Over 2 million ETH queued to exit stake, what exactly happened?

The large-scale de-staking of Ethereum originates from the security precautions of the service provider Kiln, which is withdrawing its validating nodes. This move is not a dumping; most ETH is expected to be re-staked, and there is no need for panic in the market. (Recap: The Ethereum staking market reversal! 830,000 ETH are queuing to stake, surpassing the amount being de-staked; is ETH going to pump?) (Background: The Ethereum staking market continues to expand! 1,070,000 ETH are queuing for de-staking, while 730,000 ETH are waiting to enter, but there is one point worth noting.) The data from the Ethereum staking tracking website Validator Queue shows that as of 16:00 Taipei time on September 10, the amount of ETH queued to be unstaked on the Ethereum network surged to 2,040,329, nearly doubling from the historical peak of 1,058,531 ETH de-staked on August 29, with withdrawal times significantly delayed to about 35 days and 10 hours; at the same time, the current amount of ETH queued to enter staking is reported to be 808,206, with an estimated queue waiting time of about 14 days and 1 hour. Such a sudden and large-scale concentration of ETH de-staking is indeed rare. Is there a super Whale retreating? If so, a million-level selling pressure will inevitably impact ETH and the entire Crypto Assets market… However, upon comprehensively understanding the related market dynamics, we find that this event has its roots, and ETH holders do not need to panic too much. The incident originated from a security event that occurred yesterday. On the evening of September 8, the Switzerland-based cryptocurrency platform SwissBorg was hacked for 192,600 SOL, valued at approximately $41.3 million. Afterwards, SwissBorg disclosed that the hack was due to a breach of a staking partner's API, allowing hackers unauthorized access to the staking wallet and transferring related assets. This hacked partner was later identified as the staking service provider Kiln, which subsequently issued a statement saying: “SwissBorg and Kiln are investigating an incident that may involve unauthorized access to staking operation wallets. We learned about this matter earlier on September 8, 2025. The incident led to abnormal transfers of SOL tokens in the wallet used for staking operations. Upon discovering the situation, SwissBorg and Kiln immediately activated incident response plans to contain the related activities and contacted our security partners. SwissBorg has suspended Solana staking transactions on the platform to ensure other users are not affected.” So how is this related to the concentration of ETH de-staking? The key reason is that Kiln is not a staking service provider focused solely on the Solana ecosystem; its staking services cover most PoS networks, including Ethereum. This morning, Kiln officially announced again that “for security reasons, it will orderly withdraw all its ETH staking,” with the main content of the announcement as follows: Following yesterday's announcement regarding the SwissBorg Solana incident, Kiln is taking additional precautions to ensure the safety of all network client assets. As part of the response plan, Kiln began orderly withdrawing all its Ethereum validating nodes today. This withdrawal procedure is a preventive measure aimed at ensuring the continued integrity of the staked assets. This decision prioritizes the interests of clients and the broader industry and is based on collaboration with key stakeholders and recommendations from leading security firms. Client assets remain secure at all times. The withdrawal process is expected to take 10 to 42 days, with specific durations varying by validating node; thereafter, the network will complete fund withdrawals within 9 days as planned. Validating nodes can still earn rewards during the withdrawal period. The delay is enforced by the protocol layer based on the number of validating nodes withdrawing, and Kiln cannot arbitrarily change it. Withdrawals are automatically handled by the Ethereum protocol and will be returned directly to your Wallet or the smart contracts used in the staking process, after which they can be withdrawn. According to disclosures from well-known Ethereum developer sassal.eth, Kiln has staked a total of approximately 1.6 million ETH, so the market may see a corresponding scale of ETH appear in the de-staking queue in a short time, but this does not mean that these ETH will be sold; Kiln may use new validating node keys to re-stake these ETH. In short, the surge in the amount of ETH queued for de-staking today is essentially Kiln conducting risk avoidance operations; most of these ETH belong to clients who have staked through Kiln's services, and although some clients may take this opportunity to sell, it is expected that most ETH will later be re-staked through Kiln or other staking solutions after risk mitigation, so the market does not need to panic excessively. Related reports: Web3 giant integration - LayerZero's $110 million acquisition of StarGate, veSTG stakers will share 50% of protocol revenue over the next six months. Ethereum fights to defend the $4000 mark! 920,000 ETH queued for de-staking sets a historical record. SharpLink Gaming increases position by 143,593 ETH, total holdings exceed 740,000, staking rewards rise to 1,388 ETH. (Over 2 million ETH are queuing to exit staking; what exactly is happening?) This article was first published in BlockTempo, the most influential blockchain news media.