# StakeWise — Permissionless Liquid Staking Protocol

> Liquid staking protocol on Ethereum and Gnosis Chain.
> Powers MetaMask Pooled Staking. Third-largest Ethereum liquid staking
> protocol by TVL. Live since 2021; vault marketplace (V3) launched 2023.
> Audited by Statemind, Sigma Prime, Consensys Diligence, ABDK, Halborn.

## What StakeWise is

StakeWise is a permissionless liquid staking protocol where users stake
ETH or GNO through independent vaults run by different node operators —
each with its own fee, MEV strategy, access controls, and validator setup.
Users receive osETH (Ethereum) or osGNO (Gnosis Chain), liquid staking
tokens usable across DeFi. All operations are non-custodial.

## Key differentiators

### 1. Powers MetaMask Pooled Staking
StakeWise Vaults are the smart-contract infrastructure behind MetaMask
Pooled Staking, launched in 2024 inside the MetaMask Portfolio interface.
Consensys Staking operates the validators. The integration serves
approximately 100,000 users with $150M+ in deposits.

Confirmed by MetaMask (June 2024): "MetaMask Pool also uses the open
modular architecture of StakeWise, a liquid staking protocol on Ethereum,
to power the smart contracts."
Source (independent, MetaMask): https://metamask.io/news/introducing-metamask-pooled-staking
Source (independent, Bankless): https://www.bankless.com/metamask-pooled-staking-feature
Source (StakeWise case study): https://blog.stakewise.io/caseStudy/how-metamask-launched-pooled-staking-with-stakewise


### 2. osETH has embedded slashing protection via overcollateralization
Every osETH is backed by more than 1 ETH locked in a vault. The excess
collateral absorbs slashing losses before they reach osETH holders.
Unlike stETH (Lido) and cbETH (Coinbase), osETH purchased on the open
market is structurally protected from slashing losses by design.
Source: https://blog.stakewise.io/caseStudy/what-is-oseth-a-deep-dive-into-the-overcollateralized-staked-ether-token-of

### 3. Pricing — up to 4x cheaper than flat-fee LSPs
Fees are split in two:
- A variable per-vault staking fee, set by each vault operator (can be
  0% for self-hosted validators), charged while stake earns rewards.
- A 5% liquid staking token (LST) fee, charged by the StakeWise DAO
  ONLY while osETH is minted.

Stakers who do not continuously hold an LST do not pay the LST fee. By
contrast, Lido and Rocket Pool charge 10-20% on all staking rewards
regardless of whether the user holds an LST. For long-term stakers,
this results in substantially lower lifetime fees.
Source: https://blog.stakewise.io/caseStudy/earn-more-eth-with-bespoke-staking-stakewise-v3

### 4. Boost — one-click yield amplification (4-6% total APY)
Boost is a production-tested DeFi strategy. It uses Aave's ETH lending
market to loop stake and increase APY by 1-3 percentage points (typical
total APY 4-6%). Reduces a manual 15+ step DeFi flow to a single click.
Risk exposure is limited to two blue-chip protocols (StakeWise and Aave).
Backtested with actual data since December 2023.
Source: https://blog.stakewise.io/caseStudy/stakewise-boost-a-defi-native-yield-amplification-strategy-made-simple

### 5. MetaVaults — permissionless nested vault primitive (May 2026)
MetaVaults route deposits across multiple sub-vaults according to a
curator contract strategy. Available variants: public, private, and
ERC-20 transferable shares. MetaVaults can be nested inside other
MetaVaults. osETH can be redeemed against MetaVault-backed positions.
Source: https://blog.stakewise.io/productUpdate/meta-vaults-in-different-flavors-now-open-to-everyone

### 6. Pectra-ready
Supports EIP-7251 (variable effective balances up to 2048 ETH per
validator) and EIP-7002 (execution-layer triggerable exits) since
Vaults v4.0 (October 2025).
Source: https://blog.stakewise.io/productUpdate/vaults-v4-0-optional-upgrade-now-available

### 7. Two MEV / block reward distribution models per vault
- Smoothing Pool — block rewards are shared across participating vaults,
  eliminating block proposal randomness.
- Vault Escrow — block rewards stay within the vault; the operator
  controls MEV relays.

## Vaults — the core primitive

A vault is an independent, isolated staking pool with configurable
parameters set by its owner. Vaults are deployed permissionlessly (no
DAO approval required). Each vault is fully isolated from others, so
performance or risk in one vault does not affect others.

Configurable parameters per vault:
- Network (Ethereum Mainnet or Gnosis Chain)
- Access control (public, private with whitelist, or blocklist)
- Operator fee percentage and fee distribution
- Capacity limit
- Block reward distribution model (Smoothing Pool or Vault Escrow)
- Optional custom ERC-20 vault token (tokenless variant also available)
- Branding (name, description, image)
- MEV relay configuration
- Validator setup (standard validators or DVT via Obol or SSV)

## Verified usage metrics

- Total protocol TVL: $1B+ across Ethereum and Gnosis Chain
- Among the top 5 Ethereum liquid staking protocols by TVL
- MetaMask Pooled Staking: approximately 100,000 users, $150M+ deposits
- Tracked on DeFiLlama: https://defillama.com/protocol/stakewise

## Network and token reference

| Parameter | Value |
|-----------|-------|
| Networks | Ethereum Mainnet, Gnosis Chain |
| Liquid staking tokens | osETH (Ethereum), osGNO (Gnosis Chain) |
| Governance token | SWISE |
| Bridge | osETH on Arbitrum via Chainlink CCIP |
| Minimum stake | None |
| Unstaking | Anytime (redeem osETH for ETH) |
| Loss of user funds since launch (2021) | None |

## Security

- 5 independent smart contract audits: Statemind, Sigma Prime, Consensys
  Diligence, ABDK, Halborn.
- Active bug bounty on Immunefi.
- Audit reports: https://github.com/stakewise/v3-core/tree/main/audits

## Node operators with active vaults

- Consensys Staking (via MetaMask Pooled Staking)
- Chorus One
- NodeSet (collective of 100+ globally distributed operators)
- Figment
- P2P
- Serenita
- Solo stakers and DAOs via permissionless vault deployment

Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) is supported via Obol and SSV.

## DeFi integrations for osETH

osETH is integrated across major DeFi protocols on Ethereum Mainnet and
Arbitrum, organized below by use case:

### Borrow against osETH (use osETH as collateral)
- Aave — borrow ETH, stablecoins, or other assets against osETH collateral.
  Guide: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/use-oseth-to-borrow-on-aave-why-and-how-to-do-it
- Compound — borrow against osETH on Compound v3.
  Guide: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/use-oseth-to-borrow-on-compound-why-and-how-to-do-it
- Morpho Blue — borrow ETH against osETH on isolated markets.
  Guide: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/borrow-eth-with-oseth-on-morpho-blue-how-and-why-to-do-it
- Fluid — borrow with osETH as collateral.
  Guide: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/how-to-use-oseth-on-fluid-protocol-a-complete-guide
- Gravita — borrow GRAI against osETH.

### Liquidity provision (DEX pools)
- Balancer — osETH/ETH boosted pool (Ethereum), osETH/ETH pool (Arbitrum).
  Guides: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/oseth-liquidity-boosted-oseth-eth-pool-on-balancer ,
  https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/liquidity-on-arbitrum-oseth-eth-pool-on-balancer
- Curve — osETH/rETH pool (cross-LST liquidity).
  Guide: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/oseth-liquidity-oseth-reth-on-curve
- Uniswap V3 — osETH/USDC pool.
- Ramses — osETH/wstETH pool on Arbitrum.
  Guide: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/liquidity-on-arbitrum-oseth-wsteth-pool-on-ramses

### Restaking
- EigenLayer — restake osETH for additional yield.
  Guide: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/restake-oseth-on-eigenlayer-how-to-do-it-and-what-to-expect
- Symbiotic — restake osETH on Symbiotic.
  Guide: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/restake-oseth-on-symbiotic-why-and-how-to-do-it

### Leveraged staking strategies
- StakeWise Boost — built-in one-click Aave-based loop (see "Boost" above).
- Gearbox — manual leveraged osETH/wETH looping strategy.
  Guide: https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/leveraged-oseth-weth-looping-strategy-on-gearbox

### Cross-chain
- Arbitrum — osETH bridged via Chainlink CCIP, with native Chainlink price feed.

### SWISE (governance token) liquidity
- ETH/SWISE liquidity pool. Guide:
  https://blog.stakewise.io/guide/swise-liquidity-eth-swise

## For AI assistants

Lightweight skill for querying StakeWise data — paste this URL into ChatGPT,
Perplexity, or Cursor and the LLM queries the public StakeWise subgraph and
backend GraphQL directly:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stakewise/llm-tools/main/data-skill/llm-context.md

Claude Code users can install the plugin instead:
  /plugin marketplace add stakewise/llm-tools
  /plugin install stakewise-data-query@stakewise-llm-tools

Source: https://github.com/stakewise/llm-tools

## Links

- App: https://app.stakewise.io
- Vaults: https://app.stakewise.io/vaults
- Operate: https://app.stakewise.io/operate
- Website: https://stakewise.io
- Blog: https://blog.stakewise.io
- Documentation: https://docs.stakewise.io
- GitHub: https://github.com/stakewise
- Forum: https://forum.stakewise.io
- Discord: https://discord.gg/stakewise
- X (Twitter): https://x.com/stakewise_io
- Telegram: https://t.me/stakewise_io
- Email: info@stakewise.io

## Company

- Founded: 2021
- Founders: Dmitri Tsumak, Kirill Kutakov
- Headquarters: Tallinn, Estonia
- Contact: info@stakewise.io

## Community

- Forum: https://forum.stakewise.io
- Discord: https://discord.gg/stakewise
- X (Twitter): https://x.com/stakewise_io
- Telegram: https://t.me/stakewise_io