What is staking? Native, liquid and restaking explained

The short version

Proof-of-stake blockchains such as Ethereum, Solana and Cosmos are run by validators who lock up (“stake”) the network’s coin as a security deposit. In return they earn rewards from new coins and fees. If they cheat or fail at their job, they can lose part of that deposit.

As a coin holder you can join in and share those rewards. Rewards are paid in the same coin, so your dollar result depends mostly on that coin’s price.

Native staking

You delegate your coins to a validator (or run one yourself) using the network’s own system. On many networks your coins stay in your wallet the whole time. The validator usually keeps a commission, often a single-digit to low double-digit percentage of the rewards.

The catch is the unbonding period: when you unstake, you often wait before you can move your coins. It is 21 days on Cosmos Hub, for example. On Ethereum, running your own validator needs 32 ETH, and exits go through a queue whose length varies.

Liquid staking and receipt tokens

A liquid staking protocol stakes for you and gives you a receipt token (a “liquid staking token”, or LST) such as stETH, rETH or JitoSOL. The token represents your stake plus rewards, and you can sell it or use it in DeFi instead of waiting to unstake.

• Some receipt tokens rebase: your balance grows each day.
• Others grow in value: your balance stays the same but each token is worth more of the underlying coin over time.

The trade-off: you add smart-contract risk, and in a panic the token can trade for less than the coin it represents.

Restaking

Restaking reuses staked ETH (or an LST) to also secure other services, in return for extra rewards. Liquid restaking tokens (LRTs) wrap this up into a single token. It means more yield sources, but also more ways to be slashed, more contracts that could fail, and rewards that are partly paid in points or new tokens of uncertain value.

Slashing

Slashing is a penalty that destroys part of a validator’s stake for serious faults, such as signing two conflicting blocks. Some networks also penalize long downtime. If you delegate to a slashed validator, you can share the loss. Choosing well-run validators, or spreading across several, lowers the risk.

Staking on StableRate

The staking leaderboard lists native, liquid and restaking options for 20+ coins, labels exchange-issued tokens, and shows lockups where we know them. Native rates are network-wide estimates before your validator’s commission.