What Is Ethereum Staking? How Proof-of-Stake Rewards Work
Staking secures Ethereum and earns rewards. Here is how it works, the difference between running a validator and pooled staking, and the risks.
Not financial advice. This article is for informational purposes only. Cryptocurrency is volatile and high-risk — do your own research.
Since Ethereum moved to proof of stake, the network is secured not by miners but by validators who lock up ETH as collateral. In return for helping to process and confirm blocks honestly, validators earn rewards. This is what people mean by “staking”.
How it works
Running your own validator requires 32 ETH and a reliable, always-on setup. The validator proposes and attests to blocks; behave honestly and you earn rewards, go offline or act maliciously and you can be penalised — a process called slashing.
Pooled and liquid staking
Because 32 ETH is a high bar, most people stake through a pool or a liquid-staking service. You contribute any amount, the provider runs the validators, and you receive rewards proportional to your stake. Liquid-staking tokens go a step further, giving you a tradeable token that represents your staked ETH so you can use it elsewhere in DeFi.
The risks
Staking is not risk-free. Rewards vary with network activity, staked ETH can be subject to withdrawal queues, and using a third-party service adds smart-contract and counterparty risk. Slashing, while rare for careful operators, is real. Yields are also quoted in ETH, so the fiat value still rises and falls with the market.
You can track ETH and the wider market on our Ethereum page. Not financial advice — always do your own research.