Rocket Pool

Rocket Pool is a decentralized liquid staking protocol built on Ethereum that allows people to stake ETH and earn rewards without needing the full 32 ETH normally required by the Ethereum network. Depositors can contribute as little as 0.01 ETH and receive a token called rETH, which represents their staked position and can be used elsewhere in decentralized finance. The protocol also lets individuals run validator nodes with just 16 ETH, lowering the barrier to becoming an active participant in Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus.

When users deposit ETH, Rocket Pool matches them with permissionless node operators who run validators on the Ethereum network; the protocol is non-custodial, meaning neither Rocket Pool nor its operators take custody of deposited funds in a centralized way. RPL is the protocol's native governance and collateral token, which node operators are required to hold as a bond, and it is used to distribute supplemental rewards to those operators on top of their standard commission. The protocol lives within the Ethereum ecosystem and is also present in the Arbitrum and Polygon ecosystems.

Fees generated by the protocol come from the staking rewards earned on pooled ETH, effectively paid by the Ethereum network itself as validator incentives, with a portion flowing to node operators and the broader protocol. Over the trailing 30 days, the protocol recorded fees of 2,411,576 USD, while the trailing 12-month figure stands at 31,268,766 USD and the annualized figure derived from the 30-day period is 29,340,841 USD. Fee growth over the last 30 days shows a change of negative 99.75 percent, a sharp contraction worth noting. The market capitalization to annualized fees ratio is 1.259, and because there is no pending supply and 100 percent of supply is already in circulation, the fully diluted valuation equals the market capitalization, so both ratios are identical at 1.259.