Once you get past the top two liquid staking tokens, the space starts to look like a small zoo. Different chains, different accounting styles, different corporate structures. Same basic promise: a portable receipt for staked coins. Different tuning under the hood.
Here's a plain-language tour of the ones you'll actually run into, without recommending any of them.
stETH: Lido on Ethereum
Lido's stETH is the giant of the category. Deposit ETH, receive stETH. Balance grows daily as rewards land — a design called rebasing. Fee is roughly 10% of rewards (approximate). Liquidity is deep almost everywhere: DEXes, lending markets, cross-chain bridges.
The upside is convenience and reach. The downside is concentration; one protocol running a huge share of staked ETH is a systemic worry a lot of people take seriously. Full explainer on what is liquid staking.
rETH: Rocket Pool on Ethereum
Rocket Pool takes a different route. Anyone can run a node with as little as 8 ETH plus RPL as collateral. That makes the operator set more decentralized. Its receipt token rETH grows in price against ETH rather than in balance. Fee is roughly 14% (approximate, split between the protocol and node operators).
rETH is smaller than stETH in raw supply but tends to hold its peg well because the protocol enforces a fair-price primary market. Compare mechanics on staking vs liquid staking.
cbETH: Coinbase
cbETH is the odd one out — issued by a centralized exchange. Deposit ETH through Coinbase's staking service, and you get cbETH representing your staked position. Fee is roughly 25% of rewards (approximate). Coinbase holds custody.
Upsides: easy for people already using the exchange, fits neatly into US regulated flows. Downsides: exchange failure is a real risk (see FTX, 2022), fees are high, and the token depends on a US-listed company staying in business. Not a token to use inside decentralized apps as often as stETH or rETH.
The Solana side: JitoSOL and mSOL
Solana has a lively liquid staking scene of its own. Two names dominate.
| Token | Protocol | Approx. yield | Approx. fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| JitoSOL | Jito | 6-8% | ~4% |
| mSOL | Marinade | 6-8% | ~6% |
Both grow in price against SOL. JitoSOL adds MEV rewards routed through Jito's own client. mSOL delegates across a large validator set for decentralization. Details of the payout math live on how staking rewards work.
How the different tokens behave under stress
Peg behavior isn't uniform. Under calm conditions, everything trades within a fraction of a percent of fair value. Under stress the gaps open unevenly.
- stETH depegged several percent in mid-2022 during a forced-selling episode. The peg later recovered.
- rETH tends to hold peg tightly thanks to Rocket Pool's primary market mechanics.
- cbETH depends on Coinbase's operational health as well as smart contracts.
- Solana LSTs can wobble more during SOL price shocks; liquidity is thinner.
The receipt token failing to hold its peg is just one of the risk categories. Read staking risks for the whole map.
Picking among stETH, rETH and the rest in practice
A simple framework: match the token to what you actually plan to do. If you want raw yield on ETH and might use the token in DeFi later, stETH or rETH are the main choices. If you never leave a centralized exchange, cbETH is convenient (with the trade-offs above). If you're staking SOL, JitoSOL or mSOL cover most of the market.
Above all, don't chase the highest APY blindly. A tiny protocol paying slightly more usually carries slightly more risk than you can see. Try the staking rewards calculator to see how much a percentage point actually swings the outcome on the size you're staking. Usually less than the risk difference is worth.
Every liquid staking token is a small experiment in balancing safety, liquidity, and decentralization. None of them nails all three at once, and the market shifts as new protocols try new mixes — restaking on EigenLayer being the loudest recent example. Pick the one that fits how you actually behave with your coins, size the position so a bad month wouldn't derail you, and check the news every few weeks. That's the whole job.