Welcome to the Era of ETH Staking

ETH is the internet bond and its rate of return can be considered the “risk-free rate” (or risk-minimized). This is currently ~5% APR, but we could very well see higher yields in the future.

As far as the Ethereum roadmap goes, the Merge will take place in approximately 6 months. From there, it’ll be another half year before people can withdraw staked ETH from the Beacon Chain.

The good news? There are plenty of opportunities to start putting your ETH to work today via different avenues. Better yet, we’ve also seen a range of ETH staking services via staking pools and staked ETH derivatives hit mainnet, e.g. stETH, rETH, and sETH2.

These staking platforms let users easily earn the Ethereum risk-free rate while maintaining liquidity in the here and now through their staked ETH derivative tokens.

We’ll show you how to join the staking pool systems of Lido, Rocket Pool, and StakeWise along with the other options around today, categorized by difficulty!

Here’s how you can start putting your ETH to work.

1. Centralized Exchanges (Beginner)

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Requirements: ETH, an account on any supported exchange

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Tradeoff: Easy to start, but you give up your private keys (not bankless)

Centralized exchanges provide one of the easiest ways to start staking your ETH. Multiple exchanges currently support ETH staking, allowing you to lock up your ETH and earn passive rewards in a few clicks.

There are two tradeoffs that come this simplicity though: (1) using exchanges centralizes the staking network and requires trust in a third-party (2) exchanges can take a hefty cut on your potential rewards!

With that said, a lot of major exchanges support ETH2 staking now. The most prominent are the following:

  1. Coinbase: There are no minimums associated with Coinbase staking. Estimated yields are currently 4.5% APY.
  2. Kraken: No minimums with estimated yields around 5%. Take rate sits around 15% of rewards.
  3. Binance: Binance has no minimums for ETH2 staking, and importantly, takes no staking fees. Users also receive bETH for their deposit.

These exchanges all provide an intuitive UI for staking your ETH—just head to your ETH wallet on the respective exchange and it should be pretty straightforward to get started!