Staking lets you earn passive income by locking cryptocurrency to help secure Proof of Stake blockchains. These coins offer some of the best staking yields and infrastructure — from direct staking of L1 tokens to liquid staking protocols that let you earn rewards while maintaining liquidity for DeFi.
Smart Contract Platform — Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain platform that introduced smart contracts — self-executing code that powers decentralized applications (dApps), DeFi protocols, NFTs, and much more. It's the foundation of the programmable internet.
What Is Ethereum? | How to Buy ETH
High-Performance Layer 1 — Solana is one of the fastest blockchains, processing thousands of transactions per second with sub-second finality and fees under a penny. It's the go-to chain for DeFi, meme coins, and consumer-facing crypto applications.
What Is Solana? | How to Buy SOL
Smart Contract Platform — Cardano is a research-driven blockchain that takes a peer-reviewed, academic approach to development. Built to be sustainable, scalable, and interoperable, Cardano supports smart contracts and decentralized applications.
What Is Cardano? | How to Buy ADA
Interoperability Protocol — Polkadot enables different blockchains to communicate and share data through its relay chain architecture. It allows specialized blockchains (parachains) to connect and operate together as one unified network.
What Is Polkadot? | How to Buy DOT
Interoperability Protocol — Cosmos is the 'Internet of Blockchains' — a network of interconnected, sovereign blockchains that communicate through the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol. It makes it easy to build custom blockchains.
What Is Cosmos? | How to Buy ATOM
Smart Contract Platform — Avalanche is a blazing-fast smart contract platform that enables sub-second transaction finality. Its unique subnet architecture allows anyone to launch custom, application-specific blockchains.
What Is Avalanche? | How to Buy AVAX
Layer 1 Blockchain — NEAR Protocol is a Layer 1 blockchain designed for developer and user friendliness, featuring human-readable account names, low fees, and a unique sharding approach called Nightshade for scalability.
What Is NEAR Protocol? | How to Buy NEAR
Layer 1 Blockchain — Toncoin powers The Open Network (TON), a fast, scalable blockchain integrated with Telegram's 900M+ user base. It enables crypto payments, mini-apps, and decentralized services directly within the Telegram messenger.
What Is Toncoin? | How to Buy TON
Layer 1 Blockchain — Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain built by former Meta (Diem) engineers using the Move programming language. It features an object-centric data model enabling parallel transaction processing and sub-second finality for gaming, DeFi, and consumer apps.
Layer 1 Blockchain — Aptos is a Layer 1 blockchain built by former Meta (Diem) engineers, using the Move programming language for safe, fast smart contracts. It achieves high throughput through parallel transaction execution.
What Is Aptos? | How to Buy APT
Liquid Staking Protocol — Lido is the largest liquid staking protocol in crypto, holding over $15B in staked ETH. It lets users stake ETH and receive stETH — a liquid token representing their staked position that can be used across DeFi while still earning ~3-4% staking rewards. Lido essentially made ETH staking accessible without running a validator node.
What Is Lido? | How to Buy LDO
Decentralized ETH Staking — Rocket Pool is the most decentralized Ethereum staking protocol — anyone can run a node with just 8 ETH (vs. 32 ETH solo staking) by pooling with community deposits. Its rETH liquid staking token is considered more decentralized than Lido's stETH because it uses a permissionless, distributed node operator set rather than a curated whitelist.
What Is Rocket Pool? | How to Buy RPL
Restaking Protocol — EigenLayer introduced 'restaking' to Ethereum — letting ETH stakers reuse their staked ETH to simultaneously secure additional protocols (called Actively Validated Services). This innovation unlocked billions in shared security, allowing new protocols to bootstrap Ethereum-grade security without building their own validator sets. It became the largest DeFi protocol by TVL in 2024.
What Is EigenLayer? | How to Buy EIGEN
Distributed Validator Technology — SSV Network enables Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) for Ethereum — splitting a validator key across multiple non-trusting operators so that no single operator can unilaterally sign blocks or be a single point of failure. This dramatically improves Ethereum staking safety, decentralization, and fault tolerance. If one operator goes offline, the validator keeps running. Major staking providers integrate SSV for resilient validator infrastructure.