A noteworthy phenomenon has emerged in the Ethereum staking market. A leading mining company recently increased its holdings by 82,000 ETH (approximately $260 million), continuing to join the staking sequence. According to on-chain data, the total Ethereum staked by this company has reached 544,000 ETH, with a market value of about $1.62 billion.

Even more attention-grabbing is that the number of ETH seeking to enter the validator queue has risen to 977,000, hitting a new all-time high. This means new validators will need to wait approximately 17 days to complete onboarding. Meanwhile, the amount of ETH wanting to exit is only 113,000 — the inflow is nearly nine times the outflow, marking a clear reversal for the first time in the past six months.

Historically, after similar signals appeared, Ethereum’s price doubled shortly thereafter. The chairman of this mining company even proposed a target of $9,000 ETH by early next year, and the company is also preparing to issue additional shares to support potential growth.

What does this mean for the market? First, nearly one million ETH has been "frozen" into the staking sequence from the circulating supply, significantly reducing the actual circulating volume. The amount of capital needed to push prices up has decreased accordingly. Second, institutions are earning about 3% annualized yield through staking, reflecting their optimistic outlook on the market’s long-term prospects.

For retail investors, strategies need adjustment. Instead of chasing short-term volatility, consider gradually building a position in Ethereum and participating in staking. If direct staking has barriers, you can also turn to certain liquid staking platforms, which allow you to maintain asset liquidity while earning yields. The key is to shift from short-term thinking to medium-term holding, as ongoing institutional lock-ups have caused a structural change in the market’s supply dynamics.