Ethereum Staking Queue Hits 25-Day Wait as MetaMask Validator Exits Push Withdrawals to 2026 High

About 1.5 million ETH, worth roughly $4 billion, is currently waiting to start staking on Ethereum, with an estimated delay of around 25 days. That is down from nearly 2 million ETH and a wait of about 35 days in early September, so demand to join has been cooling steadily. The network caps how fast validators can enter or leave to protect its security, which means about 57,600 ETH can move in each direction per day and any surge turns into a queue.

Ethereum Exit Queue Reaches Longest Level of 2026

Ether waiting to leave staking jumped more than fivefold in three days, from about 166,000 ETH on Sept. 29 to roughly 851,000 ETH on Oct. 2. That equals about 2% of the 43.6 million ETH staked and is well above the roughly 476,000 ETH peak seen in May. As of Monday morning in Asia, around 786,000 ETH, worth just over $2 billion, was still waiting, with an estimated wait of nearly 14 days.

MetaMask Security Incident and Lido Validators

Most of the surge traces back to MetaMask, which also runs validators for the Lido staking service. The company disclosed a security incident on Sept. 30 and began taking affected validators out of service, and an Oct. 1 update said no wallets or customer funds appeared to be affected.