A $1,000 MetaMask incident could turn Ethereum’s staking queue into a $5 billion traffic jam

MetaMask's precautionary validator exits are turning a roughly $1,000 reward diversion into a test of Ethereum's staking capacity. Lido expects its affected ETH to return gradually to Ethereum staking; the entry backlog was worth about $3.59 billion in the Oct. 7 snapshot.Lido had expected its final affected validators to exit by the end of October 7. The deadline covers exits, with full withdrawals and re-entry taking longer. The protocol estimates that the complete cycle could take up to about 45 days.Bitquery measured 0.36 ETH in diverted block tips across 18 blocks on September 30. At the October 7 ETH price used below, that amounts to about $923.Its October 1 snapshot identified 16,965 MetaMask-operated validators holding 565,056 ETH that had exited or joined the exit queue. MetaMask has not confirmed that total. The company said in its October 1 update that its investigation to date had found no indication wallets or customer funds were affected and described the exits as precautionary.The larger economic exposure comes from withdrawing and restaking the balances behind the precautionary exits.Bitquery's two Lido groups held 252,288 ETH, already included in the wider total. L...