Ethereum Staking Demand Explodes: Entry Queue Now Outpaces Exits
More investors are locking up their ETH than trying to pull it out—a bullish signal that's turning heads.
The Queue Tells the Story
Forget the price charts for a second. The real action is in Ethereum's staking mechanics. Right now, the line to get in is longer than the line to get out. That's a fundamental shift in investor behavior, signaling stronger conviction in the network's long-term payoff than its short-term liquidity.
What This Means for the Network
This isn't just a sentiment indicator. A growing staking queue directly boosts network security by committing more value to the chain. It's a vote of confidence written in code, suggesting participants see more value in future rewards than in cashing out today. It also creates a natural supply squeeze—ETH gets locked, reducing sell-side pressure.
The Cynical Take
Of course, on Wall Street, they'd call this 'voluntarily reducing your liquidity for a promised return'—a concept that usually comes with a hefty prospectus and a team of lawyers. In crypto, we just call it Tuesday.
The trend flips the script. It moves the narrative from speculative trading to foundational participation, building a more resilient Ethereum from the ground up.
What this means for Ethereum’s network
The Ethereum network operates on a proof-of-stake concept where validators lock their ETH to secure the network. Staking is related to the holding of confidence, and unstaking is related to a sale.
Ethereum is currently trading at $3,015, up 2.67% in the past 24 hours, with a market cap of around $3 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap. This is still far from its all-time high of $4,953 reached on August 25, 2025, reflecting a decline of nearly 39%.
Recently, crypto analyst Ben Cowen has issued a cautious outlook for Ethereum in 2026, warning that while ETH could briefly reach $4,878, it may act as a short-lived “bull trap” and drop back toward $2,000, with its trajectory closely tied to Bitcoin’s performance.
Analyst weighs in
Abdul, Head of DeFi at Monad, noted that when Ethereum’s staking entry and exit queues last flipped in June, ETH’s price doubled shortly afterward, suggesting 2026 could see similarly strong market moves.
A few days ago, he also pointed out that the exit queue, which tracks ETH leaving the network, has been under pressure since July. About 5% of Ethereum’s supply changed hands during this period, largely due to Kiln’s orderly exit of all its validators in September after a security incident at SwissBorg. Roughly 70% of this ETH was absorbed by BitMine, which now holds around 3.4% of the total supply.
Abdul added, “At its current rate, the validator exit queue will reach zero on January 3, after which I expect the sell pressure on ETH to subside.”
In the past, changes in the staking and exit queues in Ethereum have quite often been linked with large changes in the market prices when approaching the year 2026.
Also Read: Bitmine Surpasses 4 Million ETH Holdings After $128M Buying Spree
