Gate released its December Launchpool, HODLer Airdrop, and CandyDrop data, showing a total pledged value exceeding $4.6 billion.

The post ETH Exit Queue Gridlocks As Validators Pile Up appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk’s weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk. In this issue: Ethereum Faces Validator Bottleneck With 2.5M ETH Awaiting Exit Is Ethereum’s DeFi Future on L2s? Liquidity, Innovation Say Perhaps Yes Ethereum Foundation Starts New AI Team to Support Agentic Payments American Express Introduces Blockchain-Based ‘Travel Stamps’ Network News ETHEREUM VALIDATOR EXIT QUEUE FACES BOTTLENECK: Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system is facing its largest test yet. As of mid-September, roughly 2.5 million ETH — valued at roughly $11.25 billion — is waiting to leave the validator set, according to validator queue dashboards. The backlog pushed exit wait times to more than 46 days on Sept. 14, the longest in Ethereum’s short staking history, dashboards show. The last peak, in August, put the exit queue at 18 days. The initial spark came on Sept. 9, when Kiln, a large infrastructure provider, chose to exit all of its validators as a safety precaution. The move, triggered by recent security incidents including the NPM supply-chain attack and the SwissBorg breach, pushed around 1.6 million ETH into the queue at once. Though unrelated to Ethereum’s staking protocol itself, the hacks rattled confidence enough for Kiln to hit pause, highlighting how events in the broader crypto ecosystem can cascade into Ethereum’s validator dynamics. In a blog post from staking provider Figment, Senior Analyst Benjamin Thalman noted that the current exit queue build up isn’t only about security. After ETH has rallied more than 160% since April, some stakers are simply taking profits. Others, especially institutional players, are shifting their portfolios’ exposure. At the same time, the number of validators entering the Ethereum staking ecosystem has been steadily rising. Ethereum’s churn limit, which is a protocol safeguard that caps how many validators can…

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Tom Lee–Backed BitMine Makes $82 Million Ethereum Purchase, Signaling Growing Institutional Confidence BitMine, a crypto-focused firm associated with veteran ma