These days, I’ve been talking about LSTs and re-staking again. To put it plainly, the returns aren’t something that just falls from the sky: part of it is the basic “salary” from native staking, and the rest depends on “someone willing to pay for security/consensus endorsement.” That comes either as protocol subsidies, or by packaging the risks and selling them to you. Subsidies are the most attractive—and also the shortest-lived. Once the hype fades and the fee rates flip, the curve that used to look stable starts to wobble.

The risks are also pretty straightforward. After layer upon layer of nested setups, you might think you’re holding “cash-like” assets, but in reality you’ve added gray-rhino events like de-pegging, redemption queues, smart contract loopholes, and governance changing parameters. And then, when the market goes wild, the LST discount plus leveraged liquidations stack up— the cascade can get completely unreasonable.

During Airdrop season, they’re still doing anti-witch measures and a points system, and the “free-farming” crowd is competing like it’s a job. So I’m even less willing to set expectations too high. After I lowered my expectations, I actually felt more relaxed: I keep the underlying yields I should get, and treat everything else like a lottery. Don’t pledge your sleep just to squeeze out a few more percentage points.