Want to become an Ethereum validator? You Have To Wait 45 Days And Here’s Why

This year, Ethereum’s network officially transitioned to a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm, leaving proof-of-work behind forever.

One of the many implications of the merge on the protocol is that there are no longer Ethereum miners. Validators now secure the network, and the path to becoming one is thought to be very simple – deposit 32 ETH into a staking contract and run the appropriate software.

But it turns out there’s quite a queue for validators, and it can take a while to become one.

45 days to become an Ethereum validator

You read that right – if you have spare ETH and want to invest in securing the network and earn rewards for this important work, you will have to wait… a lot.

It appears that becoming a validator is something after which the queue keeps growing.

data from wenmerge shows that there are currently 92,536 validators waiting to enter the network. It will take about 45 days to clear it.

The competition is so high, and it appears that practically no one wants to be left out. There are currently only 4 validators in the exit queue.

Celsius enters the queue

The embattled crypto lender is part of the reason why the queues have stretched.

According to Arkham Intelligence, over the past few days, Celsius Network has moved around $600 million worth of ETH into fiat contracts and the rate shows no signs of slowing down.

Celsius is currently taking steps to stake all the ETH they hold, which represents total movements of nearly $1B in on-chain inflows.

In the past 24 hours, he has staked over $600M of ETH, with his deposit rate showing no signs of slowing down. pic.twitter.com/8bW3xB15UH

— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) June 2, 2023

At current prices, the above is made up of roughly 316K ETH added to the validator queue.

Remember that back in April, crypto potato reported that major US-based cryptocurrency exchanges — Coinbase and Gemini — have joined the bid for the lender’s assets.