Crypto staking APY rates: Kraken's 2.29% SOL vs 'up to 8%'

On November 11, 2026, Kraken's staking page lists Solana at 2.29% a year, while Marinade Finance advertises "up to 8%" for staked SOL. Neither number tells you on its own what you will earn, and the gap between them shows how staking yields are marketed versus what is actually paid.

What are real staking APY rates for ETH, SOL, ADA and DOT in November 2026?

In November 2026, what you earn from staking ETH, SOL, ADA or DOT depends more on the product you pick than on the network. Ethereum's official staking page shows a 2.5% current APR . On Kraken's staking page on November 11, 2026, SOL showed 2.29% flexible and 4.63% bonded, DOT 1.16% flexible and 2.33% bonded, and ADA 2.32% flexible . The same day, DefiLlama's tracker put the five Solana liquid staking tokens we sampled between 4.51% (BNSOL) and 5.46% (mSOL) . So the 1–3% figures come from one exchange's flexible product, not from what these networks pay. Double-digit numbers come from smaller networks, bonded (locked) products or limited-time promotions.

Quick Answer: As of November 11, 2026, Ethereum.org shows a 2.5% ETH APR. Kraken lists SOL at 2.29% flexible and 4.63% bonded, both before its commission, and DefiLlama tracked Solana liquid staking tokens at 4.51–5.46%. Kraken's 1–3% flexible rates describe one product, not the networks' base rates. Marinade's "up to 8%" is an advertised ceiling; DefiLlama put mSOL at 5.46% that day.

APY (annual percentage yield) is the yearly return you would earn with rewards compounded, shown as a percentage of the amount you staked. APR is the same yearly figure without compounding. At rates this low, the difference between the two is small. What matters more is where a figure comes from and what has already been taken out of it.

Here is a snapshot of the rates each source page showed for the four most-searched assets on November 11, 2026. The Kraken figures are its flexible tier, which is not the same thing as the network's own reward rate:

• ETH: 2.5% current APR on ethereum.org . Lido's stETH showed 2.3% , and sample providers on StakingRewards ranged from 2.48% to 2.61% .
• SOL: 2.29% flexible on Kraken .
• ADA: 2.32% flexible on Kraken .
• DOT: 1.16% flexible on Kraken .

These rates change every day. Treat each one as a reading from a single day, not a fixed rate you can lock in. Kraken says its figures are "an estimate, before our commission, and are based on the average staking rewards accrued over the past period" . In other words, you will usually receive somewhat less than the number shown.

For Ethereum in particular, the official site, Lido and StakingRewards all point to about 2.3–2.6%, so check any ETH yield you find against these sources before you rely on it. The rest of this guide explains why advertised rates are so much higher than these base rates, and how to pick a venue.

Why does Kraken show 2.29% for SOL when Marinade advertises 'up to 8%'?

The gap is mostly about what each number measures. Kraken's 2.29% flexible SOL rate is an estimate of past rewards on one exchange product . Marinade's "up to 8% APY" is a marketing ceiling for mSOL liquid staking . The two figures are not measured the same way, so comparing them directly is misleading. The gap tells you about these two products, not the whole Solana network. Before staking, check each provider's live rate on the day you deposit.

Start with Kraken. According to Kraken's staking page, its rates are "an estimate, before our commission, and are based on the average staking rewards accrued over the past period," and rewards are paid weekly . The commission itself is published in Kraken's staking support article: 30% of rewards on flexible staking and Auto Earn, and 25% down to 0% on bonded staking, depending on your total bonded balance . The same article says that for assets with an unbonding period, flexible staking earns rewards on up to 50% of the assets you stake, with the rest kept unstaked for liquidity. It also notes that where Kraken itself pays a validator commission, "the APY rates shown are after such commissions," so the figure shown is net of any third-party validator fee but not of Kraken's own cut . On the rate page, SOL shows 4.63% bonded next to the 2.29% flexible figure . By our estimate, 2.29% less the 30% flexible commission comes to about 1.6% (2.29% × 0.7), and 4.63% bonded less the 25% first-tier commission comes to about 3.47% (4.63% × 0.75). Both are rough calculations from variable, backward-looking figures, not rates Kraken promises. Kraken also warns that rewards are not assured and lists slashing, hacks and price declines as risks. In return you get flexible access and no wallet or protocol to manage.

Marinade is a different product. Marinade Finance issues mSOL, a liquid staking token. It is a tradable receipt that represents your staked SOL plus the rewards it earns. The homepage says "Earn up to 8% APY" and claims 150K+ holders . On November 11, 2026, the page's live APY and TVL fields did not load in the static copy we fetched, so we took the current rate from DefiLlama's tracker instead: mSOL showed 5.46%, with a 30-day average of 5.07% . That is above Kraken's 2.29% flexible and 4.63% bonded SOL rates, and well below 8%. "Up to 8%" tells you the highest rate the protocol is willing to advertise. It does not tell you the rate you can expect today.

Don't treat the gap as a Solana-wide "on-chain premium." Kraken's 2.29% is one exchange's figure before commission. Marinade's 8% is an upper bound with no confirmed live number behind it. Other liquid staking tokens such as JitoSOL publish their own rates, so check those on the protocol's own dashboard at the time you stake rather than relying on a figure quoted in a third-party list. Liquid staking also brings risks that exchange staking does not, including smart-contract failure and the token trading below its underlying SOL value. Those risks belong in the comparison alongside the headline rate.

Use this checklist on any headline staking APY, whether it comes from an exchange, a protocol or a creator video:

• Gross or net: Is the rate before or after the provider's commission? Kraken states its figures are before commission .
• "Up to" wording: Treat "up to X%" as the best case. Ask what the current or median rate is.
• Commission disclosed: Find the fee schedule, which may sit on a support page rather than next to the rate. Kraken's rate page shows no fee figure, but its support article lists 30% for flexible staking and 25% to 0% for bonded .
• Compounding and payout timing: APY includes compounding and APR does not. Payouts can be weekly, monthly or built into the value of a token.
• Date and method: Is the figure live, a trailing average or a promotion? Note the date, because staking rates change daily.

Running a rate through these five checks usually shrinks the gap between a modest exchange figure and a high advertised one. What remains is the real choice: custody and convenience against on-chain control and the risks that come with it.

How much does ETH staking pay: solo, pooled or liquid?

As of November 2026, ETH staking pays about 2.3% to 2.6% a year, whichever way you stake. Ethereum's official staking page shows a 2.5% current APR (source: ethereum.org, 2026-11). Lido, the largest liquid-staking protocol, shows 2.3% for stETH . Solo, pooled and liquid staking differ in how much ETH you need, who holds the keys and what fees come off the top. They do not differ much in the base rate.

Solo staking: full rewards, high entry bar

Solo staking means running your own validator, which is a node that proposes and confirms blocks and puts your own ETH at stake. A validator needs at least 32 ETH. Since the Pectra upgrade, one validator can hold up to 2048 ETH . That raises the cap for large holders, but the 32 ETH minimum has not changed. Ethereum's own documentation explains why solo staking is the reference point for every other option:

"Maximum rewards, received in full directly from the protocol," — ethereum.org, describing solo staking on its official staking page (source: ethereum.org)

No intermediary takes a commission. In exchange, you run the hardware, keep it online and carry the slashing risk yourself. For most retail traders, 32 ETH and the operating work put this route out of reach.

Pooled and liquid staking: small entry, slightly lower rate

Pooled staking lets you start with as little as 0.01 ETH. In that case the protocol pays the pool's validators, not you directly , and the pool passes rewards on after its own fee. Liquid staking adds a tradable receipt token. With Lido, that token is stETH, which you can hold or use elsewhere while your underlying ETH keeps earning.

Lido's homepage shows the scale of this model: 9,714,613 ETH staked and about $19.96 billion in total value locked, at a 2.3% stETH APR (source: Lido, 2026-11). The gap between that 2.3% and ethereum.org's 2.5% is roughly what you give up for a small minimum and a liquid token.

Independent provider data falls in the same narrow range. StakingRewards, which grades providers on downside risk rather than headline yield, lists these ETH providers :

• Stakin by The Tie: 2.61%
• RockawayX: 2.56%
• SenseiNode and Node.Monster: 2.54%
• Validation Cloud: 2.48%

The top and bottom of that list are only 0.13 percentage points apart. For ETH, picking a provider has more to do with its risk grade, custody setup and exit terms than with chasing an extra fraction of a percent.

Exchange staking: Kraken's ETH figure

Kraken lists ETH at 2.46% bonded . Its support article lists ETH as bonded-only, with no flexible option. Bonded commission is 25% for total bonded balances up to $1 million, then 20%, 10% and 5%, and 0% above $100 million (source: Kraken Support, 2026-11). For a typical retail balance in the first tier, 2.46% comes to roughly 1.85% after commission (2.46% × 0.75). That is our estimate from a variable figure, not a rate Kraken pays out as stated.

Across the protocol, liquid-staking, provider and exchange figures, base ETH staking comes to about 2.3% to 2.6% . An ETH offer well above this range needs an explanation beyond base staking, such as a lockup, lending or a promotion. Product labels matter here too: in Binance's public Simple Earn product data on November 11, 2026 (checked at 03:57 UTC), flexible ETH was listed as a lending product (type "LENDING_FLEXIBLE") at 1.24% APY, which the feed splits into a 1.14% market rate plus a 0.1% bonus on the first 0.2 ETH. Fixed ETH staking terms of 7 to 90 days showed 1.3% to 1.9%, with the top rate on a VIP-tagged 60-day product . An "earn" rate on an exchange is not always a staking rate.

What do ADA, DOT and other large caps pay on exchanges?

As of November 11, 2026, Kraken pays about 0.1% to 2.5% a year on flexible staking for most large-cap coins. ADA earns 2.32%, SOL 2.29%, AVAX 2.34% and DOT 1.16%, according to Kraken's staking page . BNB and BTC pay less than 1%. These are estimates before Kraken's commission, so the amount that reaches your account will be a little lower. If you hold large caps on an exchange, plan on low single digits rather than the double-digit figures some lists show.

All rates in the table come from Kraken (2026-11) . Kraken pays rewards once a week. The rate page shows no fee, but Kraken's support article sets the flexible staking commission at 30% of rewards. ADA is an exception: like MINA and TAO, its flexible balance is charged on the bonded tiers of 25% to 0% .

Kraken explains that its figures are averages from past payouts, not promises:

"These rates are an estimate, before our commission, and are based on the average staking rewards accrued over the past period," — Kraken, staking product disclosure (source: Kraken)

Polkadot shows clearly how much of a staking reward is new issuance. The Polkadot Wiki says "85% of inflation/year of the tokens is primarily intended for staking rewards" . Most of your DOT reward is therefore new tokens. If you do not stake, inflation shrinks your share of the network each year. Some practical rules from the wiki:

• Minimum stake is not fixed. It is "effectively set by the stake of the lowest-ranked electing nominator", so the amount needed changes over time .
• Nomination pools start small. If you hold less than the minimum, you can join a pool with "as low as 1 DOT" . A nomination pool combines many small holders' DOT so the group can stake together.
• Payouts expire. You must claim staking rewards within an 84-era window, or you lose them .

The wiki does not publish a current DOT APY. The only dated DOT figures in this guide are Kraken's 1.16% flexible and 2.33% bonded rates, both before commission . Treat any third-party DOT figure that does not point to a primary source as unconfirmed.

Much of the reason these flexible rates are low is the product, not the network. On Kraken's page, flexible SOL (2.29%) pays almost exactly half of bonded SOL (4.63%), and DOT (1.16% vs 2.33%) and AVAX (2.34% vs 4.74%) show the same ratio . That fits Kraken's explanation that, for assets with an unbonding period, flexible staking earns rewards on up to 50% of the assets you stake, with the remainder kept unstaked for liquidity . Network design still matters. On Polkadot, the wiki says 85% of yearly inflation is intended for staking rewards, and that tokens earn no rewards once you unbond . Inflation also cuts what the headline APY is worth. Your stake can grow in token count while losing value against the total supply, and also against fiat if the price falls. Kraken lists "depreciation in the value of assets while staked" among its staking risks and says rewards are not assured . For DOT at 1.16% flexible in particular, staking mainly protects your share of the network. It produces very little real income.

Where do double-digit staking yields actually come from?

On Kraken, double-digit staking yields come from three places: bonded (locked) products, smaller proof-of-stake networks, and limited-time promotions you often can't verify. They don't come from flexible staking on the large networks. On 2026-11-11, Kraken's staking page showed bonded ATOM at 19.5% and bonded KSM at 17.59%, while MINA showed 13.11% as a flexible rate . Kraken's support article lists MINA as flexible-only, with no bonded option , so it is a small-network case rather than a lockup case. Every higher number comes with a trade-off in liquidity, network size or verifiability.

Cosmos (ATOM) is the clearest example. On the same page, the same token shows 9.32% flexible and 19.5% bonded . Nothing about the network changes between those two figures. What changes is what you agree to give up. The other high figures on Kraken's list come from smaller networks:

• ATOM bonded: 19.5%, roughly double the 9.32% flexible rate .
• MINA: 13.11% flexible. This is not a bonded rate: Kraken offers MINA only as flexible staking .
• KSM (Kusama): 8.45% flexible, the third-highest flexible rate on the page after MINA and ATOM .

Bonded staking means your coins are locked for a period and can't be sold or withdrawn on demand. The extra yield is what you're paid for accepting that. If ATOM drops 30% while your stake is bonded, you can't exit, and a year of 19.5% rewards would not cover that loss. Kraken describes its rates as "an estimate, before our commission," based on past average rewards, so a high headline number describes past payouts in tokens. It says nothing about what those tokens will be worth .

Promotions are the third source, and the least reliable. One YouTube tutorial describes a Rocket Pool ETH offer of "up to 20% APY" fixed for the first 90 days, after which the yield goes back to the standard network rate (video: R K RISHU OFFICIAL 9). The measured rate points the other way. On November 11, 2026, DefiLlama's tracker put Rocket Pool's rETH at 1.79% APY, on about $994 million in value locked . We found no primary source for the 20% offer, so treat it as unconfirmed. A 20% rate would be about eleven times rETH's tracked rate and about eight times the 2.5% APR on ethereum.org .

Even when a boosted offer is real, it usually follows the same pattern: a high fixed rate for a short window, then a quiet drop to the base rate. Averaged over a full year, a 90-day boost adds far less than the banner suggests. Scammers use the same setup, with an urgent "limited-time" rate, a deposit link and a countdown. Before you send funds anywhere, check that the rate appears on the protocol's or exchange's own official page. If it only shows up in a video, a social post or a referral link, treat it as marketing, not as a yield you can count on.

Which venue fits you: Kraken, Binance, Coinbase, CEX.IO or on-chain?

The right staking venue depends on six things more than on the headline rate: how much of the rate you actually keep after commission, how quickly you can exit, who holds your keys, how often you get paid, and whether the service is open in your country. Kraken pays weekly and quotes its rates before a commission that its support article sets at 30% on flexible staking and 25% to 0% on bonded staking . On-chain ETH staking pays you directly but needs 32 ETH to run a solo validator . Pick the venue whose trade-offs you can accept, then compare rates.

Use these criteria in order. Each one can rule a venue out before the rate even matters:

• Rate: the advertised APY or APR, and whether it is flexible, bonded or promotional.
• Commission transparency: whether the venue tells you what share of rewards it keeps.
• Lockup: whether you can sell or withdraw at any time, or have to wait out an unbonding period.
• Custody: whether the exchange holds your coins or you keep your own keys.
• Payout frequency: weekly, monthly or per block, and whether rewards compound.
• Region availability: whether the product is legally offered where you live.

Kraken rates and payout terms come from its staking page . Ethereum protocol figures come from ethereum.org , and the stETH rate from Lido . Binance figures come from its public Simple Earn product data for SOL on November 11, 2026 , and the CEX.IO rate claim and region note from the CEX.IO homepage .

CEX.IO advertises "up to 12%" with flexible Staking & Savings on its homepage, and the same banner says the product is not available in the US and EEA . Like Marinade's "up to 8%", that is a ceiling, and the homepage shows no per-asset rate or commission. It also does not say how often rewards are paid or whether they compound , so a 12% ceiling cannot be turned into an expected yearly payout from that page alone. Check the rate for your specific coin inside your account before you compare it with anything else.

Binance publishes its Simple Earn rates in a public product feed. On November 11, 2026, the SOL entries showed flexible SOL at 2.09% APY, listed as a lending product ("LENDING_FLEXIBLE"), and fixed SOL staking at 3.0% for 7 days and 3.8% for 90 days, with a VIP-tagged 60-day term at 3.9% . Set against Kraken, the flexible figures are close (2.09% vs 2.29%), while Binance's 90-day fixed rate sits below Kraken's 4.63% bonded SOL . Neither rate listing shows a commission next to the rate, and Kraken's figures are before its commission, so these are not directly comparable net figures. Its Earn page lists more than 300 supported assets .

Coinbase's public staking page focuses on its validator infrastructure, listing slashing coverage, double-signing prevention and a SOC 2 Type 1 audit with Deloitte . It says Coinbase validators "have never lost assets due to slashing—on any of the networks we support" . That is a track record, not a promise about future slashing. The public pages we fetched on November 11, 2026 did not show retail staking rates or commission, so read both inside your account before you deposit.

Here is how the choice usually plays out by type of holder:

• Small holder who wants flexibility: a flexible exchange product such as Kraken's flexible tier or Binance's flexible Simple Earn, which pays 2.09% on SOL but is listed as lending . Expect a lower rate, for example 2.29% on SOL at Kraken, in exchange for instant access . Before you commit, compare the commission and how often you get paid.
• ETH holder with 32+ ETH: solo staking, which ethereum.org describes as paying "maximum rewards, received in full directly from the protocol." Since Pectra, one validator can hold up to 2,048 ETH . You keep your own keys and take on the job of running the validator yourself.
• Liquid-staking user comfortable with smart-contract risk: a protocol such as Lido, where stETH showed a 2.3% APR with 9,714,613 ETH staked . You get a tradable token and on-chain transparency. The trade-off is exposure to code bugs and to the token trading below its underlying value.

What risks cut your real staking return?

Your real staking return is the advertised APY minus five things: price swings in the token, venue failure, lockup costs, commission and inflation. Kraken's own staking page lists the main risks. It says rewards are not promised and warns of "potential loss from slashing or hacks, and depreciation in the value of assets while staked" (source: Kraken, 2026-11). Check each of these before you treat any APY as income.

Price depreciation usually matters most. Kraken's flexible SOL rate is 2.29% and its ADA rate is 2.32% . That is a small cushion. If SOL loses just over 2.29% of its dollar value in a year, all of the staking income is gone in dollar terms. Compare the yield with how much the token typically moves, not with a savings account rate. Staking rewards add to the coins you hold. They do not protect what those coins are worth.

Every step away from solo staking adds something you have to trust. Ethereum.org says each option after home staking "places additional software, smart contracts, operators, or custodians between you and Ethereum" . Liquid staking adds smart-contract risk and the chance that the token trades below its underlying value. Exchange staking adds custodian risk, and ethereum.org warns that centralized providers create "a large centralized target and point of failure" . Lending products labeled as "earn", such as Binance's flexible SOL and ETH entries, carry lending risk rather than staking risk .

Lockups and commission are built into the rate you see. Lockup terms vary a lot by venue:

• Kraken bonded vs flexible: ATOM pays 19.5% bonded but 9.32% flexible. The extra 10 points or so is payment for locking your coins and giving up the option to sell them quickly .
• Binance fixed vs flexible: fixed SOL staking paid 3.0% for 7 days and 3.8% for 90 days, against 2.09% on the flexible lending product (source: Binance Simple Earn data, 2026-11-11). A longer term earned more.
• Polkadot native staking: payouts must be claimed within an 84-era window or they are lost (source: Polkadot Wiki).

Commission comes off before you are paid. Kraken describes its rates as "an estimate, before our commission," based on past average rewards, and pays weekly . Its support article sets the commission at 30% of rewards for flexible staking and Auto Earn. Bonded staking is charged 25%, 20%, 10%, 5% or 0% depending on your total bonded balance, with tiers at $1 million, $5 million, $50 million and $100 million. ADA, MINA and TAO are exceptions whose flexible balances are charged on the bonded tiers . As an illustration, $10,000 in flexible SOL at 2.29% would earn about $229 a year before commission and about $160 after the 30% cut, if the rate and the SOL price stayed flat. In practice the listed rate moves over time.

Inflation means nominal APY is not real yield. Much of the staking reward is newly issued tokens. On Polkadot, "85% of inflation/year of the tokens is primarily intended for staking rewards" . Kraken's flexible DOT rate is 1.16% . If the network issues new DOT faster than your rewards grow your holding, your share of the total supply shrinks even though your coin count goes up. Here is a simple way to estimate real yield: take the headline APY, subtract commission, then subtract the network's inflation rate. Then decide whether the result is worth the price risk on top.

Staking decision checklist before you commit funds

Before you stake, check six things in order: the date the rate was shown, whether it is gross or net, the lockup, the commission, who holds the keys, and the slashing terms. Each one can lower what you actually earn. In November 2026, the ETH figures from ethereum.org, Lido and the StakingRewards providers we sampled clustered at about 2.3–2.6%, although they are not all stated on the same fee basis , and about 1.85% for Kraken's bonded ETH after its first-tier commission, by our estimate. Kraken's flexible tier paid 1.16% to 2.34% on the large caps before its commission , while the five Solana liquid staking tokens we sampled on DefiLlama paid 4.51% to 5.46% . The same asset can sit in very different ranges depending on the product. A rate is only worth comparing once all six checks are done.

1. Confirm the rate date. A staking APY is a snapshot of one moment. Kraken calls its rates "an estimate… based on the average staking rewards accrued over the past period" (source: Kraken, 2026-11) . A screenshot from a few weeks ago is out of date.
2. Separate gross from net. Find out whether the figure is before or after the venue's fee. Kraken's rates are shown before its commission, which its support article sets at 30% for flexible staking and 25% to 0% for bonded . The fee schedule may sit on a different page from the rate.
3. Check the lockup. Flexible and bonded products on the same asset pay very different rates. On Kraken, ATOM pays 9.32% flexible and 19.5% bonded . The higher rate pays you for giving up access to your coins.
4. Know the custody model. With an exchange, you trust the exchange. With liquid staking, you trust smart contracts. Solo staking needs at least 32 ETH and is the only option where the protocol pays you directly, in full .
5. Read the slashing and loss terms. Kraken warns of "potential loss from slashing or hacks" (source: Kraken). Look for whether the venue covers slashing losses or passes them on to you.
6. Estimate real yield. Use the formula from the previous section: headline APY, minus commission, minus network inflation.

A simple rule: be suspicious of any rate that is several times higher than the network's base rate. "Up to 8%" on SOL, set against Kraken's 2.29% flexible rate, needs explaining . A claimed "up to 20% APY" on ETH is roughly eight times the base rate, while DefiLlama tracked Rocket Pool's rETH at 1.79% on November 11, 2026 . Boosted "limited-time" offers are a common way scams draw people in.

To check a rate, open the live page on the protocol or exchange itself, not a third-party list. Then cross-check the provider on StakingRewards. It covers 90+ providers and grades them AAA to D based on "downside risk, not headline yield" . A provider with a high yield and a low grade is a warning sign.

Check your rates again every week, because they change daily. Kraken pays rewards weekly, which makes payout day a natural time to compare . In short: start from the base rate of about 2.3–2.6% on ETH or about 1–2.5% on large-cap exchange staking. Treat anything above that as extra risk you are taking on, and stake only after you can say what that risk is.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good staking APY in November 2026?

There is no single normal rate in November 2026; it depends on the asset and the product. Ethereum's official staking page shows a 2.5% current APR . Lido shows a stETH APR of 2.3% , and DefiLlama's tracker put stETH at 2.25% . On Kraken, flexible staking pays 2.32% on ADA, 2.29% on SOL and 1.16% on DOT, and bonded SOL pays 4.63%, all before Kraken's commission . Those flexible figures are one exchange product, not a network base rate. Double-digit rates usually mean one of three things: a smaller network, a bonded (locked) product such as Kraken's 19.5% bonded ATOM, or a limited-time promotion . Each of these adds risk. Rates change daily, so treat these figures as of November 11, 2026.

Is Marinade's 'up to 8%' APY real?

Marinade Finance's site advertises "Earn up to 8% APY" for mSOL liquid staking and says it has more than 150,000 holders . As of November 11, 2026, the live APY field on Marinade's site did not load in the static copy we fetched. DefiLlama's tracker put mSOL at 5.46% that day, with a 30-day average of 5.07% , so the 8% figure is a ceiling the token was not reaching. "Up to" means a maximum, not what a typical holder earns. Before you deposit, check the live mSOL rate on the protocol's own dashboard.

Why is Kraken's SOL rate lower than on-chain liquid staking?

Kraken's 2.29% SOL rate is for a different product: custodial, flexible staking. Kraken describes its rates as "an estimate, before our commission," based on average rewards over a past period, and pays them once a week . Two things keep the flexible figure low. Kraken says flexible balances in assets with an unbonding period earn rewards on up to 50% of the amount staked, with the rest held for liquidity, and Kraken's commission, 30% on flexible and 25% to 0% on bonded, is taken from the rewards those gross rates produce. The commission does not change the rate shown; it lowers what you receive . Kraken's rate page shows bonded SOL at 4.63%, about double the flexible figure . On November 11, 2026, DefiLlama tracked the five Solana liquid staking tokens we sampled from 4.51% for Binance's BNSOL through 4.65% for JitoSOL, 4.67% for Bybit's BBSOL and 5.04% for JupSOL, up to 5.46% for Marinade's mSOL, whose 30-day average was 5.07% . Those tokens come with their own fees and smart-contract risk, and you hold the token yourself. So the gap reflects the type of product and its costs, not a different network rate.

Can I stake ETH with less than 32 ETH?

Yes. You need at least 32 ETH to run your own validator. Since the Pectra upgrade, one validator can hold up to 2,048 ETH . Pooled and liquid staking let you start from as little as 0.01 ETH, according to ethereum.org . The trade-off is how you get paid. The protocol pays the pool's validators, and the pool passes rewards on to you after its fees. Solo stakers receive the full reward directly from the protocol.

Are staking rewards assured?

No. Staking rewards are estimates, not fixed payments. Kraken warns that rewards may not be paid, that you could lose funds to slashing or hacks, and that your crypto can fall in value . Kraken's rates are estimates based on past average rewards, so they move over time . Some exchange "earn" products are lending rather than staking: Binance lists its flexible SOL product as lending . Limited-time boosted offers deserve extra caution. For example, one video describes an "up to 20% APY" Rocket Pool promotion (video: R K RISHU OFFICIAL 9), while DefiLlama tracked rETH at 1.79% on November 11, 2026 . Independent ratings such as StakingRewards grade providers on downside risk rather than headline yield .

Watch / Sources

• CEX.IO: Crypto Staking APY Explained
• Coinsider: My Top Crypto Staking & Lending Platforms for 2026
• R K RISHU OFFICIAL 9: Rocketpool Ethereum Staking Tutorial (Earn 20% APY)

Related Articles

• Staking yields on Nov 6, 2026: Stader ETHX down 0.9 pts
• Lido just became Ethereum's single largest validator
• Exchange staking costs you 25 extra points — every year
• APY is the wrong first filter for staking
• BitMine earned 98% of revenue staking ETH — then lost $84M

Enjoyed this article? Subscribe to get new stories by email whenever they're published.

Subscribe