Ethereum exit queue eases to 767,349 ETH after MetaMask exits

Ethereum’s validator exit queue is shrinking, slowly. On October 5, 2026, it stood at 767,349 ETH, with an estimated wait of roughly 13 days and eight hours to fully exit. That is down from a peak of about 851,000 ETH on October 2. The spike traces back to one source: MetaMask Staking. It began pulling validators out after disclosing a security incident on September 30. How MetaMask filled the queue The exits involved roughly 17,000 validators that MetaMask operated for Lido, the dominant liquid staking platform. Together, those validators held approximately 523,000 ETH. MetaMask said user wallets and funds were not affected by the incident. It framed the validator exits as proactive security housekeeping, not a response to stolen assets. On September 29, a day before the disclosure, the exit queue sat at about 166,000 ETH. Within days it had swollen to its October 2 high. The current 767,349 ETH reading means the backlog has started to drain, though it remains far above where it began. The entry queue, where ETH waits to begin staking, stood between roughly 1.44 million and 1.5 million ETH on the same date, with an estimated wait of about 25 days just to start earning staking rewa...