Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is an open-source Layer 1 blockchain designed to enable decentralized applications. The network is secured using a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, and its native token, ETH, allows token holders to collect protocol staking rewards for helping secure the network.
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Ethereum Validator Queue
Entry Queue
ETH: 155,944
Wait: 2 days, 16 hours
Exit Queue
ETH: 2,421,626
Wait: 42 days, 1 hours
Network
Active Validators: 1,036,019
Staked ETH: 35.77M
Last updated: 5 minutes ago
Source: Beaconcha.in
ETH Validator Queues Explained
The exit and activation queues are built-in safeguards that rate-limit activity and protect network stability. They indicated the waiting period to stake or unstake ETH Validators. Stakers can earn rewards in the exit queue, but don’t in the entry queue. These metrics are network-wide, not Figment-specific.
ETH Validator Queues FAQ
Why are the queues getting a lot of attention?
The exit queue spiked to 46 days on September 13, 2025. That’s a 370% increase since August 13 at 9.86 days. July 13, it was 0.01 days.
What happened?
This exit queue spike on September 13 was triggered by a large validator exit following recent industry security incidents. Figment’s infrastructure and client assets were not affected. This large exit will likely create downstream impacts on the entry queue next.
The infrastructure provider took the decision to exit all of their ETH validators as a security precaution and as result around 1.6 million ETH (~$7 Billion) entered the exit queue to withdraw, taking the total exit queue to about 2.64 million ETH. This large exit of validators at the same time, caused the exit queue to reach its historical peak.
Who is impacted?
- Stakers with the impacted service provider whose ETH has been involuntarily exited
- ETH holders who plan to stake or unstake any amount in the next 60 days
- Note: Existing staked ETH at Figment is unaffected by the queue sizes
What does this mean?
Ethereum is functioning as designed. The exit and activation queues are built-in safeguards that rate-limit activity and protect network stability. The tradeoff is longer wait times to stake and unstake.
How does the validator exit queue work?
The length of the ETH exit queue depends on the amount of Ether (ETH) exiting at any one time and the validator churn limit, which is capped at 256 ETH per epoch (6.4 minutes), this is how much ETH can enter or exit at a given time.
This means only 56,700 staked ETH can exit per day, so if hundreds of thousands request exits at once, the queue can stretch into weeks, or in this case over a month. On top of this, validators face a withdrawal delay after exiting, further extending the time before ETH becomes liquid. Altogether, the queue ensures the orderly unbonding of ETH delegated to validators.
The current ETH exit queue peaked at 46.4 days as of September 13. This is the longest that it has been since Ethereum transitioned to Proof-of-Stake in September 2022.
What are the potential implications for asset managers?
The mechanisms of the entry and exit queues are part of the Ethereum protocol, and on their own, should not be cause for asset manager or token holder concern. These queues also ensure predictable validator turnover, giving the protocol time to adjust while maintaining decentralization and resilience.
In short, the entry and exit queues act as safety valves for Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake system. By limiting how many validators can join or leave per epoch, they prevent sudden surges in participation or mass exits that could destabilize the network, compromise security, or disrupt consensus.
Tokenholders should ensure they are tracking these exit queues to be aware of the time it will take for their ETH to be “unlocked” if they are looking to sell. The length of the exit queue will impact their time to liquidity and how long before they can sell their ETH, if that is their reason for undelegation. Ultimately, the length of the exit queue impacts liquidity.
In parallel, asset managers or token holders should be watching the impacts on the ETH validator entry queue. The faster ETH is staked, the faster stakers begin earning. This is likely to grow as corporate treasuries, ETFs and much of the 2.6 million ETH currently exiting looks to restake and get into the queue first to get staked and earn rewards. We may even see some acceleration of staking to get ahead of what is expected to be a growing queue.
How is the industry responding to the ballooning exit queue?
Figment remains true to our “safety over liveness” approach: helping our clients maximize rewards and ensuring that institutions transitioning between staking providers do not trade one security issue for another.
- Risky new solutions are emerging that promise to “jump the queue” or offer “pre-activated validators,” but they carry significant security vulnerabilities.
- These models require the provider — not the client — to control the validator withdrawal address at the outset, giving them ongoing access and control even if they “transfer” it.
- That breaks the core principle of self-custody in non-custodial staking.
- These models can also trigger unique tax and compliance considerations.
Market Cap
Staking Reward Rate*
Price
Auto-Compounding
Reward Frequency
Activation
Withdrawal
Slashing Penalties Enabled
Why Stake Ethereum With Figment?

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The Ethereum mainnet went live on July 30, 2015
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Largest PoS Blockchain by Market Cap
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Staking withdrawal functionality was enabled in Q2 2023 with the successful Shapella upgrade
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Longest running smart contract platform
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Largest pool of staked assets among all networks $34B
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Ethereum Staking FAQ
Figment’s average SRR Rate throughout Q2 was 3.15%. Read more about our Q2 ETH Performance.
There are two different types of ETH rewards.
Consensus layer (CL) rewards consist of new issuance from attestations, block proposals, and sync committee participation. Including evidence of slashable events in a block is also a source of CL rewards. Even though on a per block basis the rewards for proposing are much higher, over the long term, the vast majority of CL rewards come from attestations.
Execution layer (EL) rewards are received by validators only when they are proposing blocks, which is a random and infrequent event. EL rewards include MEV rewards and tips (i.e., priority fees).
Unstaking on Ethereum requires permanently exiting your validator from the active set. The total amount of time it takes to unstake on Ethereum varies and is a function of the number of currently active validators and how many are requesting to exit. After requesting to exit, a validator first enters the exit queue (of which 8 validators are currently dequeued per epoch) and is still subject to rewards and penalties while in this queue.
Once the validator has left the exit queue, the validator no longer earns rewards and waits an additional 256 epochs (27.3 hours) until it becomes eligible for the withdrawal sweep. Ethereum processes 16 withdrawals per block in order of validator index. Currently, this process can take several days. Take a look at our unstaking time estimator to learn more about the process in depth here.
Figment provides rewards reporting via your Figment account. Generate daily rewards reports as CSV files on a flexible date. View total rewards earned over 30 days, 6 months and a year on the dashboard. For developers, query ETH rewards by validator or by withdrawal address. To find out more about Figment’s Rewards API, check out our developer docs here.
Post Shanghai & Capella upgrades, partial withdrawals allow stakers to access a portion of their CL rewards, i.e., any amount above 32 ETH, while continuing to stake. Execution layer rewards are deposited almost immediately as they are received by validators while Consensus layer rewards are made liquid periodically (currently every ~4 days per validator) by Ethereum. View the detailed composition of your rewards within your Figment account.
When staking ETH with Figment, it is currently not possible to choose multiple wallet addresses to receive your rewards. All rewards are sent automatically to your validator’s withdrawal address. Your withdrawal address cannot be changed.
Figment mitigates ETH staking risks such as slashing by applying our “safety over liveness” approach, which prioritizes security. We execute a four layer strategy to slashing risk mitigation in our Ethereum infrastructure. These four considerations are:
- Automated, deterministic key distribution across validator clients upon generation to ensure only one validator key is deployed to one validator client.
- Local anti-slashing database per validator client (VC) that records every block and attestation signed by validators. The VC uses this information to avoid attesting or proposing two different attestations or blocks for the same slot.
- The Remote Signer acts as a universal slashing database across all validator clients to detect multiple signatures for the same block height to prevent a double-signing event.
- Private keys stored separately from signing infrastructure in zero-trust secured vault.
To learn more, read What does Safety Over Liveness Really Mean?
A maximum of 250 validators (or 8000 ETH) can be staked in a single transaction with Figment by using our audited and battle-tested batch smart contract.
Transactions for depositing to validators incur gas and transaction fees, so it is recommended to keep some extra ETH liquid in the wallet from which you wish to stake from when depositing.
You keep all of the consensus layer rewards earned by your validator when staking through the Figment app and only pay a service fee when your validator is selected to propose a block and earns execution layer rewards. This fee is collected on-chain automatically through a smart contract. Currently, the service fee is 30% of execution layer rewards, but is subject to change – see this article for a diagram of this fee in relation to total ETH rewards earned.
Figment supports both the Lighthouse and Teku Ethereum clients. Multiple client implementations can make the network stronger by reducing its dependency on a single codebase. We support multiple clients to avoid client concentration and reduce the impact of a client-specific problem leading to potential penalties.
Figment supports multiple MEV relays including Flashbots and BloXroute Regulated. Multi-relay support helps maximize the rewards derived from MEV-Boost.
Currently, we are distributing our validators in Canada and Ireland. We plan to add more regions in the near future. Figment’s multi-region support allows ETH stakers to distribute their validators across different geographic regions.
There are several benefits for stakers to take advantage of this feature. These include reducing the impacts of unlikely events, such as unexpected outages. It also allows for the strategic positioning of validators to leverage regional regulatory frameworks. Additionally, it offers robust disaster recovery and business continuity for our clients, especially if servers in one region shut down abruptly and/or permanently.
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Figment supports 30+ established and emerging protocols. Learn how to stake with Figment.
The information herein is being provided to you for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to be, nor should it be relied upon as, legal, business, tax or investment advice. Figment undertakes no obligation to update the information herein.The exit and activation queues are built-in safeguards that rate-limit activity and protect network stability. They indicated the waiting period to stake or unstake ETH Validators. Stakers can earn rewards in the exit queue, but don’t in the entry queue. These metrics are network-wide, not Figment-specific.
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