4.6 billion USD in ETH waiting to be unlocked! Staking withdrawals have been queued for over 17 days. Why is Ethereum consistently outperforming Bitcoin?

Currently, there is $4.6 billion worth of ETH queued for staking unlock, with a waiting time exceeding 17 days, setting a historical record. Liquidity staking protocols have become the market makers for exits, with Lido, Ether. fi, and P2P. org ranking in the top three. Despite large-scale profit-taking and the unwinding of leveraged positions, the Ethereum staking ecosystem remains healthy, with new stakes continuing to flow in. Meanwhile, ETH has risen over 68% in the past three months, significantly outpacing BTC, and analysts believe its strong performance may not yet be over.

[ETH large-scale unlock sets a record, liquidity staking protocol becomes the market maker for exits]

ValidatorQueue data shows that currently 1,009,800 ETH (approximately 4.6 billion USD) are waiting to be unstaked from the Ethereum network. The massive withdrawal demand has extended the ETH exit waiting time to 17 days and 13 hours, setting a new historical record. Meanwhile, Dune Analytics statistics indicate that liquidity staking protocols are the main source of this round of exits. In the past month, Lido, Ether. fi, and P2P. org have respectively unstaked 251,104, 155,104, and 148,288 ETH.

[Stake Dynamics: There are both exits and new additions, keeping the ecosystem active]

Despite the exit wave, the Ethereum staking ecosystem still shows strong vitality. Currently, there are still 580,593 ETH waiting in the staking queue, needing to queue for more than 10 days before entering the network. Figment, Blockdaemon, Kiln, and Coinbase are the main staking service providers recently. Overall, there are 1.12 million validator nodes across the network, with a total staking amount exceeding 36 million ETH, accounting for 29% of the circulating supply, of which Lido accounts for 24%.

Unlocking the Three Major Motivations Behind: Profit Taking, Leverage Reduction, and Potential Arbitrage

Analysts point out that the large-scale release of ETH staking in this round mainly stems from three factors. First, the price of ETH has continued to rise since April, reaching a historical high of $4953.73 on August 24. Although it has recently fallen back to around $4500, it remains at a high level, prompting investors to take profits.

Secondly, DeFi researcher Ignas pointed out that the unwinding of leveraged staking positions is another key factor. Many investors previously staked ETH through Lido to obtain stETH, and then borrowed more ETH on Aave for repeated staking to amplify their returns. However, as borrowing rates rise, some investors choose to exit and wait for the market to stabilize.

In addition, there are slight signs of decoupling between stETH and ETH, which also provides arbitrage traders with the opportunity to unlock ETH to capture potential gains.

[ETH performs strongly, may continue to lead BTC in the medium to long term]

Despite facing unlocking pressure, ETH has significantly outperformed Bitcoin in the market. Over the past three months, ETH has risen by 68.37%, while BTC's increase has only been 2.36%. The support behind this includes a record net inflow of funds into spot ETH ETFs for several consecutive weeks, as well as large-scale purchases by multiple holding companies, effectively absorbing the selling pressure brought by the unlocking.

Analyst CryptoMe pointed out that the increase in ETH open interest on CME indicates that new funds are entering, while retail investors have not yet entered in large numbers—this usually means that the market has not yet peaked. Therefore, there is still room for ETH to rise in the future, and it may continue to remain strong relative to BTC.

[Conclusion: Unlocking the trend does not necessarily imply a bearish outlook; a stable ecosystem supports an independent market for ETH]

The current large-scale ETH unlocking reflects normal profit-taking behavior in the market and the process of deleveraging, and does not represent a bearish consensus. On the contrary, healthy stake inflows, institutional capital allocation demand, and the yet to surge retail FOMO sentiment all suggest that ETH may still be in a mid-term rising channel. Investors should pay attention to the staking rates, leverage clearing progress, and ETF fund flows to assess future price trends.