Ethereum's unstaking queue surged 392% since the beginning of October, reaching the longest exit line the network has seen all year. Data circulated on X showed that roughly 850,000 ETH was lined up to leave the network's validator set by October 2.
In late September, exits sat in the low-to-mid 100,000s ETH range. By October 2, the estimated wait time to exit had reached approximately 14.77 days, with the queue peaking between 850,000 and 850,736 ETH. Total staked ETH stood at roughly 43.6 million across about 878,000 active validators, making the pending exits close to 2% of all staked supply.
The sharp increase coincided with an infrastructure compromise disclosed by MetaMask Staking on September 30. During the incident, block rewards of about 0.36 ETH across 18 blocks were briefly diverted, though MetaMask stated that no user wallets or sensitive data were affected.
As a precautionary measure, MetaMask moved to exit nearly 17,000 validators holding approximately 523,000 ETH, a significant share of which was tied to Lido’s operations. These exits accounted for the majority of the roughly 850,000 ETH waiting to leave the network and were expected to finish by October 7.
Beyond the security precaution, Jiang Zhuoer, founder of a Litecoin mining pool, noted that the jump in the queue also suggested some holders were taking advantage of current prices to lock in profits.
Despite the large volume of pending exits, Ethereum's price remained in a narrow band between $2,686 and $2,725 from September 30 to October 2. Because the exit queue spread wait times over approximately 14.77 days, any selling pressure was distributed over time rather than hitting the market in a single burst.
Market analysts note that once MetaMask’s precautionary exits clear, the queue should shrink noticeably unless fresh exits replace them. The event underscored how decisions by a single infrastructure partner can impact a much larger pool of staked ETH, while the vast majority of the 43.6 million staked ETH remained secure across active validators.
