The Ethereum validator exit queue is anticipated to see a significant uptick in the coming days, but market participants remain largely unfazed, according to Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano. In a recent post on X, Sassano emphasized that the Ether (ETH) being withdrawn is likely to be restaked with new validator keys, suggesting that it won’t be sold on the open market. His comments follow an announcement from Kiln Finance after a recent hack involving the Swiss wealth management platform, SwissBorg.
Currently, the exit queue for ETH stands at approximately 1,628,074, with around 35.5 million ETH staked, making up nearly 29.36% of the total supply. Analysts have long viewed significant amounts of unstaked Ether as a bear signal, as it may suggest incoming selling pressure.
Kiln Finance has begun an “orderly exit” of its Ethereum validators in light of the recent security breach. Following a vulnerability exploit that allowed hackers to drain around 193,000 Solana (SOL) tokens from SwissBorg’s Earn program, Kiln announced precautionary measures to protect client assets across its networks.
In their communication, Kiln stated, “As part of this response, Kiln today began the orderly exit of all of its Ethereum validators,” adding that this action is intended to maintain the integrity of staked assets amid security concerns.
The current exit queue reflects the broader trends seen in Ethereum’s staking ecosystem, where the amount of ETH in the exit queue has recently reached around 1.63 million. Kiln noted that the exit process could take anywhere from 10 to 42 days, depending on each validator’s circumstances.
At present, Ether is trading at $4,306, according to data from CoinMarketCap. This situation arises after Ethereum experienced notable fluctuations in validator entry and exit queues in recent months. Notably, on August 28, reports indicated that Ethereum had faced its largest validator exodus in history, with over 1 million ETH waiting to be withdrawn from staking on its proof-of-stake network.
Conversely, on September 3, the amount of Ether queued for staking surged to its highest level of the year as institutional investors and crypto treasury firms sought to maximize rewards on their holdings.