Ethereum Staking Demand Cools with Reduced Wait Times
- Approximately 1.5 million ETH, valued at around $4 billion, is currently waiting to enter staking.
- The estimated wait time for staking has decreased to about 25 days, down from 35 days in early September.
- A significant portion of the recent demand came from MetaMask, which also operates validators for Lido.
- Around 17,000 validators are estimated to be affected by a security incident disclosed on September 30, holding approximately 523,000 ETH.
- Lido anticipates that the affected ether will gradually return to staking over a period of up to 45 days.
The cooling demand for staking reflects a temporary situation as MetaMask addresses validator issues without impacting user funds directly. As validators are taken out of service, Lido expects the process of returning ether to take several weeks.
Currently, there are about 1.5 million ETH waiting in the queue for staking, indicating a notable shift in demand dynamics since September’s peak.(Source)
