My recent mindset toward LST / re-staking has basically had a “version update.” Back then, whenever I saw an extra layer of yield, I’d feel restless. Now, before anything else, I ask: who is actually paying for this money? Put simply, the base part comes from the staking itself; most of the rest is people trying to borrow your sense of security to do other things—whether it’s protocol incentives or using consensus endorsement as support. It looks attractive in the short term, but in essence it’s packaging risk and reselling it to you.

The risks are also pretty straightforward. One layer is the old, well-known pitfalls of contracts/escrow. The other layer is even more annoying: on-chain congestion, liquidations, and unlock run dynamics. When they happen together, you’ll find that “exit” is really just an emotional word. Recently, L2 is still endlessly bickering about TPS, fees, and subsidies, and that’s actually made me more cautious. The stronger the subsidies, the more I want to know who will step in on the day it ends. Anyway, now I review things before opening a position—if the trading volume and the volatility structure don’t look right, I’ll just leave it at that, for now.