Introduction

Liquid staking is an alternative to locking up a user’s stake: it allows for users to stake any amount of Ethereum and to effectively unstake their ETH without the requirement of transactions being enabled. This is done through the issuance of a tokenized version of the staked funds — a sort of derivative — which can be transferred, stored, spent or traded as one would a regular token. 

A user would deposit their ETH into a third-party application. This app would deposit this user’s ETH into the Ethereum deposit contract for them (through the use of running their own validators), and in return would mint a representative ETH token for them (like aETH, rETH and stETH).

Method

I will be using Ethereum database to analyze three liquid staking platforms (Ankr, Roketpool and Lido) in terms of price difference and volatility between native Ethereum token (ETH) and minted tokens by these three platforms (aETH, rETH and stETH). I going to use ethereum.core.fact_hourly_token_prices table to find price of tokens and compare them with ETH price. To get price volatility I have subtracted ETH price from the price of each tokens which gives us the difference between ETH price and token prices.

Token contracts:

• 0x3a3a65aab0dd2a17e3f1947ba16138cd37d08c04 is for aETH
• 0x9559aaa82d9649c7a7b220e7c461d2e74c9a3593 if for rETH
• 0xae7ab96520de3a18e5e111b5eaab095312d7fe84 is for stETH
• 0xc02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2 is for WETH (I have used WETH to find ETH price)

To analyze swap activity I have used ethereum.core.ez_dex_swaps table and above addresses to see how users are swapping from/to these tokens. Also I have visualized swap from ETH to these 3 tokens and swaps from these 3 tokens to ETH over time.

About Protocols

aETH Price Analysis

The following chart shows price volatility (USD) between aETH and ETH per day. We can see volatility has decreased from February 2022 and if we skip July 4 and July 5, 2022 we can say the price difference has never been more than 12 USD.

Also 67.7% of days from May 5, 2022 the aETH price was higher than ETH price.

We can see aETH has the lowest price volatility against ETH among these 3 tokens.

rETH Price Analysis

The following chart shows price volatility (USD) between rETH and ETH per day. The average difference between rETH and ETH is -256 USD that means the rETH price is lower than ETH price in most of the times.

On May 12, 2021 the rETH price was 1344 USD lower than ETH price and on September 11, 2021 the rETH price was 540 USD higher than ETH price that shows big difference with ETH price.

We can see rETH has the highest price volatility against ETH among these 3 tokens.

stETH Price Analysis

The following chart shows price volatility (USD) between stETH and ETH per day. We can see low price volatility on February, March and April 2022.

From February 2022 until now the stETH price was lower than ETH price and it has decreased from that time.

Also we can see from December 23, 2022, 92.7% of days the stETH price was lower than ETH price.

But average difference is low and it is about -22 USD.

On the left chart we can see the price volatility comparison between these 3 tokens. That shows rETH volatility is much higher than 2 others.

The right chart compares how many days price of these 3 tokens was higher or lower than ETH price. Time period for chart data is the same for all of tokens.

The following chart shows price volatility (USD) per hour in the past week.

We can see only aETH price goes higher than ETH price over past week.

Swap From aETH, rETH and stETH to another asset

The following charts and analysis show number of swaps, number of unique swappers and swap volume per week from each token to another asset. The swap volume is calculated in USD.

We can see stETH is the first in all of these metrics with huge difference.

Swap To aETH, rETH and stETH from another asset

The following charts and analysis show number of swaps, number of unique swappers and swap volume per week from to each token from another asset. The swap volume is calculated in USD.

We can see stETH is the first in all of these metrics with huge difference.

Swap from/to ETH

On following charts I have visualized swap volume (in ETH) for swaps from ETH to aETH, rETH and stETH, and also for swaps from these tokens to ETH. Also I have compared Average swap volume (in ETH) per week for these tokens. Here we can see stETH swap volume is much higher than aETH and rETH and also it has many spikes May, June and July 2022. But swap volume for aETH and rETH has decreased over time and it reaches to lowest volume in 2022.

Ankr Network is a decentralized network of nodes built for Web3 developers to provide flexible and cost-efficient connections to blockchains.

The Ankr token (ANKR) is the native cryptocurrency of the Ankr network, a Web 3 infrastructure platform that allows users to create and manage their own nodes, which they can use for different proof-of-stake blockchains.

Rocket Pool is a first of its kind ETH2 Proof of Stake Protocol, designed to be community owned, decentralized, trustless and compatible with staking in Ethereum 2.0. 

When a user deposits into the Rocket Pool network, they will instantly receive the rETH token which represents a tokenised staking deposit and the rewards it gains over time in the Rocket Pool network.

Lido is the leading liquid staking solution - providing a simple and secure way to earn interest on your digital assets. By staking with Lido your assets remain liquid and can be used across a range of DeFi applications, earning extra yield.

stETH is a ERC20 token that represents ether staked with Lido. Unlike staked ether, it is liquid and can be transferred, traded, or used in DeFi applications.

Also the following chart shows the monthly average of price volatility over time.

based on the above charts and analysis we can say rETH is most volatile token against ETH and aETH is the least volatile token against ETH.

Conclusion

• From May 5, 2022, 67.7% of days the aETH price was higher than ETH price.
• aETH has the lowest price volatility against ETH among these 3 tokens.
• The average difference between rETH and ETH is -256 USD that means the rETH price is lower than ETH price in most of the times.
• rETH has the highest price volatility against ETH among these 3 tokens.
• From February 2022 until now the stETH price was lower than ETH price and it has decreased from that time.
• From December 23, 2022, 92.7% of days the stETH price was lower than ETH price.
• Average difference between stETH and ETH is low and it is about -22 USD.
• rETH volatility is much higher than aETH and stETH.
• Only aETH price goes higher than ETH price over past week.
• rETH is most volatile token against ETH and aETH is the least volatile token against ETH.
• stETH is the first in number of swaps, number of unique swappers and swap volume with huge difference (both swap to and swap from another asset).
• stETH swap volume (in ETH) is much higher than aETH and rETH and also it has many spikes May, June and July 2022.
• Swap volume (in ETH) for aETH and rETH has decreased over time and it reaches to lowest volume in 2022.

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