Ethereum (ETH) is just 2% off its 2021 record high. However, sales pressure has already been in place, with prices below $4,700. Additionally, sales pressure could be increased as massive amounts of ETH are waiting to be sorted out in the second half of August.
Industry experts have mixed opinions on how this upcoming ETH wave will affect the market.
ETH Unstake Queue will be the first hit in four years
Staking to Ethereum is essential to its Proof (POS) consensus mechanism, introduced in 2022 after the merge. To become a validator, users must bet at least 32 ETH to secure their network and earn rewards.
However, the staking process is not always easy. After requesting an exit, the baritter will have to wait in the queue. Processing time depends on the number of pending requests.
As of August 15, 767,536 ETH (over $3.5 billion) was the highest level since May 2021 and was in an unmeasured queue, according to data from ValidatorQueue.
However, the market may not have to wait until all ETH in the queue is organized and it feels effective. The size of the number already affects investors’ sentiment.
Samson Mow, CEO of Jan3, believes negative emotions can drive stronger sales pressure. He warns that ETH could face deeper corrections, and that ETH/BTC pairs could drop further below 0.03 BTC.
“And there’s the pullback. Ethereum still has to go down more. There’s around $300 million in ETH, which is not measured now. This is a boring process that requires you to queue first and then withdraw.
His concerns are consistent with general market logic. Sudden surges in supply usually hurt prices.
Furthermore, BalidatorQueue’s data shows that ETH waiting for bets is also rising, but now it’s around 324,000 ETH, less than half that.
Historical data confirms this concern. On July 26th, over 743,000 ETHs were sitting in the facility queue. Between July 28th and August 15th, ETH prices fell above $3,900 and above $3,365. This was about a 14% decrease.
The correlation between UNSTAKE queue size and ETH price is clearly visible.
Is the market trying to absorb more than 767,000 ETH?
Kyle Doops, a well-known X analyst, points out that staking doesn’t mean automatically selling.
In his post, he explains that some withdrawn ETH can be held, moved to distributed financial (DEFI) protocols for high yields, or reinvested elsewhere.
“It doesn’t mean selling automatically. You can rest some of it and move or hold onto defi. We close every day. The line is getting longer,” Doops explained.
ETH has countless market use cases. Large investors, or “whales,” often employ a variety of Defi strategies to optimize their portfolio rather than simply retaining tokens. This perspective helps ease concerns, particularly as Ethereum benefits from a potentially improved regulatory environment.
Defimoon is an account focused on X’s Defi and believes that ETF inflows can offset unstable pressure. Based on his calculations, the daily influx from ETH ETFs could absorb most of the withdrawn ETH and perhaps push the higher prices.
“If ETFs were influx, they should invalidate most of these spills, but they should be part of the analysis!” Defimoon said.
Meanwhile, SOSOValue data shows that US ETF influx ranges from $400 million to over $1 billion each day, exceeding Defimoon’s estimates over the last week.
There are different opinions regarding the unstable queues of large ETH. While caution is needed regarding price drops and increased risk of divestment, others have highlighted the market’s ability to absorb these changes through the influx of Defi and ETFs.
The delay lasts for more than nine days. By the third week of August, investors may get a clear answer about the impact of this unprecedented event.
The posts experts say first appeared on Beincrypto, waiting for more than $3.5 billion in ETH in August.
