Staking

Staking is how proof-of-stake networks secure themselves: holders lock tokens to back validators and earn issuance for doing so honestly, and lose stake for failing to. On Ethereum it replaced mining in 2022. The yield is not interest — it is newly issued supply plus transaction fees, which is why a headline rate tells you much less than the terms attached to it.

What we track on this desk

• Validator queues. Entry and exit backlogs, which determine how quickly capital can actually move.
• Yields. Issuance rates and the fee component, reported against the token rather than in dollars alone.
• Liquid staking. Tokens representing staked positions, their peg behaviour, and how heavily they are rehypothecated across DeFi.
• Concentration. How much stake sits with the largest providers — the central question for whether a network is meaningfully decentralised.
• Regulatory treatment. Whether staking-as-a-service is a security offering in a given jurisdiction, tracked with the Regulation desk.

How to read a staking story here

Advertised yields are frequently gross figures that ignore the provider’s cut, the lock-up, and the fact that issuance dilutes every holder who is not staking. A 5% return in a token whose supply grew 5% is not a return. Our coverage states what a yield is denominated in and what it is net of.

Exit-queue stories are the other recurring distortion — a long queue is reported as trapped capital, when it is usually a designed rate limit working exactly as intended. Where analysts differ on whether a queue signals stress or normal churn, the story carries a Disputed label.

Where to go next

See the Verification Center for how publishers are counted, or the Ethereum hub for the largest staked network.