Ethereum staking queue hits 43 days, says Sygnum's Thomas Brunner

Around 2.5 million ETH are waiting in the Ethereum validator entry queue, creating an estimated 43‑day delay before new stakes become active. The queue reflects a combination of fresh demand, protocol‑imposed churn limits, and the addition of ETH to existing validators rather than solely new investor inflows.

Approximately 41.3 million ETH – about 33.8 % of the total circulating supply – are already staked across roughly 890,000 validators, while the exit queue is essentially empty, indicating that participants are not withdrawing their positions. The bottleneck is driven by the network’s rate‑limiting mechanism, which caps how many validators can join or leave per epoch to preserve security.

Thomas Brunner, Head of Custody & Staking at Swiss‑regulated crypto bank Sygnum, notes that the queue is a mechanical effect rather than a bullish signal. He points to continued institutional staking activity despite a weakening ETH price, and highlights Sygnum’s recent upgrade to its Ethereum staking service launched on 17 July 2026 as evidence of growing institutional adoption.