I just went back and reviewed the settlement logic of a few LST protocols. In plain terms, the returns come in two layers: one is the interest on the underlying staked native token, and the other is the protocol’s own re-staking or strategies from its vault to help you earn a bit more. But the risks are also tucked in there: if the protocol uses the assets to provide collateral to other nodes, or participates in some testnet points incentive activity, then if those nodes get penalized or have their funds confiscated, you’ll be taking the loss along with them.

Lately, everyone’s been talking about testnet incentives and points expectations, and they keep casually shouting “tokens will be issued on mainnet,” but who would dare to say with confidence that it will definitely go live? As for me, I’m used to keeping my position size below 30%, and for the re-staked portion, I only use the profits to play with it—just treating it as practice and observation.

In the long run, being able to reliably earn interest is more dependable than betting on an airdrop, but the condition is that the protocol doesn’t pull any weird moves. That’s it for now—I’ll run a few small orders tonight to test slippage.