funding and borrowing costs, which in turn is driving demand for exits.

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