Overview

• Roughly 2.5 million ETH sit in the exit queue with estimated withdrawal waits near 43–45 days, slightly off recent highs.
• Vitalik Buterin compared staking to a duty to defend the chain and warned that shortening the wait could make the network less trustworthy.
• Galaxy Digital’s Michael Marcantonio criticized the wait and contrasted it with Solana’s roughly two‑day unstake, then removed his posts after backlash.
• Community figures said partners were reconsidering business with Galaxy Digital, and some voices urged boycotts following the comments.
• Reporting links part of the exit surge to a Kiln Finance exploit, while Ethereum still counts over one million validators, about 35.6 million ETH staked, and a large entry queue in the hundreds of thousands of ETH.