Ethereum has a 25-day wait to start staking, with nearly 1.5 million ETH in line

Demand to start staking has been cooling separately. About 1.5 million ETH, worth roughly $4 billion, was waiting to enter on Monday, with an estimated wait of roughly 25 days, down from about 2 million ETH and a wait of about 35 days in early September.

Most of the jump came from MetaMask. The company, best known for its cryptocurrency wallet, also runs validators for Lido, a service that pools users’ ether for staking. At the time, Ethereum security researcher Kaden estimated the precautionary exits covered roughly 17,000 validators holding about 523,000 ETH, figures MetaMask has not confirmed.

MetaMask disclosed a security incident on Sept. 30 and began taking affected validators out of service. An Oct. 1 update said its investigation had found no indication that wallets or customer funds had been affected.

That makes most of the exit queue a temporary detour for one operator’s coins. Lido expects the ether to return gradually as the affected validators leave, their balances are withdrawn and the coins enter staking again. It estimated the whole process could take up to about 45 days, with affected validators missing rewards while they are out of service.

“No action is required from stETH holders,” Lido said last week, referring to the token that represents users’ stake in the service.