About 1.46M ETH faces a 25-day wait to enter Ethereum staking while 786K ETH sits in the exit queue as MetaMask Staking unwinds validators after an incident.
Key Facts
About 1.46 million ETH was waiting to enter Ethereum staking on Monday, a wait of roughly 25 days, according to validatorqueue.com.
Roughly 786,000 ETH sat in the exit queue as MetaMask Staking exits validators after disclosing a security incident on Sept. 30.
Lido said the last affected validators in its protocol should be exited by the end of Wednesday, Oct. 7, with the ETH returning over up to about 45 days.
About 1.46 million Ethereum (ETH) is waiting in the network's staking entry queue, a wait of about 25 days, while the exit queue remains elevated as MetaMask winds down its affected staking validators following an incident.
The backlog means new stakers wait more than three weeks to start earning rewards, while exiting validators face a wait of nearly 14 days, according to validatorqueue.com data read on Monday.
MetaMask Staking Exits Validators After Security Incident
MetaMask disclosed on Sept. 30 that it was "responding to an ongoing security incident affecting part of our infrastructure" and was exiting affected validator nodes as a precaution.
"Based on our investigation to date, there is no indication that MetaMask wallets or customer funds have been affected," the company said in an Oct. 1 update.
Security researcher Kaden estimated the exits at about 17,000 validators holding roughly 523,000 ETH, according to CoinDesk. MetaMask had not confirmed those figures as of Oct. 1.
Kaden also estimated that about 0.36 ETH in block rewards had been diverted to an unexpected address, CoinDesk reported.
Lido Expects MetaMask Validator Exits by Oct. 7
Liquid staking protocol Lido said in a forum post that MetaMask Staking's validators in its protocol are "expected to be exited (but not fully withdrawn) by the end of October 7th, 2026."
The exits will likely mean foregone rewards, as well as possible downtime penalties should validators be taken offline, Lido said. It estimated that exited ETH will take up to about 45 days to return through the exit, withdrawal and re-entry cycle because of the extended entry queue.
On Monday, Lido contributors proposed setting MetaMask Staking's target limit to zero in the protocol's staking modules, which would stop new deposits from being allocated to the operator. The change is slated for Lido's next on-chain vote.
The liquid staking protocol said in its Sept. 30 post that "no action is required from stETH holders."
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