Ethereum Price Nears $4,600 Amid Validator Queue Debate
Ethereum (ETH) trades close to $4,600 on Thursday. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin defended the network’s validator queue design. This comes as the waiting time for unstaking ETH rose sharply.
Vitalik Buterin Explains Validator Queue Design
Vitalik Buterin responded to critics about Ethereum’s validator exit queue. He said the design is not perfect but helps keep the network trustworthy. This is especially important for less active users.
Buterin wrote on X, “Staking is about taking on a solemn duty to defend the chain. Friction in quitting is part of the deal. An army cannot hold together if any percent of it can suddenly leave at any time.”
He added that reducing the exit queue too much would make the chain less reliable for nodes that are not often online.
The validator exit queue wait time recently jumped to 43 days. The exit queue now holds 2.48 million ETH, about 7% of the total 35.6 million ETH staked. This data comes from Validator Queue.
The queue limits how much ETH can be staked or unstaked at once. This helps stabilize Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system.
Some critics say the long queue makes Ethereum slower than other Layer 1 blockchains. Others compare the queue to withdrawing risk capital from a bank, seeing it as a safety feature.
The large exit spike happened on September 9. It followed Ethereum infrastructure provider Kiln exiting its validators. Kiln acted after an NPM supply chain attack and an exploit on crypto exchange SwissBorg.
Benjamin Thalman, Senior Analyst at staking provider Figment, said the exit queue does not affect Ethereum’s normal function. In a blog post, he wrote, “Ethereum is operating exactly as intended — limiting how quickly validators can enter and exit the active validator set is an important security precaution.”
Thalman expects many coins in the exit queue to be restaked by new validators soon. This could increase the entry queue in the coming days.
Sygnum analysts said the rise in validator exits is mostly due to investors rebalancing their staked ETH. It is not mainly profit-taking.
Ethereum Price Outlook: Faces Resistance Near $4,600
Ethereum saw $59.8 million in futures liquidations over the past 24 hours. Short liquidations made up $37.4 million, according to Coinglass data.
ETH bounced off its 20-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) for the second day. It also rose above the $4,500 resistance level. This followed the Federal Reserve’s 25 basis points interest rate cut on Wednesday, which boosted risk appetite.
However, ETH faces selling pressure near $4,670. A daily close above this could push the price toward $4,835 resistance.
On the downside, support lies between $4,300 and $4,400. This zone is backed by the 20 and 50-day SMAs.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic Oscillator show bullish momentum above neutral levels.
