Staking on an exchange: what it costs you

We went looking for a gap between advertised and real staking yields expecting to find it in DeFi. It is not there — Lido and Marinade publish honest net numbers with the formula attached. The gap lives at the custodians, and it is large.

Coinbase pays retail roughly 1.75% on staked ETH. The network pays about 2.473%. The difference is an implied take of about 29%, and the take rate appears nowhere on the product — you have to derive the gross figure yourself and divide.

For comparison, Lido charges 10% and states it. Coinbase charges nearly three times as much and does not.

It does show a net number rather than a gross one, which is more honest than the alternative. But a net number without the gross figure alongside it cannot be evaluated.

Kraken's own support documentation states that the APYs shown in the app "do not include Kraken's commission". That is a company telling you, in writing, that its headline number is not what you will receive.

Credit for saying it. The problem is placement: the disclosure lives in a support article while the number lives in the app, and the commission separating them is not stated alongside the figure a customer actually sees.

Kraken relaunched US staking in 2025 across 39 states once the regulatory position cleared, and on custody it remains the strongest venue in our exchange rating.

It is not nothing, and the honest case deserves stating.

• No minimum. Solo staking needs 32 ETH; an exchange will stake any amount.
• No operational risk. No machine to keep online, no slashing from your own misconfiguration.
• Exit without a secondary market. cbETH is the most sellable staking token in our study, turning over 7.3% of its market cap daily because it trades on Coinbase's own order book rather than an on-chain pool — a real advantage in a category where four fully-backed tokens have collapsed for lack of buyers.
• One account, one tax record, one interface.

Roughly a third of an already small yield, and possession of the asset. A staked balance at a custodian is a claim on that company, subject to the same insolvency questions as any other balance there — see what happens if an exchange goes bankrupt.

You also give up the ability to exit on your own schedule, since unstaking runs through the platform's queue as well as the network's.

If you hold less than 32 ETH and want no operational responsibility, custodial staking is a legitimate product and the fee is the price of the service. Prefer the venue with the better custody evidence over the one with the marginally higher rate, because the spread between them is tens of basis points and the custody difference is not.

If you hold 32 ETH and can keep a machine running, solo staking pays the full rate and takes no commission at all. And if you want a middle path, a liquid staking token at 10% is a third of the custodial take — provided you understand the depth problem in that category.

A net yield without the gross rate beside it is a number you cannot evaluate. That is the point of not publishing it.

Exchange staking costs between 8% and 29% of an already thin yield, and the two largest custodians disclose it least clearly — Coinbase not at all, Kraken in a support article. What you buy is no minimum, no operational risk and easy exit. That is a fair trade for small balances and an expensive one above 32 ETH.