Ratings · Measured, not sponsored
Staking platforms
Ethereum pays about 2.47% gross — a figure nobody advertises, because every product sold to you is a subtraction from it. On this page the subtraction is taken by a company that also holds your keys, so we scored the keys first and the yield second.
The only option that involves paying nobody. Keeps the entire 2.47%, and nobody can freeze it. Needs 32 ETH and real competence — so, realistically, not you.
A public company with audited financials and a real exit — which is worth something. It also takes an implied 29% of your yield and states that figure nowhere.
Advertises "up to 2.4%" and then explains in a support article that the number excludes its own commission. The rate you see is not the rate you get, by design.
What we did · July 15, 2026We derived the gross rate the network actually pays — a figure nobody publishes — then measured what each platform hands back to you, and how clearly it admits to the difference.
The advertised rate is not the rate
Ethereum pays 2.473%. Coinbase hands retail 1.75%.
That is an implied take of roughly 29%, and Coinbase does not publish it anywhere — you can only find it by deriving the network rate yourself and dividing. Kraken goes one better: its own support page states that the APYs shown in the app “do not include Kraken’s commission”, which means the headline number is, by the company’s own admission, not a number you will ever receive.
You are buying custody, not yield
The spread between the best and worst platform here is tens of basis points on an asset that routinely moves 5% in a day. The difference that actually matters is what happens in a bad week: whether you exit through Ethereum’s own queue or through a company’s support desk, and whether your staked balance is an asset you hold or a claim you file. That is why custody carries 35% of the score and yield carries 25%.
The ranking
Click any row for the quick read, or open a company for its full profile and per-criterion scores. Measured July 15, 2026. How we rate.
HOW WE SCORED THIS — CRITERIA AND WEIGHTS+
Ethereum pays roughly 2.47% gross today — a number nobody advertises, because everything anyone sells you is a subtraction from it. On this page the subtraction is a commission taken by a company that also holds your keys, so custody leads the score and the honesty of the advertised rate comes second.
Do you hold an asset or an IOU against a company balance sheet? Who signs, who can freeze, and what happens to your stake if the operator fails. When a validator is slashed, what actually covers it — a contractual claim you own, a fund of undisclosed size, or nothing at all. A solo validator scores here on the fact that no third party can freeze it, and is docked because 100% of the slashing risk lands on you.
Not the fee percentage — whether the yield they SHOW you is the yield you GET. Kraken’s own support page states the in-app APYs "do not include Kraken’s commission". Coinbase states a retail rate and never states the take rate behind it, which we then have to derive by dividing against the network rate.
Measured against the gross rate the network actually pays, which we derive rather than accept: the protocol APR before anyone’s cut. Every platform is scored on how much of that it gives back to you, not on how its headline compares to a competitor’s headline.
Unbonding and withdrawal mechanics as the platform documents them: the exit queue, any platform-imposed lock, and — where the platform issues a token instead of an unlock — the depth genuinely available to sell into. Marked not-applicable, with its weight redistributed, where there is no product between you and the protocol exit queue.
Weights sum to 100. If we cannot verify a criterion, we delete it rather than score it on impressions — read the methodology.
Is there a free alternative?
Nobody beats not paying anyone.
Ethereum pays about 2.47% gross. A solo validator keeps all of it; the platforms on this page keep between 8% and 29% of it, and the two largest custodians disclose their take the least clearly. If you have 32 ETH and the operational competence, the free option wins outright. If you do not, the question is not which platform pays most — the spread between them is tens of basis points — but which one you would rather have holding the keys.
What changed since last time
- 2026-08-27Split out of the old combined staking page.A custodial staking account and a liquid staking token fail in completely different ways. The old single table ranked them against each other, which flattered the custodians on liquidity and punished them nowhere.
- 2026-07-15Category published.The advertised-versus-real yield gap we went looking for turned out to live at the custodians, not in DeFi.
Questions
What does Ethereum staking actually pay?+
About 2.473% gross — and nobody advertises that number, which is why we had to derive it ourselves from Lido’s published formula. It is the ceiling on this entire page. Solo staking keeps all of it. Coinbase hands retail 1.75%. Every row here is that ceiling minus somebody’s commission.
Do exchanges hide their staking commission?+
This is where the gap we went looking for actually lives. Kraken’s own support page states, in terms, that "the APYs shown in-app are estimates and do not include Kraken’s commission" — against an advertised "up to 2.4%". Coinbase pays retail 1.75% against a 2.473% network rate, an implied take of about 29%, which it publishes nowhere at all. In DeFi, by contrast, Lido and Marinade publish net numbers and the formulas behind them. The custodians are the opaque ones.
Is staking on an exchange safe?+
You are swapping protocol risk for counterparty risk, and the swap is rarely presented as one. Staked balances at a custodian are an IOU against a company: you cannot exit through Ethereum’s own queue, you exit when the company lets you, and if the company fails your claim sits with everyone else’s. That is a real trade — for most people convenience is worth something — but it should be priced. It is why custody carries 35% of the score here, more than the yield.
Is solo staking worth it?+
If you have 32 ETH and genuine operational competence, nothing here beats it: you keep the full 2.473% and no third party can freeze, lend or lose your stake. The cost is that 100% of the slashing risk lands on you, with no cover fund and nobody to appeal to, and that the validator has to actually stay online. For almost everyone that is the wrong trade — which is exactly why the rest of this page exists.
Should I use a platform or a liquid staking token?+
They fail differently. A platform is a counterparty: your risk is that the company freezes, fails or quietly keeps a third of the yield. A liquid staking token is a market: your risk is that there is no depth to sell into when you want out, which has now broken four fully-backed tokens. Neither is strictly safer, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling one of them. See the liquid staking rating for the other half of the decision.
How this is funded
It is not. There are no affiliate links on this page or anywhere on this site, no paid placements, and no sponsored positions. Nobody in this table can buy a place in it, accelerate their inclusion, or influence a score — and none of them paid us anything, because there is nothing here to buy. The full policy.