MetaMask Exits 17,000 Validators Amid Block Reward Redirection Breach

A recent security incident has prompted MetaMask to exit 17,000 Ethereum validators, pulling over $1.4 billion in staked assets from active duty.

The breach was discovered when it was found that block rewards from several validators were being quietly redirected to a wallet funded through the crypto mixer Tornado Cash.

Liquid staking platform Lido Finance warned that the move would likely incur foregone rewards as well as possible downtime penalties for validators that end up offline during the transition.

The incident has pushed Ethereum's exit queue from around 200,000 ETH to over 700,000 ETH in a day, stretching withdrawal wait times from roughly three and a half days to almost two weeks.