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Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) network is facing its toughest challenge yet, with over 2.5 million ETH — worth more than $11 billion — waiting to exit the validator set. As of mid-September, validator dashboards show exit wait times exceeding 46 days, the longest in Ethereum’s staking history. For comparison, the previous peak in August was 18 days.
The surge began on September 9, when infrastructure provider Kiln exited all its validators following security concerns linked to the NPM supply-chain attack and the SwissBorg breach. Kiln’s withdrawal of 1.6 million ETH shook confidence across the staking ecosystem, even though Ethereum’s protocol itself wasn’t compromised.
Market conditions are also fueling exits. After ETH rallied more than 160% since April, many stakers are taking profits, while institutional investors are rebalancing portfolios. At the same time, new validators are steadily entering, driven by renewed interest following the SEC’s May clarification that staking isn’t classified as a security, alongside growing anticipation of Ethereum ETF approvals.
Ethereum’s churn limit, which regulates validator inflows and outflows at 256 validators per epoch (about every 6.4 minutes), is keeping the network stable but slowing movements. With the backlog, stakers currently face more than 44 days just to begin the cooldown process.
Analysts suggest much of the ETH leaving will be restaked, creating new bottlenecks. Figment’s Benjamin Thalman estimates that if 75% of the current exits are redeposited, around 2 million ETH could reenter the activation queue. Combined with expected ETF inflows, new staking delays could stretch up to 129 days.
The growing queue illustrates Ethereum’s paradox: the system is functioning as designed, yet institutional demand, profit cycles, and security fears are colliding to test its resilience. This validator congestion highlights both the maturity and the challenges of Ethereum’s evolving staking ecosystem.
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