2 million ETH squeezed into the staking withdrawal queue, what exactly happened?

Chainfeeds Guide:

Don't panic, there are no whales fleeing.

Source:

Author:

Odaily

Opinion:

Odaily: Such a large-scale, sudden mass unstaking of ETH is indeed rare. Is there a super whale planning to exit? If that were the case, a sell-off of millions of ETH would inevitably cause a whale shock to ETH and even the entire crypto market... However, after comprehensively reviewing the related market dynamics, we found that this incident actually has its traces, and ETH holders need not be overly alarmed. The event originated from a security incident. On the evening of September 8, Swiss-based crypto platform SwissBorg was hacked for 192,600 SOL (worth about $41.3 million). Afterwards, SwissBorg disclosed that the theft was due to the API of a staking partner being compromised, allowing hackers unauthorized access to the staking wallet and transferring the related assets. The partner that was hacked was later identified as staking service provider Kiln, which subsequently issued a statement: "SwissBorg and Kiln are investigating an incident that may involve unauthorized access to a staking operations wallet. We became aware of this earlier on September 8, 2025. The incident resulted in abnormal transfers of SOL tokens from the wallet used for staking operations. Upon discovery, SwissBorg and Kiln immediately initiated an incident response plan, contained the activity, and contacted our security partners. SwissBorg has suspended Solana staking transactions on the platform to ensure other users are not affected." So, what does this have to do with the mass ETH unstaking? The key reason is that Kiln is not a staking service provider focused solely on the Solana ecosystem; its staking services cover most PoS networks, including Ethereum. This morning, Kiln officially announced again that, for security reasons, it will orderly withdraw all its ETH staking. The main content of its announcement is as follows: After issuing a statement regarding the Solana incident involving SwissBorg, Kiln is taking additional precautionary measures to ensure the safety of all network client assets. As part of the response plan, Kiln has begun an orderly exit of all its Ethereum (ETH) validator nodes today. This exit procedure is a preventive measure aimed at ensuring the ongoing integrity of staked assets. This decision prioritizes the interests of clients and the broader industry and is based on collaboration with key stakeholders and recommendations from leading security firms. Client assets have always remained safe. The exit process is expected to take 10 to 42 days (the specific duration varies by validator node), after which the network will complete fund withdrawals within 9 days as planned. Validator nodes can still earn rewards during the exit period. The delay is enforced at the protocol level based on the number of exiting validator nodes, and Kiln cannot change this at will.