Ethereum Exit Queue Crosses 2.6 Million ETH With 44-Day Wait Time, Is A $12 Billion Sell-Off Coming?

Ethereum is dealing with its largest validator exit in historical past as greater than 2.6 million ETH, price over $12 billion, have entered the withdrawal queue. According to on-chain information from ValidatorQueue.com, the exit backlog has surged to sudden ranges, and the buyers making the withdrawals at the moment are dealing with a wait time of greater than 44 days earlier than their ETH is absolutely unstaked. This sudden spike in withdrawals raises critical questions on the potential for looming promoting stress and the way it may have an effect on the Ethereum value.

Largest Exit Queue Ever Recorded

According to data from ValidatorQueue.com, about 2.6 million ETH have been queued as much as be unstaked, its largest exit quantity on report. This exit queue quantity dwarfs all earlier durations of validator exits since Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake in September 2022. At its peak, the ETH tokens within the queue have been price about $12 billion. 

Interestingly, the chart information from ValidatorQueue reveals a rising development of extra validators unstaking their ETH in latest weeks, as evidenced by the parabolic rise since mid-August. Analyst MartyParty commented on social media platform X, stating, “Ethereum Staking Exit Queue parabolic.”  Such a large-scale withdrawal occasion highlights rising unease amongst stakers, and institutional contributors or massive staking suppliers are behind the sudden mass exits.

The exit queue has witnessed a parabolic rise in latest months that’s onerous to disregard. This rise began in July 2025, when the common variety of ETH ready to be unstaked jumped from beneath 10,000 ETH to about 250,000 ETH inside a matter of days. By the top of the month, the exit queue had escalated and climbed previous 740,000 ETH. August additionally noticed an analogous rise, with queue numbers averaging round 800,000 ETH earlier than crossing 1 million ETH on the finish of the month.

 Now, the queue numbers have greater than doubled in September, reaching a peak of two.63 million ETH final week. As it stands, there are greater than 2.4 million ETH ready to go away the community. The backlog is so massive that validators are dealing with an estimated 43 days and three hours of wait time earlier than their ETH may be absolutely unstaked.

Implications For Ethereum Price

With greater than $12 billion in ETH queued for withdrawal, the looming query is whether or not it will translate into vital promote stress on exchanges. If these withdrawals are liquidated, the Ethereum value may face downward stress. This would injury Ethereum’s rally, which has picked up this week.  

However, not all unstaked ETH is essentially heading for the open market. Some could also be repositioned into restaking protocols or into Spot Ethereum ETFs.

On the opposite hand, ETH staking has slowed down massively. At the time of writing, 451,950 ETH are at the moment within the entry queue to be staked. This is a 53% decline from 959,717 ETH on September 5.

At the time of writing, Ethereum is buying and selling at $4,572, up by 2.1% up to now 24 hours.