On July 23, the Ethereum validator exit queue hit the longest waiting period in more than a year on Tuesday, which may indicate that pledgers are eager to withdraw funds after the sharp rise in ETH prices. As of Tuesday afternoon U.S. time, about 519,000 ETH (worth $1.92 billion at current prices) were queuing to exit the network, according to data from validator queue tracking website validatorqueue. This is the largest exit queue size since January 2024, causing withdrawal delays to extend to more than nine days. Andy Cronk, co-founder of pledge service provider Figment, said: "When prices rise, people unpledge and sell to lock in profits. We have observed that retail investors and institutions follow this pattern in multiple cycles." He added that large-scale de-pledges may also be triggered when large institutions change custodians or wallet technology. Despite the wave of de-pledge, the market may not be subject to huge selling pressure-because the demand for pledges activated by new verifiers is equally strong. There are currently 357,000 ETH (worth US$1.3 billion) waiting to enter the network, and the admission queue has been queued for more than 6 days, the longest record since April 2024. Some of the new demand may come from ETH Treasury Fund. The US SEC's declaration that pledges are not illegal has further boosted institutional interest. Data shows that the number of active validators has increased by 54,000 since late May, reaching a record high of nearly 1.1 million.