Recently, I’ve been seeing a bunch of people treating LST/restaking as “an extra layer of interest.” Let’s be blunt: the returns don’t come from nowhere. Part of it is the staking block rewards themselves, and the other part is you selling your “trust/security” again—what you receive is extra service fees, incentives, or subsidies. Subsidies are the sweetest but also the shortest-lived thing: when things are hot, the annualized rate looks beautiful; when the heat cools off, all that’s left is, “Do you even dare to continue?”

Don’t pretend you don’t see the risks either. Restaking means taking the same collateral and stacking even more commitments on top of it. The worst part is compounded penalties (slashing), contract/node problems, or when liquidity tightens and LST discounts appear—then you may not be able to get out even if you want to. More realistically, those little maneuvers involving routing/MEV can chew into your “theoretical returns,” and in the end, the amount you save might not even be more than the “tuition” you pay before the slippage is settled.

Also, these days the funding rates are almost twisted into a knot. In the group, people are arguing whether to reverse or to keep squeezing out more froth. My gut feeling is: in times like this, don’t just stare at the yield curve. First ask yourself whether you can withstand the emotional rollercoaster if you end up hitting a discount, getting stuck in an unbonding queue, or experiencing a penalty event. Either way, I’d rather earn a little less now—and make sure I understand the exit path—before I make a move.