Kelp DAO Review 2024: Fees, Pros, Cons, & Features

Full Kelp DAO Review

What Is Kelp DAO?

Kelp DAO is a liquid restaking protocol that gives users a way to participate in EigenLayer restaking while maintaining liquidity of their assets. 

For those who need a refresher on restaking basics: 

EigenLayer is a restaking protocol that lets users deposit their liquid staking tokens (LSTs), such as Lido staked ETH, to secure new blockchain services – and earn rewards for doing so. 

Sounds great, right? The catch is, you can’t do anything with your deposited assets while they’re being used. If you want to use those funds for anything else, it can take at least a week to unstake them.

That’s where liquid restaking comes in. Instead of restaking directly into EigenLayer, platforms like Kelp DAO operate a layer on top that will restake for you. They will then issue you with tokens representing ownership of your restaked assets. These tokens – in the case of Kelp DAO, rsETH – can then be traded, borrowed against, or used in any other number of ways within the wider DeFi ecosystem.

In a sense, Kelp DAO lets you have your restaking cake and eat it too. You can earn EigenLayer rewards and points, but still use your otherwise-inaccessible stake for other stuff.

But that’s not all Kelp DAO has to offer. 

Kelp’s yield-farming product, Gain, also provides users with access to yield and points-farming across emerging layer-2 protocols. This is done by taking LST deposits into specially designed vaults, and deploying them across these new networks.

Kelp DAO Key Features

Overall, Kelp DAO is designed to maximize the earning potential and flexibility of restaked assets. This is achieved through a combo of liquid token solutions and integrations with existing DeFi infrastructure.

• Liquid Restaking Token (rsETH): rsETH is Kelp’s flagship liquid restaking token (LRT), representing a claim on EigenLayer deposits of ETH, ETHx, and stETH. rsETH earns both EigenLayer Points and Kelp Miles, and it can be traded on the open market rather than waiting a week for EigenLayer withdrawals.
• Yield and Airdrop Points Farming: Gain is Kelp DAO’s automated yield and airdrop points optimizer app for L2 networks. Users can deposit ETH, stETH, ETHx and rsETH into Gain vaults to earn even more yield on LSTs and LRTs – hands-free. Depositors are issued agETH, a token representing their claim on Gain deposits.
• Rewards and Incentives: Kelp DAO offers extra incentives like Kelp Miles and potential rewards for participating in the platform’s ecosystem.
• Security and Risk Management: By spreading assets across multiple Node Operators and managing rewards, Kelp DAO helps mitigate risks and improves the security of user funds.

Kelp DAO Fees

Like most staking services, Kelp DAO takes a small cut of rewards earned through its protocol. 

Here’s a breakdown of the main fees you’ll want to know about:

rsETH Rewards Fee:

Kelp DAO charges a 10% fee on rewards earned from ETH deposits. This fee is applied to the earnings generated from restaking activities on EigenLayer.

LST Deposits:

No fee is charged on deposits of Liquid Staked Tokens (LSTs) like ETHx and stETH. This means that you can deposit these tokens free of any costs, aside from gas fees.

Future Rewards or Airdrops:

Kelp DAO doesn’t charge any fees on future rewards or airdrops that users might receive from holding Kelp Miles or EigenLayer Points. Users get their entire share of additional rewards distributed by Kelp DAO or other participating protocols.

Our Expert Review Of Kelp DAO

In this review, I’m going to take a first-hand look at what it’s like to restake with Kelp DAO. I’m also going to use rsETH in DeFi, and earn additional yield on rsETH with Gain vaults. 

This will include: 

• Checking out the user interface
• Restaking assets for rsETH
• Using my freshly-minted rsETH in DeFi
• Earning airdrop points with Gain
• Tracking my rewards
• Unstaking or selling my rsETH

This should speed-run the Kelp DAO experience for you, from start to finish. Let’s get right into it!

User Interface

My very first impression when trying out the Kelp UI was: This is comfortable – in a good way. A lot of DeFi protocols these days (restaking competitors included) can be over-the-top with their UIs, throwing all kinds of numbers and features in your face.

Kelp wasn’t anxiety-inducing like some others. You can still find key figures and info on the page, while it remains tidy and intuitive. That being said, I would’ve liked a dark theme option, which is a prerequisite for us crypto degens.

The APY figure is a 30-day average, so you can rest assured that estimated returns aren’t just a short term anomaly.

Restaking

The app supports MetaMask and a bunch of specifically-mentioned DeFi wallets: Everything from Rabby, to Coinbase Wallet, to the Ledger hardware wallet.

The best news for smaller traders is that you don’t have to use Ethereum mainnet to restake. You can choose from one of 10 different EVM networks, especially if you want to save on gas fees.

Users can restake any of the following assets:

• Ethereum (ETH)
• Stader ETHx (ETHx)
• Lido Staked ETH (stETH).

I deposited ETH, and received the equivalent value in rsETH. This will earn me an APY of 3.54%, as well as EigenLayer Points and Kelp Miles – Kelp DAO’s own platform points (which may come with an airdrop of its own!).

DeFi Integrations

Now that I have my rsETH, it’s time to check out what I can do with it in the rest of the ecosystem. For this, I’ll head over to the “DeFi” tab, which you can find easily in the sidebar on the left.

At first glance, there are a ton of DeFi integrations. Counting Ethereum mainnet only, I had well over 30 different integrations to choose from to use my rsETH. There’s a ton more on other chains, too.

This DeFi page is nicely laid-out, clearly displaying useful information including estimated rates of return, any multiplier on Kelp Miles, and even the TVL of the respective DeFi pools. 

Despite the huge range of options, ZeroLend caught my eye as one of the supported lending platforms. Being able to borrow against rsETH would be super handy for getting quick access to liquidity, without triggering a taxable event by selling it – so let’s give that a try.

In just a few clicks, I’m able to borrow USDC with a loan-to-value ratio of up to 80%. As an added bonus, I’ll also be earning Gravity points that could earn me ZeroLend’s native $ZERO token. Pretty cool!

Other notable DeFi integrations included Uniswap, Balancer, Morpho, Pendle, and more – each of which let you supply liquidity to earn rewards, or swap rsETH for other tokens (if desired).

If the opportunity you want to take advantage of isn’t on the chain you’ve restaked on, don’t worry. You can use one of the links on the “Bridge rsETH” page to beam your rsETH to another chain as needed, via Stargate.

Gain Vaults

Next, it’s time to try out Gain. It’s also worth noting that Gain is currently only available on Ethereum mainnet, so you’ll have to bridge your rsETH over if you restaked on another chain.

At the time of writing, there’s just one vault – “Airdrop Gain.” This is Gain’s flagship vault, letting users automatically farm airdrops across multiple Layer 2 networks, protocols, and EigenLayer. 

According to the vault info, the Airdrop Gain Vault is currently farming 6 different airdrops. This comes in addition to the base estimated yield of 3.56% APY. That figure might not be huge at first glance – but when stacked on top of the several layers of yield already being earned, it adds up pretty quickly.

I deposited my rsETH balance in just a few clicks. Gain issued me with an equivalent value of agETH (another liquid token) representing my claim on deposits in the vault. 

They’ve placed a very convenient little “Add agETH” button on the interface, to add the token balance to your wallet.

The Kelp team has mentioned that DeFi integrations and rewards with agETH are on the way, with Pendle being the first.

Tracking Rewards

Kelp DAO makes it nice and easy to track rewards on your positions. Gain vault earnings are tracked on the very same page as the vault’s user interface, in a tidy dashboard.

Restaking rewards have their own dashboard, accessible in the sidebar under ‘Dashboard’. Total points accumulation is shown at the top, while a more specific breakdown is available lower down the page:

Unstaking or Exiting a Position

Unstaking or exiting a Kelp DAO position is made easy through their liquid restaking tokens. You can simply sell these on the open market through one of their various DeFi partners. This is generally the quickest and easiest way to exit an rsETH (restaking) or agETH (Gain) position.

If you want to go the old-fashioned route, you can navigate to the Restaking page and click “Unstake” within the UI. The only downside here is that unstake requests can take up to 1-2 weeks. This is due to the Ethereum network’s exit queue and EigenLayer delays. On the other hand, if you’re a substantial holder, you might save handsomely on slippage and exchange fees.

When it comes to Gain, you can withdraw your position via the Gain vault UI immediately with no wait time. 

Customer Service

Kelp DAO has surprisingly good customer service infrastructure for a decentralized protocol. This is headed by a pop-up support ticket system powered by MetaCRM. 

This enables users to make specific support requests, which are tracked by a support ticket number attached to their wallet address. This way, there’s no email address needed – your support history will be saved for any time you connect to the app.

I submitted a support ticket with a simple question about the rewards dashboard, which was answered within a matter of minutes with helpful information.

For more straightforward inquiries, there’s a useful ‘Docs’ page. This covers the inner workings of the protocol from head to toe, in simple language. 

There’s also a ‘Resources’ page that contains a small collection of articles on the most common FAQs for restaking in general, as well as using Kelp itself.

Who’s KelpDAO For?

• People who want to earn extra yield on LSTs, but stay liquid: rsETH allows restakers to participate in EigenLayer restaking, but keep their assets liquid. This provides users with additional yield, but they can also use their stake across the ecosystem or sell it instantly (rather than waiting for unstaking and withdrawal periods).
• People who want to farm yield and airdrop points, hands-free: Kelp’s Gain vaults let users deposit LSTs to earn optimized yields and airdrop points. This is done without manually managing funds or spending on gas fees.
• People who want to restake on less-popular chains: Kelp DAO staking supports more chains than its major competitors, allowing users of more obscure layer 2 networks to earn extra yield on their ETH or supported LSTs.

Who’s it Not For?

• People who don’t need liquidity while restaking, or don’t want additional risk: Some users might find that staking directly through EigenLayer is good enough for them, and they don’t want to take on additional smart contract risk from an additional protocol. 
• People who are new to DeFi: Although Kelp DAO is quite user-friendly, the inner workings and multiple native tokens involved could be confusing for those who are new to DeFi. 
• People who want to restake in platforms other than EigenLayer: Some other liquid restaking protocols offer restaking in other emerging protocols like Symbiotic. Right now, Kelp DAO supports EigenLayer restaking only.

Kelp DAO Alternatives

Kelp DAO is a great and innovative liquid restaking platform, but it’s not the only option. Depending on your requirements and level of DeFi activity, you might also just prefer staking directly into EigenLayer itself, or to take a look at other alternatives.

Here are some other options, and what they look like next to Kelp DAO.

Kelp DAO vs. Ether.fi

Ether.fi is currently the largest liquid restaking protocol in the space, issuing eETH as its LRT. Both platforms have similar fees on rewards, while Kelp DAO supports a wider range of networks.

Like Kelp DAO, Ether.fi has its own yield optimizer vaults, in a product called ‘Liquid’. Liquid focuses on general DeFi and accepts a huge range of LST for deposits. Kelp’s Gain instead focuses on L2 points and airdrop farming. Liquid accepts a larger range of assets as deposits.

Kelp DAO vs. Renzo

Renzo is a liquid restaking platform that lets users restake in both EigenLayer and Symbiotic, while Kelp DAO offers EigenLayer restaking only.

Kelp DAO has Gain for automated earning yields, while Renzo has no additional features aside from Symbiotic restaking. 

Both platforms are available on a wide range of EVM chains, expanding the utility of their LRTs across several ecosystems. 

Kelp DAO vs. Restaking Directly on EigenLayer

Staking on EigenLayer directly may take away the liquidity of your stake, however this isn’t an issue for everyone. There’s also less risk when dealing with EigenLayer only, versus relying on extra smart contracts to manage liquid restaking. 

EigenLayer itself has a much wider selection of assets that you can restake (14+). Kelp DAO offers only three options at the time of writing.

However, opting for EigenLayer directly instead of Kelp DAO means you’ll give up any shot at additional yield. Nor can you use your stake in the wider DeFi ecosystem.

Is Kelp DAO Safe to Use?

Kelp DAO Founders

Kelp DAO was founded by Amitej G and Dheeraj B, who previously created Stader Labs – a successful multi-chain liquid staking platform with over $440 million in total value locked (TVL).

Not only does their experience with Stader Labs position them as key innovators in the DeFi space, but it also cements their capability in liquid staking infrastructure, specifically.

How Much Money They’ve Raised

Kelp DAO has raised $9 million in a traditional private funding round to expand its presence in DeFi. Key investors in the round included SCB Limited, a trading firm based in the Bahamas, and Laser Digital, the digital asset division of Nomura Global​.

Kelp DAO has already attracted well over $700 million in restaking deposits, showing that they have a high level of trust across the ecosystem.

Has Kelp DAO Been Audited?

Kelp DAO takes security seriously and has gone the extra mile to make sure its platform is rock-solid. 

They’ve had their smart contracts thoroughly audited by some of the top names in the industry. This includes SigmaPrime, Code4rena, and MixBytes. These experts conducted comprehensive checks, even covering the finer details like withdrawals.

If you want to deep-dive into the nitty gritty of these audits, you can find them here.

To Sum It Up

Kelp DAO is an impressive liquid restaking protocol, providing a competitive option for users who want to keep their EigenLayer restaking deposits liquid.

It stands out among its competitors with support for a large range of networks and DeFi partnerships. As a result, its liquid restaking token rsETH can be used absolutely everywhere – earning a ton of different rewards along the way.

Kelp’s Gain vaults make it even more attractive for restaking, letting users deposit their rsETH to earn extra yield plus farm layer 2 airdrop points, without lifting a finger.

Led by a team with a proven track record, Kelp DAO’s offering packs a very solid punch in the restaking world.

Frequently Asked Questions