New Ethereum stakers face a 25-day wait as the exit line falls from its 850,736 ETH MetaMask-driven peak
- New Ethereum stakers face a wait of about 25 days, with ~1.44 million ETH in the entry queue on October 5.
- The exit queue fell to 767,349 ETH from an October 2 peak of 850,736 ETH.
- MetaMask is exiting about 17,000 Lido validators after a September 30 security incident.
New Ethereum stakers are now waiting about 25 days before their ETH begins generating any returns. As of October 5, 1.44 million ETH was in the entry queue according to data from validatorqueue.com.
The exit queue dropped to 767,349 ETH from a peak of 850,736 ETH on October 2 as MetaMask unwinds the validators it ran through Lido. Exits take about 13 days and eight hours to clear.
17,000 Lido validators joined the queue in days
MetaMask Staking set about removing validators after a security incident disclosure on September 30. Some 17,000 validators with ~523,000 ETH, all running for Lido, the biggest liquid staking protocol, got in line.
On September 29, the exit queue was close to 166,000 ETH. Within days it passed 850,000 ETH, and then it started to drain.
Ethereum limits the amount of stake flowing in or out of the validator set thanks to churn, now 256 ETH per epoch in each direction. An epoch is about 6.4 minutes long, so only about 57,600 ETH gets cleared per day on each side.
Total staked ETH is ~43.7 million or ~36% of supply. The number of active validators is 866,944.
Staking yield is ~2.6%.
Lido puts re-entry for the withdrawn stake at 45 days
MetaMask’s withdrawn ETH may also prolong the entry line.
Lido calls the exits temporary and anticipates getting back most of the stake. It puts re-entry at up to 45 days.
The last impacted validators should exit but not fully withdraw by the end of October 7, Cryptopolitan reported on October 1.
“Your Secret Recovery Phrase, your keys, and the assets in your wallet were not part of this incident because they CANNOT be,” Consensys founder Joseph Lubin wrote on X. MetaMask says its staking is non-custodial and has no withdrawal keys for customers.
As a precaution, Lubin said the company rotated its validator keys. Rotated validators must exit and rejoin the queue to stake again.
MetaMask has issued a warning to users to be aware of phishing and protect their secret recovery phrase.
ETH traded near $2,715 at the time of writing, up 0.4% over 24 hours. At this price, the ~523,000 ETH leaving MetaMask’s validators is worth about $1.42 billion.
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FAQs
Why did Ethereum's exit queue spike in early October 2026?
MetaMask Staking pulled about 523,000 ETH of Lido validators after a September 30 security incident.
How long do new Ethereum stakers have to wait to start earning?
About 25 days, with ~1.44 million ETH in the entry queue on October 5.
Were MetaMask user funds affected by the incident?
No. Lubin said recovery phrases, keys and wallet assets were not part of the incident.
Randa Moses
Randa Moses is an editor and reporter at Cryptopolitan covering tech, AI, robotics, crypto, scams, and hacks. She has worked in the crypto space since 2017. She held roles at Forward Protocol, AmaZix, and Cryptosomniac. Randa holds a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Bradford.
