Bitwise Analyst: Growing ETH Staked in Withdrawal Queue Could Lead to Significant Market Selling Pressure

BlockBeats News, August 17th, the validator exit queue on the Ethereum blockchain reached 855,158 ETH on Friday, hitting a record high. Juan Leon, Bitwise's Senior Investment Strategist, said that the increasing amount of ETH about to be undelegated may be the reason behind the recent pullback of this asset. The queue of undelegated Ethereum typically has a negative impact on the ETH price and may also bring significant selling pressure to the market.

Because staking tokens such as stETH can be traded at a discount, and this discount can lower the collateral value, triggering risk reduction, hedging, or even liquidation. Ultimately, this leads to ETH spot selling. Leveraged "stETH loop" trades conducted through DeFi protocol liquidity pools will no longer be profitable. Traders will offset their loans by closing positions and selling ETH, creating simultaneous selling pressure.