Ethereum is facing its largest validator exit in history as more than 2.6 million ETH, worth over $12 billion, have entered the withdrawal queue. According 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 unstaked. This sudden spike in withdrawals raises serious questions about the possibility of looming selling pressure and how it might affect the Ethereum price.
The exit queue has witnessed a parabolic rise in recent months that is hard to ignore. This 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 days. By the end of the month, the exit queue had escalated and climbed past 740,000 ETH. August 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 week. As it stands, there are more than 2.4 million ETH waiting to leave the network. The backlog is so large that validators are facing an estimated 43 days and 3 hours of wait time before their ETH can be fully unstaked.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading at $4,572, up by 2.1% in the past 24 hours.
