Intro
Cryptocurrency staking platforms allow you to earn money by investing in PoS cryptocurrencies. Staking is a simpler way of earning money than mining since it is a deposit and receives passive profit. Thanks to the transition of Ethereum to the PoS consensus mechanism, the question arose “Where to stake ETH?”. In this article, we will talk about ten platforms that allow safe and profitable staking.
10 Best Places to Stake ETH
- Lido
Lido Finance is an Ethereum staking service. It is intended for depositing coins into a staking contract and receiving “derivative” coins in return to maintain liquidity. The Lido service is used to lock Ethereum in a smart contract with subsequent receipt of stETH. Tokens can be invested in liquidity pools, used as collateral, or sold on an exchange. The platform transfers funds to large holders and distributes profits among the owners of stETH. The great advantage of Lido is the ability to stake any amount and cooperate with leading DeFi services, such as Curve, Aave, 1inch, and many others.
The reward for Ethereum staking on Lido is gradually decreasing and, at the time of writing the review, is 5.4%. For example, when delegating 5 ETH, you can receive 0.023 ETH ($26.89) monthly. The annual income will be 0.27 ETH ($322.65). The larger the investment, the higher the reward. - Binance
Binance is the largest exchange that allows you to earn on ETH staking. The service is available from December 2, 2020. Binance representatives have created a BETH coin confirming the transfer of Ethereum tokens for temporary storage. The amount of passive income is up to 11.20% APR. The profitability of staking varies dynamically and depends on the number of participants; the more stakers, the lower the profitability.
To get the validator status, you need to transfer 32 ETH. If there is no total amount, it is enough to deposit 0.001 ETH and receive part of the reward. The reward is paid in BETH tokens (1:1) to the user’s spot account. Since the withdrawal function in the Ethereum network is still not activated, users cannot withdraw the frozen ETH. In addition, Binance warns that only a limited amount of BETH can be exchanged for ETH daily.
Binance also provides an alternative option, DeFi staking, which allows you to get 0.92% APR with flexible lock and 2.7% APR when locking ETH for 120 days. - Rocket Pool
Rocket Pool is one of the first decentralized pools for Ethereum 2.0 staking. The project was launched in 2016. Its protocol allows you to start staking ETH with minimal input capital and equipment requirements. The minimum deposit is 0.01 ETH. The validator’s deposit in the pool is 16 ETH (instead of the standard 32 ETH). Rocket Pool is aimed at node owners and those who want to work through delegation. The operation of the pool is fully automated thanks to smart contracts. The liquid token Rocket Pool ETH (rETH) is used for calculations. Ethereum staking on Rocket Pool allows you to get up to 6.70% in case of a deposit of 16 ETH. Users who do not have such funds can stake from 0.01 ETH by delegating their tokens to the validators at 4.45% APR. The advantage is that in case of receiving a penalty by the node operator, the amount is deducted from his/her earnings; at the same time, the funds of the delegates remain inviolable. - Coinbase
Coinbase is an American cryptocurrency exchange whose shares are traded on NASDAQ. Coinbase, like many other exchanges, offers its clients cryptocurrency staking. In addition to ETH staking, ALGO, ADA, ATOM, SOL, and XTZ can be staked on Coinbase. Coinbase is a fairly popular crypto exchange with a high-security level. There are no minimum requirements to stake Ethereum; in other words, you can stake even the tiniest amounts and earn income.
Like other platforms, when adding ETH to the staking pool, you get representative cbETH tokens that can be used in third-party services. It should also be noted that staking on Coinbase is not available to all users but only to those in eligible jurisdictions. Coinbase also notes that for users from the United States, if their income from staking exceeds $600, a form for tax accounting is provided. The yield of ETH staking is about 6.85% APY. - Everstake
Everstake is the largest decentralized staking service provider in the blockchain industry, with more than 650,000 users. The company has created a solution that helps institutional crypto investors and private token holders to receive passive income from their crypto assets. The team has launched highly secure nodes for many PoS protocols, such as Tezos (XTZ), Cardano (ADA), EOS (EOS), Polkadot (DOT), ICON (ICX), Kusama (KSM), and many others. Everstake is not just a staking provider but a whole infrastructure that provides token holders with simple and convenient staking, providing additional tools for monitoring and analyzing coins. Everstake allows you to stake ETH and charges 10% for assistance in the delegation. The minimum deposit amount is 0.01 ETH. After depositing the amount, the user waits for the pool to be filled with 32 ETH, after which the Validator Address is assigned to the user. The annual yield for ETH staking is 4.05%. - Midas.InvestmentÂ
Midas.Investment is an ecosystem of investment products and strategies created to generate passive income. Fixed income strategies for major crypto assets are supported, as well as strategies offering dynamic returns depending on market conditions. Centralized and decentralized finance infrastructures are used to make a profit. In addition, the Midas platform provides its own native MIDAS token, the holding of which allows you to increase the profitability of staking.
Depending on the percentage of the MIDAS token in the user’s portfolio, it is assigned one of five tier levels: base, bronze, silver, gold, and diamond. The more native tokens in your portfolio, the higher your level, and income. For comparison, if you have 0-5% of MIDAS tokens from the total portfolio, then your income from ETH staking will be 8.5% APR, and if you have more than 20%, then you will earn about 10.6% APR. - Kraken
One of the ways to earn money is by staking Ethereum on the Kraken exchange. To become a validator on the Kraken trading platform, you will need 32 ETH. But only 0.0001 ETH is enough to join the pool. The profitability of staking here varies in the approximate range of 4%-7% per annum. The commission is 15%, which is already included in the approximate APR. When staking Ethereum, the participant receives back ETH2 tokens.
Users can conduct transactions with the token, not United States or Canadian citizens. Otherwise, it is impossible to withdraw tokens before the end of the deadline. The ETH2 coin is paid as a reward. It cannot be sent to staking, deposited, withdrawn, or used for trading. It is also worth noting that when new ETH tokens are staked, a bonding period can last from several hours to 20 days. Only after this period, the user begins to receive rewards. - Uphold
Uphold is a multifunctional digital trading platform that, in addition to staking, supports cryptocurrency trading, including automatic, as well as working with other types of assets (precious metals, stocks, etc.). According to the project team, 100% of user funds are stored in reserves and not sent to third-party services. Uphold provides a variety of assets for staking, a yield of up to 25%. In addition, Uphold provides auto-compounding for all assets other than ETH. However, the platform developers claim that Uphold will credit stakers’ accounts in favorable market conditions as if their rewards are re-staked. Users can add ETH to the staking pool and receive up to 7% APY. Another interesting feature of Uphold is that the platform allows ETH to be unstacked if there is a possibility of matching staking and unstacking orders. - CakeDefi
Cake Defi is a decentralized platform that allows one to make money on staking, DeFi liquidity mining, lending, and receiving daily rewards. The platform was founded in early 2019 in South Korea. Project developers especially value transparency and allow users to track all operations. The choice of assets for staking is small, but ETH staking is supported. In addition, you can distribute your cryptocurrency between different tools to maximize profitability.
Cake Defi allows users to deposit ETH tokens and receive rewards with Singapore-based nodes. The platform provides up to 5% auto-compounded rewards every 12 hours. In addition, Cake Defi is one of the few platforms that allow you to unstake ETH using the liquidity of DeFiChain DEX. - FigmentÂ
The infrastructure offers software support for more than 60 Proof of Stake chains. A team of more than 20 protocol specialists examines each network and provides expert information on key issues, including governance, economics, and taxation, which positively affect the final profitability of users.
Also, for validators (users who deposit 32 ETH), Figment protects against slashing and missed rewards through three tiers of coverage: traditional insurance, on-chain coverage, and Figment’s balance sheet. Figment provides a Liquid Collective staking platform for users who want to deposit less than 32 ETH. By making a deposit, the stakeholders receive representative LsETH tokens that can be used in partner projects. You can calculate your reward with the built-in calculator.
Conclusion
When choosing a platform, it is necessary to be guided by its reputation to choose services that have confirmed their integrity over the years of service. It is also recommended to use special monitoring, for example, Staking Rewards.