While institutions are entering the market in force, early players are cashing out their profits. A staking tug-of-war worth $50 billion is playing out on the Ethereum network.
An epic "tug-of-war" is underway on the Ethereum PoS network. Latest data shows that as of August 19th, the number of ETH in the exit queue of the Ethereum PoS network surged to 910,461, worth approximately $3.91 billion, setting a new all-time high record in coin terms. These ETH awaiting exit require a queue of about 15 days and 18 hours to complete the unstaking operation.
Meanwhile, the number of ETH queued to join the Ethereum network is about 268,217, worth $1.14 billion, with an activation delay of approximately 4 days and 15 hours. The difference between inflows and outflows creates a massive gap of nearly 650,000 ETH, indicating intense battle between bullish and bearish forces within the Ethereum staking pool. This seemingly contradictory capital game reveals a deep divergence in the market's view on Ethereum's future.
The Exit Wave: Who is Leaving and Why?
The surge in Ethereum's price has been a key factor triggering profit-taking. Rising from its low of $1,386 in April 2025 to a high of $4,788, the price of ETH has skyrocketed over 350%, approaching its all-time high of nearly $4,868.
Faced with such gains, early stakers are choosing to unstake and lock in profits. On August 17th, a whale user transferred 10,819 ETH (approx. $47.79 million) to the Kraken exchange in a single transaction, which included 564 ETH in staking rewards, representing an overall unrealized profit of over $20.68 million.
Furthermore, the decoupling of Liquid Staking Token (LST) prices from ETH has exacerbated the situation. In July, the discount rate of stETH to ETH once reached 0.4%, creating an arbitrage opportunity.
Some traders opted to buy staked tokens at a lower price on the secondary market, then unstake and redeem them for full ETH to profit from the price difference. A single liquidity strategy point on the EtherFi platform accumulated exit requests for about 20,000 ETH.
The three major platforms, Lido, EtherFi, and Coinbase, led the unstaking wave with 285,000, 134,000, and 113,000 ETH respectively.
The Influx Wave: Why Are Institutions Increasing Their Holdings Against the Trend?
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Regulatory Easing Ignites Institutional Enthusiasm
On May 29, 2025, the U.S. SEC explicitly stated that "ETH staking does not violate securities laws," completely removing barriers for institutional participation. Since then, institutional staking delegations have surged over 100%, and validator queue times have increased by 360%. Asset management giants like BlackRock have further applied to the SEC to add staking functionality to their spot ETH ETFs, expecting annualized returns of 3%-5%.
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The Rise of the "ETH Treasury" Strategy Among Public Companies
• BitMine Immersion: Cumulative holdings exceed 1.5 million ETH, with a current market value of approximately $6.53 billion, making it the world's largest corporate-level Ethereum holder. It is actively accumulating and staking ETH, aiming to enhance shareholder value through staking rewards;
• SharpLink Gaming: Since pivoting to an ETH asset strategy in May, it has accumulated 728,800 ETH, with a current market value of about $3.12 billion, becoming one of the top corporate holders of Ethereum;
• The Ether Machine: Cumulative holdings of 345,400 ETH, with a current market value of approximately $1.48 billion. It made a single purchase of 15,000 ETH on Ethereum's tenth anniversary, highlighting its strategic allocation commitment.
3. Continuous Capital Infusion from ETFs
U.S. spot ETH ETFs have continuously attracted capital since their launch:
• BlackRock iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), Holdings: 3.6 million ETH, Market Value: ~$15.66 billion (based on an ETH price ≈ $4,350), Market Position: World's largest Ethereum ETF, holding 60% of all Ethereum ETF assets. Its Assets Under Management (AUM) exceed $10 billion, setting a record for single-day net inflows of $1.79 billion.
• Grayscale Ethereum Trust, Holdings: 2 million ETH, Market Value: ~$8.7 billion, Latest: Net inflows exceeded $730 million in the past week, with cumulative inflows of $7.3 billion in 2025. Attracting institutional allocation recently due to expectations of staking functionality.
• Fidelity Ethereum Fund, Holdings: 793,600 ETH (holding about 15% market share), Market Performance: Achieved a record single-day net inflow peak of $210 million. Ranked second in net inflows in the third week of July 2025, helping push total Ethereum ETF AUM past $20 billion.
Institutional capital has become the ultimate arbiter in this tug-of-war. Over the past two weeks, institutional investors have accumulated over 1.83 million ETH, completely offsetting the unstaking volume.
The coexistence of exits and entries is precisely a sign of the Ethereum ecosystem's maturation—a dynamic balance between early investors cashing out profits and institutional funds making long-term allocations. This capital turnover is essentially a market vote on Ethereum's status as "financial infrastructure": when Wall Street bets its settlement layer value with real money, short-term volatility will eventually give way to a new growth narrative.
