Ethereum Staking Queue Doubles Withdrawal Requests

Ethereum staking queue surpasses withdrawals for the first time since July.

For the first time since July, the queue for staking Ethereum has surpassed that for withdrawals, according to data from Validator Queue.

At the time of writing, approximately 745,619 ETH (with a waiting time of about 13 days) are queued for deposit to the contract address, while 360,518 ETH (eight days) await unlocking.

The trend shift occurred on December 27, when the figures equaled around 460,000 coins.

The head of DeFi at L1 network Monad, known as Abdul, noted that a similar shift in queues was observed in June. Following this, Ethereum’s price doubled, reaching a historic high of $4,946 by August.

Update:

ETH validator entry queue is now bigger than the exit queue, for the first time in six months

The last time this happened in June, ETH doubled in price shortly after

2026 going to be a movie https://t.co/GWMCjxfigo pic.twitter.com/3dMttYpB4B

— Abdul (@0x_Abdul) December 28, 2025

The expert anticipates that at the current pace, the withdrawal queue will be cleared by January 3. According to him, this will ease the selling pressure on the asset.

“In this context, Ethereum’s prospects look promising,” Abdul stated.

At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency’s price is approximately $3,000. Over the past day, the asset has risen by 2.5% amid a rally in precious metals and a weaker dollar.

Network Whales

Dylan Grabowski, host of the Smart Economy podcast, linked the changes in queues to aggressive coin purchases by large treasury companies like BitMine, followed by staking.

The entry-exit queue for Ethereum validation just flippened

I have to think BitMine beginning to stake its ~4.07 million ETH is a contributing factor

But also hoping this is a positive trend in local bottoms being met, and long-term hope coming back to crypto more broadly pic.twitter.com/L9Hla3aJu1

— DylanΞGra₿owski (@GrabowskiDylan) December 28, 2025

The expert’s assumptions are confirmed by on-chain data. According to Lookonchain, since December 27, BitMine has staked 342,560 ETH worth about $1 billion.

Tom Lee(@fundstrat)’s #Bitmine continues moving $ETH into staking.

Over the past 2 days, #Bitmine has staked 342,560 $ETH($1B).https://t.co/P684j5YQaGhttps://t.co/pXHT9mCPUC pic.twitter.com/0Y9XBShQzI

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 28, 2025

The researcher known as Ignas highlighted three possible reasons for the imbalance:

1. Decreased leverage in DeFi. Rising loan rates in Aave forced participants using leverage against stETH collateral to close positions.
2. Operational rebound. Provider Kiln began returning previously withdrawn assets to the network.
3. Technological advancement. The implementation of Pectra improved the staking user experience and removed previous limits on the maximum number of validators.

Back in September, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin explained the purpose of the ETH withdrawal queue from staking.