After withdrawal wait times for Ethereum (ETH) staking skyrocketed this summer, the situation now appears to be calming down. Although they remain particularly high, these wait times are currently at a 3-month low. Here’s an update.
Wait time to withdraw from ETH staking drops below 20 days
Over the summer, we observed a sharp increase in the wait times for withdrawing ETH from staking on Ethereum. Despite reaching an all-time high (ATH) of $4,946 on August 24, we were concerned about the possibility of massive sell-offs ahead, and the more than 37% drop that has occurred since then seems to support this view.
Although the wait to retrieve ETH deposited for staking is still particularly long, it has now fallen below the 20-day threshold, marking the first time this has happened since September 10:
Withdrawal and deposit wait times for Ethereum staking
As of today, there are more than 1.13 million ETH in the withdrawal queue, with a wait time of 19 days and 16 hours, compared to 529,717 units in the deposit queue, with a wait time of 9 days and 5 hours.
As for validators, after hitting a low of 995,060—the lowest since April 2024—their numbers have since risen to 997,713, while the total amount of Ether staked stands at 35.4 million, representing 29.19% of the current supply.
Following the crash on October 10, we can see that the staking withdrawal wait time has not experienced any new spikes, and it is therefore likely that this backlog will eventually dissipate once demand has stabilized.
Meanwhile, BlackRock has filed its application for a staking-inclusive ETF, which could also drive the number of validators back up, regardless of price movements and the outflows occurring in parallel.
