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The amount of Ethereum held on crypto exchanges has been declining over the past six months. As the price of Ether remains steady, more holders are participating in staking. Analysts predict that this trend will continue as long as the price stays stable and more ETH gets staked.

Ethereum Exchange Supply Continues to Decline

According to data from Santiment, Ethereum (ETH) held on exchanges reached its peak in July, with 12.31 million tokens. Since then, the amount has steadily dropped, now standing at 8.15 million. Santiment analysts predict that this trend will continue, with exchange supply shrinking further as more Ether is locked in staking.

🤑 Ethereum's amount of non-empty wallets on the network has now ballooned to over 175.5M, a record among among all cryptocurrencies. As staking continues to be of strong interest, especially while markets move sideways, exchange supply will continue to shrink as well. pic.twitter.com/sbDzmoRRS5

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) January 27, 2026

Ethereum has been trading between $2,801 and $3,034 in the past week, according to CoinGecko. Santiment’s analysts believe that as long as the price movement remains muted, more Ethereum will continue to be staked, contributing to a decrease in exchange supply.

“As staking continues to be of strong interest, especially while markets move sideways, exchange supply will continue to shrink as well,” they said.

Blockchain explorer Ethereum Validator Queue shows that the staking entry queue is near capacity, with 3.6 million tokens lined up. The estimated wait time to enter staking has risen to 63 days, compared to 18 hours for exiting staking. This is due to a limit on how many validators can enter and exit staking per epoch, ensuring network stability.

Staking Leads to More Ether Withdrawals

As of now, over 36 million Ethereum has been staked, representing around 29% of the total supply. This is up from 35 million in June, according to beaconcha.in and Dune Analytics. The growth in staking activity suggests strong confidence in Ethereum, as it requires tokens to be locked up for network security.

Ethereum operates as a proof-of-stake network, where validators lock up tokens to secure the network. When validators stake their Ether, they demonstrate confidence in the asset, as they are required to commit their holdings long-term. In contrast, unstaking is seen as a signal that validators may want to sell their Ether.

One example of a large-scale staking commitment is BitMine, which now has over 2.5 million Ether staked. According to Lookonchain, BitMine recently staked an additional 250,912 ETH, bringing its total staking to around 61% of its holdings. BitMine began staking in December 2025, with a transfer of 74,880 ETH.

Some stakers appear to be buying up more Ether, as evidenced by recent withdrawals from exchanges. Lookonchain reported that four staking wallets withdrew over 26,000 tokens from Binance. This suggests that these wallets may be accumulating more Ether in preparation for staking, further decreasing the amount of Ether available on exchanges.

The trading volume for Ethereum on CoinMarketCap was approximately $23.54 billion on Thursday, down from more than $27 billion the day before. This decline in trading volume comes alongside the increasing trend of staking and the shrinking exchange supply of Ether.

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