To be honest, I’m a bit confused about the recent hype around LSTs and restaking. Where exactly does the yield come from? Put simply: staking itself earns validator rewards; restaking adds another layer of a “security tax.” But the core idea is that the protocol uses this layer of security to back other chains or applications, and then it kicks back some liquidity incentives. It sounds pretty smooth, but what about the risks? If the protocol gets hacked, or if the underlying assets drop hard—then liquidating a restaked position can be much more brutal than a regular staking position. Last time, I tried it in a certain LST pool: the APY looked great, but the gas fees to put in were almost close to eating the entire return.

Recently, the newly launched L1/L2s are one more aggressive than the next, throwing out incentives to pull in TVL. Even old users are complaining about “mine, withdraw, and sell,” and I’ve joined in and mined a bit too. But honestly, mining and then running is the norm—who would really lock funds for a year? Anyway, now I only dare to test with a small position, afraid I’ll become yet another bagholder. That’s it for now. I might be better suited to just playing the fool.