Ethereum staking: ether staked and queues
How much ether is locked in staking, and how much is waiting to join or leave.
Ethereum staking today
Calculated by SBZ each day from Ethereum’s own validator data.
Total ether in circulation, daily. New ether is created as staking rewards, and part of every transaction fee is burned. In 2022 and 2023 heavy network use often burned more than was issued, so supply shrank; with today’s low fees, burning offsets only a small part of new issuance and supply grows slowly. Issuance estimated by SBZ from the ether staked and Ethereum’s reward rules.
Staked ether is locked by validators to secure the network and earn rewards; it cannot be sold instantly, which reduces the supply available to trade. Calculated by SBZ each day from Ethereum’s own validator data: the ether held by every active validator.
Ether waiting to start staking (new deposits) and ether in validators that have asked to leave, with the waiting time. Ethereum only lets a limited amount in and out each day, so a long exit queue is ether that may be sold once it is released; a long entry queue is new demand to stake. Calculated by SBZ each day from Ethereum’s own validator data; the entry wait is an estimate.
Ethereum pays stakers from new issuance, and the reward per validator falls as more ether is staked. The curve follows Ethereum’s reward rules (about 166 ÷ √ether staked, in %). The violet dot is today; the light dot is the yield once the entry queue has been staked. This is the maximum base reward, calculated by SBZ: validators earn slightly less in practice, plus transaction tips.
What is Ethereum staking?
Ethereum is secured by validators who lock up (stake) ether, usually 32 ETH each, in return for rewards. Staked ether cannot be sold instantly: it has to leave through an exit queue first. So the more ether is staked, the less is available to trade. We count it every day from Ethereum’s own validator data, adding up the effective balance of every active validator.
The staking queues
Ethereum limits how fast ether can enter and leave staking, so requests wait in two queues. The entry queue is new ether waiting to start staking: a long entry queue means strong demand to stake. The exit queue is ether in validators that have asked to leave: a long exit queue can mean ether about to be sold once it is released. The waiting times show how long a new request would take to clear. The entry wait is an estimate based on Ethereum’s current limit of 256 ETH per epoch, about 57,600 ETH a day.
Limits
Leaving staking does not mean selling: ether may be moved to another staking provider or simply held. Large single requests, for example from an exchange or a staking service, can make the queues jump from one day to the next.
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Frequently asked questions
How much ether is staked?
The live total and its share of all ether are shown at the top of this page, calculated each day from Ethereum’s validator data.
How long does it take to unstake ether?
It depends on the exit queue: from under a day when it is short to several weeks when many validators leave at once. The current wait is shown above.
What does a long exit queue mean?
Many validators have asked to leave. Some of that ether may be sold once it is released, though much is restaked or held.
How much does it take to become a validator?
Usually 32 ETH per validator. Staking services and liquid staking tokens let holders stake smaller amounts.
For information only, not investment advice. Figures are updated automatically and can differ slightly between data providers.