The Ethereum staking entry queue hit a 2.5-year peak on April 10, 2025, with roughly 2,597,838 ETH waiting to activate. Crypto analyst Ted Pillows reported the milestone citing validatorqueue on-chain data, noting it exceeds the previous high. At the same time, new validators face an activation delay of about 45 days, while the unstaking queue is empty, signaling continued holder commitment. These metrics together describe a network with growing long-term participation in staking.
Ethereum Staking Queue Hits 2.5-Year High
The entry queue now holds approximately 2,597,838 ETH, marking the highest level since withdrawals were enabled by the Shanghai/Capella upgrade. This total surpasses the earlier record of 1.759 million ETH observed on January 10, 2025, and reflects a sustained upward trend in on-chain staking demand. The reported surge was published on April 10, 2025, by analyst Ted Pillows using validatorqueue data, which highlights the scale of current entry pressure.
Validator Wait Time and Unstaking Queue
Because the protocol limits how many validators can join per epoch via the churn limit, the current wait to activate a new validator stands at about 45 days. That activation delay is a direct consequence of the churn mechanism designed to keep validator set changes gradual and predictable. Meanwhile, the unstaking queue is empty, a contrasting signal that existing stakers are not requesting withdrawals at scale; for additional context on staking versus unstaking flows see staking vs unstaking and how queues compare.
Factors Driving the Staking Surge
Observers point to several factors behind the inflow: renewed market interest in 2024–2025, anticipation of upcoming upgrades such as The Surge and The Scourge, and wider availability of liquid staking tokens (LSTs) that lower entry barriers. LSTs let participants maintain liquidity while earning consensus-layer rewards, which can increase the amount committed to the entry queue. Large custodial and institutional deposits also play a role; for example, recent sizable beacon deposits are covered in dedicated reports like the Binance beacon deposit case.
Historical Context and Milestones
Ethereum’s Beacon Chain launch began the move to Proof-of-Stake, and the Shanghai/Capella upgrade in April 2023 enabled withdrawals for stakers, removing a major barrier to participation. Since that change, the network’s staking ratio has risen steadily and now exceeds 30% of the total ETH supply. This historical shift from locked staking to withdrawable stakes provides the backdrop for the current queue dynamics and higher long-term participation.
Implications for Ethereum’s Economics and Security
A larger staking pool reduces the circulating supply committed to network security and therefore changes certain economic dynamics around liquid supply. From a security perspective, more ETH staked and a larger validator set raise the economic cost of attacking consensus, strengthening network resilience. At the same time, the protocol’s economics adjust rewards: staking APR decreases as the total amount staked grows, which gradually balances incentives across participants.
Why this matters
For a miner or small validator operator in Russia with between one and a thousand devices, these developments affect how quickly you can add new validators and the yield you can expect. The ~45-day activation wait means planning and timing matter if you intend to run fresh 32 ETH validators, while an empty unstaking queue shows existing stakers are staying put rather than exiting. Because APR falls as more ETH is staked, per-validator rewards will be shaped by the overall staking supply regardless of individual hardware scale.
What to do?
- Plan validator deployments: account for the ~45-day activation wait when scheduling new 32 ETH validators, so hardware and funds are ready ahead of need.
- Consider liquid staking if you need immediate exposure: LSTs let you earn rewards without waiting in the activation queue, useful for operators with fewer devices or limited capital.
- Monitor your economics: track staking APR and total staked figures, since rising stake levels will reduce per-validator yields over time and influence profitability calculations.
- Keep software and security practices current: with a growing validator set and more value at stake, maintaining up-to-date clients and secure key management remains essential.
