The Ethereum staking market is experiencing an unusual congestion. Data shows that over 1.66 million ETH are queued to be staked, worth approximately $5.2 billion. Meanwhile, the wait time for new validators to activate has been extended to nearly 29 days, while on the other side, the withdrawal queue is almost empty—only 32 ETH are waiting to be withdrawn. What does this data indicate? First, ETH is being locked up for the long term. The full queues for staking and the near-zero withdrawal queues directly reflect a shift in market participants' expectations. When a large amount of funds are rushing to lock in yields while almost no one is choosing to withdraw, the circulating supply is rapidly decreasing, and potential selling pressure is evaporating. Historically, such supply structures usually appear only before and after strong trend initiations. Second, the attitude of institutions is crucial. The world's largest ETH asset management company, BitMine, currently holds 4.1 million ETH, accounting for 3.4% of the total supply. Since December 26, 2025, the firm has continuously deposited ETH into staking, accumulating over 827,000 ETH, with no signs of stopping. This is not short-term arbitrage but a clear long-term bullish signal. What happens when staking scales continue to grow? Circulating supply decreases, selling pressure diminishes, network security improves, and market confidence gradually returns. These factors often brew on-chain before prices truly react. The market usually does not wait until everyone understands before starting to fluctuate. As Ethereum is a mainstream public chain, its ecosystem assets tend to adjust accordingly. In this time window, investors paying attention to on-chain data are already making their stance clear through actions.

Wu Shuo learned that, according to @EmberCN monitoring, BitMine has staked over 1 million ETH on Ethereum PoS, reaching 1.032 million ETH, valued at approximately $3.215 billion. This accounts for a quarter of its total ETH holdings (4.143 million). Due to its staking activities, the ETH currently queued for staking has accumulated to 1.778 million, while the exit queue has been cleared.