Ethereum traded near $2,702-$2,722.60 in early October as traders weighed mixed technical, derivatives and exchange-flow signals alongside a sharp increase in staking withdrawal requests. The queue reached about 851,000 ETH on Oct. 2, or roughly 2% of the 43.6 million ETH staked, after MetaMask began withdrawing affected validators as a precaution following its Sept. 30 security incident. It later declined to about 786,000 ETH, while Lido expects the affected ether to return to staking gradually, with the full process potentially taking about 45 days.