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

Ethereum is facing its largest validator exit in history as more than 2.6 million ETH, worth over $12 billion, have entered the withdrawal ￰0￱ to on-chain data from ValidatorQueue. com, the exit backlog has surged to unexpected levels, and the investors making the withdrawals are now facing a wait time of more than 44 days before their ETH is fully ￰1￱ sudden spike in withdrawals raises serious questions about the possibility of looming selling pressure and how it might affect the Ethereum ￰2￱ Exit Queue Ever Recorded According to data from ValidatorQueue. com, about 2.6 million ETH were queued up to be unstaked, its largest exit number on ￰3￱ exit queue number dwarfs all previous periods of validator exits since Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake in September ￰4￱ its peak, the ETH tokens in the queue were worth about $12 billion.

Interestingly, the chart data from ValidatorQueue shows a growing trend of more validators unstaking their ETH in recent weeks, as evidenced by the parabolic rise since ￰5￱ MartyParty commented on social media platform X , stating, “Ethereum Staking Exit Queue parabolic.” Such a large-scale withdrawal event highlights growing unease among stakers, and institutional participants or large staking providers are behind the sudden mass ￰6￱ exit queue has witnessed a parabolic rise in recent months that is hard to ￰7￱ rise started in July 2025, when the average number of ETH waiting to be unstaked jumped from below 10,000 ETH to about 250,000 ETH within a matter of ￰8￱ the end of the month, the exit queue had escalated and climbed past 740,000 ￰9￱ also saw a similar rise, with queue numbers averaging around 800,000 ETH before crossing 1 million ETH at the end of the month.

Now, the queue numbers have more than doubled in September, reaching a peak of 2.63 million ETH last ￰10￱ it stands, there are more than 2.4 million ETH waiting to leave the ￰11￱ backlog is so large that validators are facing an estimated 43 days and 3 hours of wait time before their ETH can be fully ￰12￱ For Ethereum Price With more than $12 billion in ETH queued for withdrawal, the looming question is whether this will translate into significant sell pressure on ￰13￱ these withdrawals are liquidated, the Ethereum price could face downward ￰14￱ would damage Ethereum’s rally, which has picked up this week. However, not all unstaked ETH is necessarily heading for the open ￰15￱ may be repositioned into restaking protocols or into Spot Ethereum ￰16￱ the other hand, ETH staking has slowed down ￰17￱ the time of writing, 451,950 ETH are currently in the entry queue to be ￰18￱ is a 53% decline from 959,717 ETH on September ￰19￱ the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at $4,572, up by 2.1% in the past 24 hours.