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718,351 Ethereum Worth $3.31B Trapped in Exit Queue — Withdrawals May Take Over Two Weeks
The waitlist for staking claims has reached a new record high amid growing withdrawal pressure from Ethereum validators.
The number of days that stakers need to wait continues to grow as validators increasingly opt to unstake their assets on the Ethereum network. The wait time for the exit queue now stands at 13 days, 16 hours, a record period for validators.
On why the withdrawal spiked, the analyst suggested it came as users unwound leveraged Ethereum. For context, he mentioned that validators used staked ETH (sETH) to borrow from Aave and repeat the process for a higher yield. However, as the borrowing rates spiked, they are now unwinding.
sETH Depeg, Profit-Taking, and Upcoming Staked Ethereum ETFs
Ignas also tied the high withdrawals to the depegging of sETH and other LSTs. It all started when Tron founder Justin Sun withdrew 600 million of sETH in July, causing sETH to depeg from Ethereum’s price. He noted that validators are cautious of further downsides, hence the withdrawals.
Furthermore, Ignas mentioned that the upcoming Ethereum staked ETFs could be another factor. With the uncertainty that asset managers would use existing infrastructures like Lido for staking services, validators are unstaking in preparation for any circumstance.
Finally, he highlighted that the major catalyst for this is profit-taking amid Ethereum’s price rally. The altcoin king now trades closer to its all-time high than ever following recent bullish form rediscovery, and holders are beginning to take profit.