The unstaking period for Ethereum (ETH) has more than doubled to over 45 days in recent days, sparking widespread criticism across Crypto Twitter. The queue jumped from approximately 10 days to a peak of 46 days, with the waiting period currently standing at 43 days as of press time. This dramatic increase prompted complaints from stakers who found it difficult to access funds for immediate expenses such as electricity and rent.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, firmly defended the extended waiting period, characterizing it as a 'security feature' rather than a bug. He drew parallels to military service, stating that "an army cannot hold together if any percent of it can suddenly leave at any time." Buterin emphasized that staking represents "a solemn duty to defend the chain" and warned that reducing the waiting period would make the chain "much less trustworthy."
The controversy intensified when Michael Marcantonio, Galaxy Digital's head of DeFi, publicly criticized Ethereum's lengthy unstaking process, comparing it unfavorably to Solana's two-day unstaking period. Marcantonio questioned how a network requiring 45 days to return assets could effectively serve global capital markets, suggesting the extended waiting period posed problems for institutional adoption.
The crypto community quickly rallied against Marcantonio's criticism, with prominent figures including former Consensys product manager Jimmy Ragosa and Ethereum educator Anthony Sassano announcing they would recommend avoiding business with Galaxy Digital. The backlash was so severe that Marcantonio subsequently deleted his critical posts following the community response.
Validator queue data reveals that over 2.5 million ETH, worth approximately $11 billion, currently sits in the exit queue, though this has decreased slightly from recent highs. The queue grew from 600,000 ETH in mid-September to over 2.5 million ETH, representing nearly 4x unstaking growth in just two days. Ethereum maintains strong validator participation with over 1 million active validators and 35.6 million ETH staked, representing nearly 30% of the total token supply.