Ethereum
|4 min ReadVitalik Buterin rebuts staking queue fears as debate escalates
Maya Chen
Senior Analyst
Published
Jan 16, 2026
The flashpoint
Galaxy Digital’s head of DeFi, Michael Marcantonio, called the wait “troubling” on X. He compared Ethereum to Solana’s two day unstake. Then he deleted the posts. “Unclear how a network that takes 45 days to return assets can serve as a suitable candidate to power the next era of global capital markets,” he wrote.
Vitalik’s stance and the numbers
Vitalik Buterin pushed back. He said staking is a duty, not a hot potato. Unstaking is “more like a soldier deciding to quit the army,” he said on X. “Friction in quitting is part of the deal. An army cannot hold together if any percent of it can suddenly leave at any time.”
He also acknowledged the design tradeoff. The current exit queue is not perfect. Lowering the constants could make the chain “much less trustworthy” for nodes that do not go online frequently.
The base is strong. More than one million active validators secure the chain. About 35.6 million ETH is staked. That is almost 30 percent of supply.
Pushback and industry reaction
The backlash to the FUD was swift. Former Consensys product manager Jimmy Ragosa said the “relentless ETH FUD” only pushed entities to rethink business with Galaxy. He cited direct messages in his X posts.
Crypto lawyer Gabriel Shapiro said Galaxy made its DeFi head delete the Ethereum posts. He called the campaign “insanely gaslighty psyops” on X. Educator Anthony Sassano went further. “I’ll be recommending that people no longer do business with Galaxy,” he wrote on X. He said the executive “doesn’t understand the very basics of this industry.”
Solana proponent Mike Dudas backed Galaxy. He argued that builders with a “vested interest in Ethereum” must work with traditional bankers instead of Galaxy, which he said drove value on Solana. His comments are on X.
Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital has gone deep on Solana. It recently purchased $1.5 billion worth of SOL after forming a Solana treasury venture with Multicoin Capital and Jump Crypto. It also became the first Nasdaq-listed firm to tokenize its shares on Solana.
What matters right now
The exit queue has eased from the peak but remains high at about 2.5 million ETH. A large chunk comes from Kiln Finance following an exploit. On the other side, demand is hot. The entry queue holds around 512,000 ETH. It hit a two year high recently amid institutional accumulation.
This is the blueprint. Strong security. Clear tradeoffs. Heavy inflows even with noise. If you focus on the queue alone, you miss the bigger picture. Networks that defend value can carry markets. That is how the next leg happens. Act before the crowd asks permission.
Disclaimer: This document is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed in this document are not, and should not be taken as, investment advice or recommendations. Recipients should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives and risk tolerance, which are not considered here, before investing. This document is not an offer, or the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned.