Restaking Rewards: How You Earn More from Staked Crypto

When you stake your crypto, you lock it up to help secure a blockchain—and get paid for it. But what if you could use that same staked asset to earn more, without unstaking? That’s where restaking rewards, the practice of reusing staked assets to earn additional yields across multiple protocols comes in. It’s not just stacking rewards—it’s stacking them on top of each other. Think of it like renting out your car, then letting someone else rent it while it’s already on a road trip. You’re not giving up your original stake, but you’re unlocking extra income from it.

DeFi yield, the income generated from lending, staking, or providing liquidity in decentralized finance has been around for years, but liquid restaking, a newer method that lets you stake your crypto while still using it in other apps is changing the game. Projects like EigenLayer have made it possible to restake ETH that’s already locked in Ethereum’s proof-of-stake system, and use it to secure other networks—like oracle services or rollups—while still earning your original staking rewards. You get paid twice: once by Ethereum, once by the new service you’re helping to secure. It’s like being a landlord who also gets paid by the tenant’s business for letting them use your building’s power grid.

But it’s not magic. With higher rewards come higher risks. If the new protocol you’re restaking with gets hacked or fails, you could lose part of your staked assets—even if Ethereum itself is safe. Not all restaking platforms are created equal. Some are experimental, others are backed by strong teams. The key is knowing which ones have real demand, transparent code, and insurance mechanisms. And while Ethereum staking, the process of locking ETH to help validate transactions on the Ethereum network is now mainstream, restaking is still early. Most users haven’t tried it yet, but those who have are seeing 5-15% extra APY on top of their base staking returns.

What you’ll find below are real examples—some working, some failed, some outright scams. We’ve dug into the posts that actually explain how restaking works, which tokens let you do it, and which ones are just hype. No fluff. No promises of free money. Just what’s real, what’s risky, and what you need to know before you try it yourself in 2025.