Description of work

In this work, we want to analyze Liquid Staking ETH Platforms. This dashboard includes the following sections:

1. Liquid Staking and reviewed platforms

   • 1 - 1 What is Liquid Staking?

   • 2 - 1 Reviewed Liquid Staking ETH Platforms

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2. Analyzing Staked Ethers

   • 1 - 2 Overview of staked ETHs

   • 2 - 2 Analyzing the details of ETH deposited on different platforms

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3. Analyzing unique depositors

   • 1 - 3 Analyzing unique depositors on different platforms

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4. How likely are depositors to use multiple platforms vs using a single platform?

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5. Are depositors Dollar cost averaging their ETH into the platforms?

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6. What is the avg/median/max/min/distribution of ETH deposits?

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7. Conclusion

1 - Liquid Staking and reviewed platforms

1 - 1 What is Liquid Staking?

Liquid staking, sometimes known as “soft staking,” is the process of locking up funds to earn rewards while still having access to the funds. Unlike proof-of-stake (PoS) staking that “locks” funds up in a protocol, liquid staking funds remain accessible in an escrow. Users will deposit their funds in a DeFi application escrow account and receive a tokenized version of their funds (the tokenized version of staked funds is usually called ==Liquidity token==).

Liquid staking can be a profitable way to put idle assets to work and earn a passive income with crypto. Plus, there are several benefits to liquid staking over regular proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols. Also, investors can earn income on idle assets while simultaneously earning further rewards on the liquidity tokens in DeFi protocols.

Liquid staking is not native to the Ethereum network. Third parties are building these solutions, and they carry their own risks.

Source: academy.moralis.io, ethereum.org

2 - 1 Reviewed Liquid Staking ETH Platforms

Reviewed liquid staking ETH platforms are:

• Stakewise - Contract address: 0xC874b064f465bdD6411D45734b56fac750Cda29A - Liquidity token: sETH2

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• Stkr (Ankr Staking) - Contract address: 0x84db6eE82b7Cf3b47E8F19270abdE5718B936670 - Liquidity token: aETHc

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• Rocket pool - Contract address: 0x4D05E3d48a938db4b7a9A59A802D5b45011BDe58 - Liquidity token: rETH

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• Lido - Contract address: 0xae7ab96520DE3A18E5e111B5EaAb095312D7fE84 - Liquidity token: stETH

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• CREAM Finance- On October 27, 2021, C.R.E.A.M. Finance lending markets were exploited. The attacker stole over $136 million worth of crypto assets from the C.R.E.A.M. v1 lending markets. The majority of the crypto assets stolen are reportedly ERC-20 coins and C.R.E.A.M. Liquidity Protocol tokens. (Source: blog.merklescience.com)

  • 0xcbc1065255cbc3ab41a6868c22d1f1c573ab89fd (exploited)
  • 0x49D72e3973900A195A155a46441F0C08179FdB64 (Current contract) - Liquidity token: crETH2
  • For more information about mentioned exploit, you can visit CREAM's Twitter and Medium accounts.

• Another contract reviewed in this work is related to ETH direct staking (Contract: 0x00000000219ab540356cBB839Cbe05303d7705Fa), but it should be noted that direct staking is not included in the Liquid Staking category and is a separate concept.

  On the Ethereum official website, direct staking is defined by the phrase "==Solo home staking==". Therefore, ==the terms Direct Staking and Solo Staking are equivalent in this work.

  • You can read more details about Solo home staking at: https://ethereum.org/en/staking/solo

• You can read more details about other types of staking in Ethereum at:

  • Note: in the description of this webpage, Pooled staking phrase is equivalent to Liquid Staking==.

• You can read more details about ETH staking platforms at: beaconcha.in

2 - 2 Analyzing the details of ETH deposited on different platforms

✔️Observations

• The highest number of ETH deposited on the Stakewise platform was recorded on March 8, 2021 (7388.92 ETH), March 30, 2022 (7006.64 ETH), and April 1, 2022(6006.26 ETH), respectively.

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• Most activities related to ETH deposits in Stakewise were recorded in March 2021(10334.25 ETH), March 2022(9690.76 ETH), and April 2022(8966.05 ETH), respectively.

• The total number of ETH deposited to Stakewise is 63.4K, which is currently worth $100.8M.

✔️Observations

• The highest number of ETH deposited on the Lido platform was recorded on March 15, 2022 (197260.85 ETH), May 2, 2022 (116229.82 ETH), and March 19, 2022 (4078.43ETH), respectively.

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• Most activities related to ETH deposits in Lido were recorded in March 2022 (

  944121.93 ETH), March 2022 (784311.64 ETH), and August 2021 (460050.41 ETH), respectively.

• The total number of ETH deposited to Lido is 4.17M, which is currently worth $6.63B.

✔️Observations

• The highest number of ETH deposited on the Stkr platform was recorded on December 22, 2020 (17480 ETH), December 23, 2020 (2757 ETH), and February 20, 2021(1714 ETH), respectively.

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• Most activities related to ETH deposits in Stkr were recorded in December 2020 (27908 ETH), February 2021(9543 ETH), and November 2020(5388ETH), respectively.

• The total number of ETH deposited to Stkr is 60.5K, which is currently worth $96.1M.

✔️Observations

• The highest number of ETH deposited on the Rocket Pool platform was recorded on June 29, 2022 (5074.2 ETH), March 10, 2022 (4627.29 ETH), and December 7, 2021(4078.43ETH), respectively.

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• Most activities related to ETH deposits in Rocket Pool were recorded in March 2022 (30622.51 ETH), December 2021 (26144.61 ETH), and November 2021 (12877.98 ETH), respectively.

• The total number of ETH deposited to Rocket Pool is 129.7K, which is currently worth $206M.

✔️Observations

• The highest number of ETH deposited on the CREAM platform was recorded on November 21, 2020 (5532.51 ETH), December 7, 2020 (5523.24 ETH), and November 18, 2020 (3107.8ETH), respectively.

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• Most activities related to ETH deposits in CREAM were recorded in November 2020 (17046.38 ETH), December 2020 (7931.79 ETH), and February 2021 (128.87 ETH), respectively.

• The total number of ETH deposited to Lido is 25.2K, which is currently worth $40.1M.

• No deposits have been made in CREAM since October 24, 2021.

✔️Observations

• The highest number of ETH deposited using direct staking was recorded on November 23, 2020 (153088 ETH), June 23, 2021 (132800 ETH), and May 26, 2021 (122112 ETH), respectively.

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• Most activities related to ETH deposits using direct staking was recorded in May 2021 (853792 ETH), December 2020 (833665 ETH), and

  November 2020 (674304 ETH), respectively.

• The total number of ETH deposited using direct staking is 6.82M which is currently worth $10.84B.

1 - 3 Analyzing unique depositors on different platforms

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors on Stakewise equals 4150.

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• The most activity of unique depositors in Stakewise was recorded on 2021-03-08(187), 2021-04-26(165), and 2021-03-09(139), respectively.

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• The top 3 Stakewise depositors are:

  • 0xe2008b01a2ad0a9aeea9f71ecc6a176138553a61 - 15107 ETH
  • 0x665d2d2444f2384fb3d96aaa0ea3536b92984dce - 4667.5 ETH
  • powerstake.eth - 4500 ETH

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors on Stkr equals 3800.

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• The most activity of unique depositors in Stkr was recorded on 2020-12-22(153), 2020-12-01(103), and 2021-02-25(87), respectively.

• The top 3 Stkr depositors are:

  • 0x13e252df0cafe34116cec052177b7540afc75f76 - 8800 ETH
  • 0x6cc32942c6720eefa73e5f85077cfab701cf5112 - 1500 ETH
  • 0x581a4484fb319b05347a85587d8764c29c802f84 - 1186.5

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors on Rocket Pool equals 7.93K

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• The most activity of unique depositors in Rocket Pool was recorded on 2022-08-26(1777), 2022-08-27(874), and 2022-08-28(650), respectively.

• The top 3 Rocket Pool depositors are:

  • 0xeadb3840596cabf312f2bc88a4bb0b93a4e1ff5f - 9308.53 ETH

  • 0x800764343e062d9a0e665aa279d30fe5ec376dea - 5055 ETH

  • 0xe624fed79e8f5353b13fefa22c82385fdedff348 - 3000 ETH

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✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors on Lido equals 80.5K.

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• The most activity of unique depositors in Lido was recorded on 2022-02-11(2506), 2022-05-07(2223), and 2022-05-08(1983), respectively.

• The top 3 Lido depositors are:

  • 0x10f37ceb965b477ba09d23ff725e0a0f1cdb83a5 - 199449.14 ETH
  • 0xcde35b62c27d70b279cf7d0aa1212ffa9e938cef - 160079.5 ETH
  • 0x9cf59ecde926cc1b5ff1cb9b247e0fec627091b1 - 115652.26 ETH

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors on CREAM Finance equals 336

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• The most activity of unique depositors in CREAM Finance was recorded on 2020-11-18(46), 2020-11-19(42), and 2020-11-24(26), respectively.

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• The top 3 CREAM Finance depositors are:

  • 0xc50b3f8f200ae3f1e8dca71ca770c3c4ea94a083 - 6007 ETH
  • 0xb1fc9a24d40f784e6a5694769792c18af5157fa6 - 4325 ETH
  • 0x36cc7b13029b5dee4034745fb4f24034f3f2ffc6 - 3250 ETH

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✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors who used solo staking for deposit ETH equals 72.5K.

• The most activity of unique depositors who used solo staking for deposit ETH was recorded on 2021-05-27(2167), 2021-05-05(1932), and 2021-05-25(1710), respectively.

• The top 3 Solo stakers are:

  • 0xa40dfee99e1c85dc97fdc594b16a460717838703 - 289120 ETH
    • Kraken: Eth2 Depositor
  • 0xc2288b408dc872a1546f13e6ebfa9c94998316a2 - 196032 ETH
    • Bitcoin Suisse: Eth2 Depositor 5
  • 0xbdd75a97c29294ff805fb2fee65abd99492b32a8 - 164000 ETH

2 - Analyzing Staked ETHs

Methodology

• We have used data from the [ethereum.core.ez_eth_transfers] to calculate the number of ETH deposited to each platform.
• Data from the [ethereum.core.fact_hourly_token_prices]is used to calculate the value of deposited ETHs.

Notes

• Ethers that were staked are locked in smart contracts related to staking platforms, so we have used the term TVL (Total Value Locked) to express the number and value of Ethers locked in these platforms.

  • You can read more about TVL at: cointelegraph.com

• In defillama, you can see TVL of Liquid Staking ETH Platforms.

  For some platforms (such as Lido, Stkr, and CREAM Finance), the calculated TVL may differ by up to 5% from the value mentioned in defillama, which may be due to different TVL calculation methods or incomplete data.

• In some other platforms (such as Rocket Pool and Stakewise), the calculated TVL value is lower than the value mentioned in defillama. The reason for this difference is that, in addition to Liquid Staking, these platforms also provide services related to Solo Staking, and in this work, the TVL related to Solo Staking provider addresses is ignored. addresses related to Solo Staking are:

  • Rocket Pool: Node Deposits: 0xdcd51fc5cd918e0461b9b7fb75967fdfd10dae2f
  • StakeWise: Solos: 0xeadcba8bf9aca93f627f31fb05470f5a0686ceca

• In Liquid Staking protocols, usually once in a while and provided that the number of staked ETHs is more than 32, these ETHs are sent to the Direct Staking address during several transactions and in batches of 32 ETHs (check this transaction).

  After sending each 32 batches of ETH, a validator belonging to these platforms is created in the Ethereum network.

  Now, if you check the ETH balance of the Direct Staking address, you will see that its balance is about 13.5 billion ETH, which is about $22.5B

  But in this work, to consider only Direct Stake and ignore transactions related to Liquid Staking platforms.

  for this purpose, we have considered transactions to the Eth2 Deposit Contract (Direct Staking) address with ORIGIN_FUNCTION_SIGNATURE = '0x22895118'.

  The TVL calculated for Eth2 Deposit Contract, in this case, is about 6.8 M ETH(about $10.8B). This $10.8B includes stakes related to Solo Staking platforms or direct Staking ETH in Eth2 Deposit Contract.

1 - 2 Overview of staked ETHs

✔️Observations

• From November 2020, when the ETH deposit process began, until June 2022, almost all deposits were made through Solo Staking.

• From the beginning of 2022 to May 2022, most ETH deposits have been made through the Liquid Staking method and through the Lido platform.

• Since March 2022, ETH deposits have been in a downward trend.

• The highest number of ETH deposited was recorded on March 15, 2022, which was equal to 201879,314 ETH.

• The most activity related to ETH deposits was done in March 2022 and May 2021

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• The highest number of deposited ETHs was through Direct Staking (6.82M ETH - $10.87B), Lido (4.17M ETH - $6.65B), Rocket Pool(129.67K ETH - $206.68M), Stakewise (63.42K ETH - $101.08M), Stkr (60.45K ETH - $96.36M), and CREAM (25.20K ETH - $40.17M), respectively.

3 - Analyzing unique depositors

Methodology

• We considered ORIGIN_FROM_ADDRESS field from the [ethereum.core.ez_eth_transfers] table as depositors’ address

4 - How likely are depositors to use multiple platforms vs using a single platform?

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors who have deposited on the reviewed platforms equals 164.2K

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• The total number of unique depositors who used multiple platforms for deposit ETH equals 4900

• 97% of depositors use only one platform to deposit ETH, and only 3% of depositors use multiple platforms to deposit ETH.

5 - Are depositors Dollar cost averaging their ETH into the platforms?

First, let's give a brief explanation of the concept of DCA

Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is a strategy where an investor invests a total sum of money in small increments over time instead of all at once. The goal is to take advantage of market downturns without risking too much capital at any given time.

Source: gemini.com

Methodology

To find addresses that have done DCA on ETH:

• For each platform, we first extract all the addresses that have made more than 2 Ethereum deposits. If in the deposits made after the first deposit, the Ethereum price is lower than when the first deposit was made, we consider it as DCA.

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors that use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits in Stakewise equals 630

• On the Stakewise platform, 15.2% of depositors use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits.

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors that use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits in Stkr equals 254

• On the Stkr platform, 6.69% of depositors use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits.

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors that use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits in Rocket Pool equals 726

• On the Rocket Pool platform, 9.16% of depositors use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits.

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors that use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits in Lido equals 9.99K

• On the Lido platform, 12.4% of depositors use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits.

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors that use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits in Cream Finance equals 16

• On the CreamFinance platform 4.76% of depositors use the DCA strategy in their ETH deposits.

✔️Observations

• The total number of unique depositors that use the DCA strategy in their Direct Staking ETH deposits equals 919

• 1.27% of depositors use the DCA strategy in their Direct Staking ETH deposits.

6 - What is the avg/median/max/min/distribution of ETH deposits?

✔️Observations

• The total Number of transactions related to Deposit ETH into Stakewise equals 6856 transactions

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• Minimum Deposited ETH into Stakewise equals 0.00000000001 Ether - Transaction

• Maximum Deposited ETH into Stakewise equals 6000 ETHs

• Average of Deposited ETH into Stakewise equals 9.25 ETHs

• Median of Deposited ETH into Stakewise equals 0.25 ETHs

• In 58% of ether deposits in Stakewise, less than 0.5 ether has been deposited.

✔️Observations

• The total number of transactions related to Deposit ETH into Stkr equals 5282 transactions

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• Minimum Deposited ETH into Stkr equals 0.5 ETH

• Maximum Deposited ETH into Stkr equals 5000 ETHs

• Average of Deposited ETH into Stkr equals 11.45 ETHs

• Median of Deposited ETH into Stkr equals 2 ETHs

• In 43 % of ether deposits in Stkr, between 1 and 5 ETHs has been deposited.

✔️Observations

• The total number of transactions related to Deposit ETH into Rocket Pool equals 10668 transactions

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• Minimum Deposited ETH into Rocket Pool equals 0.1 ETH

• Maximum Deposited ETH into Rocket Pool equals 1990 ETHs

• Average of Deposited ETH into Rocket Pool equals 12.16 ETHs

• Median of Deposited ETH into Rocket Pool equals 0.39 ETHs

• In 51.4 % of ether deposits in Rocket Pool, less than 0.5 ether have been deposited.

✔️Observations

• The total number of transactions related to Deposit ETH into Lido equals 122398 transactions

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• Minimum Deposited ETH into Lido equals 1 wei - Transaction

• Maximum Deposited ETH into Lido equals 62000 ETHs

• Average of Deposited ETH into Lido equals 33.99 ETHs

• Median of Deposited ETH into Lido equals 0.9 ETHs

• In 43.4 % of ether deposits in Lido, less than 0.5 ether has been deposited.

✔️Observations

• The total number of transactions related to Deposit ETH into Cream Finance equals 441 transactions

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• Minimum Deposited ETH into Cream Finance equals 0.0003 Ether - Transaction

• Maximum Deposited ETH into Cream Finance equals 3535 ETHs

• Average of Deposited ETH into Cream Finance equals 57.15 ETHs

• Median of Deposited ETH into Cream Finance equals 1 ETH

• In 36.11 % of ether deposits in Cream Finance, less than 0.5 ether has been deposited.

✔️Observations

• The total number of transactions that Stake ETH using solo staking equals 213180 transactions

• Minimum Deposited ETH Eth2 Deposit Contract equals 1ETH - Transaction

• Maximum Deposited ETH using solo staking equals 32 ETHs

• Average of Deposited ETH using solo staking equals 32 ETHs

• Median of Deposited ETH using solo staking equals 32 ETH

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Conclusion

In this work, we analyzed Ether Liquid Staking platforms as well as direct deposits (Solo Staking) of Ether based on various criteria.

• The most activity related to ETH deposits was done in March 2022 and May 2021

• The highest number of deposited ETHs was through Direct Staking (6.82M ETH - $10.87B), Lido (4.17M ETH - $6.65B), Rocket Pool(129.67K ETH - $206.68M), Stakewise (63.42K ETH - $101.08M), Stkr (60.45K ETH - $96.36M), and CREAM (25.20K ETH - $40.17M), respectively.

  • No deposits have been made in CREAM since October 24, 2021.

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• The highest number of unique depositors is related to Lido (80.5K), Direct Staking (72.5K), Rocket Pool (7.93K), Stakewise (4150), Stkr(3800), and Cream Finance(336).

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• 97% of depositors use only one platform to deposit ETH, and only 3% of depositors use multiple platforms to deposit ETH.

• The highest percentage of depositors who use the DCA strategy in ETH deposit are related to Stakewise(15.2% - 630 Depositors), Lido(12.4% - 9990Depositors), Rocket Pool(9.16% - 726 Depositors), Stkr(6.69% - 254 Depositors), Cream Finance (4.76% - 16 Depositors) and Direct Staking(1.27% - 919 Depositors) respectively.