Ethereum validator exit queue spikeed by **700,000 ETH → 43-day** wait time(All time high) on 11th September 2025. **But do not worry, its not a bug.** ![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/SJWICfgsgl.jpg) ## What is the Exit Queue? The Exit Queue is a mechanism which prevents mass validator exit. Without it, validators could rush to exit during an attack on Ethereum's consensus, weakening the network's economic security when it's most needed. Economic security of Ethereum is tied to how much ETH is staked and by extension the number of validators present at any given moment. ## What exactly caused the spike? [Kiln Finance](https://www.kiln.fi/) initiated an orderly mass exit of its Ethereum validators as a precaution following a separate infrastructure/security incident. Because Ethereum enforces a protocol-level churn limit, the Kiln exit requests could only be processed slowly — the mechanical cap stretched the exit queue and increased wait times for everyone. This raised concerns about potential sell pressure and liquidity friction for staking products. Official Kiln messaging and multiple news outlets reported the exits. ![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/S1iSTMxsgx.png) ## Brief Timeline **Sep 9–10, 2025:** Kiln posts an [announcement](https://www.kiln.fi/post/kiln-responds-to-infrastructure-issue-with-validator-exit-funds-remain-protected) following a Solana/SwissBorg-related incident they began “orderly exit of all” Ethereum validators as a precaution; the process will take multiple days per validator. **Sep 10–11, 2025 (today)**: News outlets (CoinDesk, KuCoin/others) report Kiln’s exits and show exit-queue metrics spiking to *millions of ETH* waiting to leave. Exit Queue wait time has spiked to an All Time High of 43 days. ## Why the exit queue time rose so quickly? Ethereum limits how many validators can be exited in any single epoch (`churn limit`). The churn limit scales with the validator set size and effectively caps exits per epoch, so when many exits are requested in a short time the requests are put in a FIFO queue and cleared slowly at the churn rate. That mechanical cap designed to protect finality and network stability is why a single large operator’s mass exit translates into days or weeks of waiting for everyone. [More discussions](https://ethereum-magicians.org/t/dynamic-exit-churn-limit-using-historical-unused-capacity/23280) around Exit Queue.