Ethereum Exit Queue Surge Exposes Fragility in Liquid Staking Markets

Ethereum’s validator exit queue has swelled dramatically since July 16.

In response to Galaxy Digital, this was pushed much less by speculative profit-taking and extra by structural stresses triggered by spiking ETH borrow charges and the unwinding of leveraged staking methods.

Ethereum’s Exit Queue Chaos

Starting mid-July, ETH borrow charges on Aave surged from a steady 2-3% to as excessive as 18% on July 16, 18, and 21 after a liquidity crunch sparked by massive ETH withdrawals from a pockets linked to HTX change. This sudden hike flipped the unfold between ether staking yields and borrow charges detrimental, which left widespread ETH looping methods unprofitable virtually in a single day.

Galaxy Digital explained that these looping methods contain depositing Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) or Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRTs) as collateral and borrowing ETH in opposition to them. Merchants then use the borrowed ETH to buy extra LSTs or LRTs and re-deposit them to amplify yield so long as staking APR exceeds borrow prices.

As soon as the unfold turned detrimental, members have been compelled to unwind, repaying loans and reclaiming ETH collateral. This, in flip, intensified promoting strain on LSTs/LRTs in secondary markets and pushed their reductions to ETH wider. In a bid to deleverage, many merchants both swapped LSTs/LRTs for ETH at a reduction or initiated unstaking to redeem them at par, which flooded Ethereum’s exit queue.

Ethereum’s exit queue is deliberately throttled to guard consensus stability. Solely 8-10 validators are allowed to exit per epoch. When exit demand spikes, wait occasions escalate quickly. By July 22, the queue ballooned from underneath 2,000 validators to over 475,000, which pushed wait occasions from underneath an hour to greater than eight days.

This week’s surge is analogous however exceeds earlier episodes, such because the Celsius-driven withdrawals in January 2024. Furthermore, the strain on LST and LRT markets led some members to buy these tokens at a reduction and redeem them for his or her full ETH worth, including to the exit queue congestion.

Though the sharp improve in unstaking requests would possibly counsel widespread exits and bearish sentiment, Galaxy Digital identified that new ETH staking demand has stayed sturdy. In actual fact, validator entry queues rose to their highest ranges since April 2024, virtually balancing out the withdrawal volumes.

Structural Fragility

The Ethereum staking structure, by design, absorbed the liquidity shock and operated exactly as supposed to protect community safety amid mass exits. Nevertheless, the episode highlighted the liquidity “fragility” of LST/LRT ecosystems underneath excessive market situations, significantly when reliant on leveraged methods.

This occasion additionally underscored the urgency of growing options that mitigate length and redemption dangers, corresponding to P2P exit markets and protocol-native liquidity vaults that may ease capital flows throughout exit spikes.