This year, Ethereum’s network officially transitioned to a Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm, leaving Proof-of-Work forever behind.
One of the multiple implications The Merge has had on the protocol is that there are no longer Ethereum miners. Validators secure the network now, and the path to becoming one is supposed to be tremendously simplified – deposit 32 ETH to the staking contract and run the appropriate software.
But it turns out that there’s quite a queue for validators lined up, and becoming one might take some time.
45 Days to Become an Ethereum Validator
You read that right – if you have ETH to spare and you want to invest in securing the network and earn rewards for this important task, you’d have to wait… a lot.
It appears that becoming a validator is something so sought after that the queue keeps on increasing.
Data from WenMerge shows that there are 92,536 validators currently waiting to enter the network. This will take approximately 45 days to clean up.
The competition is so high, and it appears that practically nobody wants to exit. The exit queue currently consists of only 4 validators.
Celsius Enters the Queue
The embattled cryptocurrency lender is part of the reason why the queue is stretched out.
Throughout the past couple of days, Celsius Network has moved some $600 million worth of ETH into the staking contract and this rate shows no signs of slowing down, according to Arkham Intelligence.
Celsius is making moves to stake all the ETH they currently hold, representing movements totalling almost $1B in on-chain flows.
Over the past 24 hours, they have staked over $600M of ETH, with their rate of deposits showing no sign of slowing.
pic.twitter.com/8bW3xB15UH
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) June 2, 2023
At current prices, the above is made up of around 316K ETH added to the validator enter queue.
Recall that back in April, CryptoPotato reported that leading US-based cryptocurrency exchanges – Coinbase and Gemini – joined the bid for the lender’s assets.
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