Ethereum’s staking queue has surged to a 25-day wait to begin validating, with nearly 1.5 million ether now lined up to enter the network. The backlog reflects a sharp increase in validator exits triggered by MetaMask’s withdrawal of approximately 523,000 ether following a security incident disclosed on September 30.
The exit queue peaked at roughly 851,000 ether on October 2, then settled at 786,000 ether as of Monday, according to CoinDesk. That represents a fivefold surge in three days from the 166,000 ether waiting to exit on September 29. The queue is now equivalent to 2 percent of the 43.6 million ether currently staked on Ethereum.
Ethereum’s protocol limits validator entries and exits to approximately 57,600 ether daily to prevent sudden shifts in network security. At that pace, the current exit queue requires roughly 14 days to clear, while the entry queue demands 25 days. In early September, before the MetaMask incident, the entry queue stood at 2 million ether with an estimated 35-day wait.
Security researcher Kaden estimated that roughly 17,000 MetaMask validators hold the affected 523,000 ether. MetaMask has not confirmed these figures. The company’s investigation, completed by October 1, found no evidence that wallets or customer funds were compromised by the incident.
MetaMask operates validators for Lido, a staking service that pools users’ ether to earn rewards. Lido issued a statement saying “No action is required from stETH holders,” signaling that the platform will manage the restaking process. Lido expects the last affected MetaMask validators to stop staking by October 7 and anticipates a 45-day timeline for the full restaking process once withdrawn balances clear the separate withdrawal queue.
The ether exiting staking must pass through a withdrawal process before reaching validators’ wallets, adding another layer of delay. The exit surge mirrors a smaller spike in May, when the queue climbed by 476,000 ether, though the current incident has pushed withdrawals to their highest level this year.
The 786,000 ether in the exit queue is worth just over 2 billion dollars at current prices. The 1.5 million ether waiting to enter staking is valued at roughly 4 billion dollars.
