Staking · Liquid Restaking · rsETH
Kelp DAO's rsETH is a liquid restaking token backed by a basket of accepted LSTs (e.g. stETH, ETHx), giving diversified restaking exposure with liquidity.
LST-backed liquid restaking basket.
rsETH price
$2698.48
-2.1% 24h
Latest data · 15 min delay
Accepts multiple LSTs as deposits into a single rsETH basket, diversifying underlying staking exposure.
Kelp's core liquid restaking token. Users deposit native ETH or supported LSTs (Lido stETH, Stader ETHx) and mint rsETH, a non-rebasing, reward-bearing receipt whose exchange rate versus ETH appreciates as staking and EigenLayer restaking rewards accrue. rsETH represents a proportional share of the pooled, restaked assets and can be used across DeFi.
A wrapped, value-accruing version of rsETH obtainable 1:1, used for DeFi integrations and cross-chain deployments where a non-rebasing wrapper is preferred.
Kelp routes deposited assets into EigenLayer, delegating to professional node operators who restake across multiple Actively Validated Services (AVS) such as EigenDA, Lagrange, eoracle and others, earning restaking rewards on top of base ETH staking yield.
Actively managed strategy vaults under the Kelp/Kernel umbrella. Airdrop Gain (agETH) bridges deposits to partner L2s (e.g. Scroll, Linea) to capture airdrop upside alongside staking/restaking yield; High Gain (hgETH) targets risk-adjusted returns via professional management.
Internal oracle contract that sets the rsETH/ETH exchange rate by dividing total minted rsETH by the ETH-denominated value of underlying assets. stETH is priced 1:1 to ETH (hardcoded) and ETHx is derived from Stader's StaderStakePoolsManager; a Chainlink feed provides secondary market pricing.
$9,000,000 private token sale at a reported $90M FDV
The Block — Kelp token round~$2B total assets deposited across products; Kelp cited at $1.2B+ rsETH TVL and 300K+ restakers
KernelDAO on X (Season 1 airdrop announcement)1,000,000,000 KERNEL max supply; TGE 14 April 2025 via Binance Megadrop
Binance — KernelDAO Megadrop announcementHow Kelp DAO maps onto established TradFi structures, and where it diverges.
Structured yield / fund-of-funds note
Kelp DAO
rsETH is a single, tradable instrument that pools an underlying basket (multiple LSTs plus restaking exposure) and passes through blended yield, similar to how a structured note or fund wrapper packages diversified income streams into one holding.
TradFi analogue
rsETH is non-custodial, on-chain, transferable 24/7 and usable as DeFi collateral; there is no NAV administrator or redemption desk, and withdrawals are subject to protocol/unbonding delays and smart-contract and depeg risks rather than credit intermediaries.
Amitej Gajjala
Co-founder & CEO Co-founder of Kelp DAO / KernelDAO; also co-founder of Stader Labs. Leads product and strategy for the restaking ecosystem.
Dheeraj Borra
Co-founder Co-founder of Kelp DAO / KernelDAO and Stader Labs, bringing liquid staking infrastructure experience to Kelp's rsETH restaking design.
Private token sale
2024-05-22$9M (reported ~$90M FDV)
Key milestones: launches, upgrades, exploits and governance events.
rsETH is Kelp DAO's liquid restaking token on Ethereum. Users deposit native ETH or whitelisted liquid staking tokens (Lido stETH and Stader ETHx) and receive rsETH, which represents restaked exposure on EigenLayer. sfrxETH was previously accepted but its deposit limit was set to 0 in June 2024.
No. rsETH is non-rebasing. Your token balance stays constant while the rsETH/ETH exchange rate increases over time to reflect accrued staking and restaking rewards.
Withdrawal is a multi-step process: a user submits a request (locking in the exchange rate), an off-chain service undelegates assets from EigenLayer and unstakes as needed, and after a minimum delay (historically ~7 days, reduced to ~2 days for small withdrawals via a buffer pool) the user claims the underlying asset.
Kelp DAO was founded by Amitej Gajjala and Dheeraj Borra, who also built the Stader Labs liquid staking platform (source of the ETHx LST). Kelp later became part of the broader KernelDAO ecosystem, which spans Kernel (BNB Chain restaking), Kelp (Ethereum rsETH restaking) and Gain (automated vaults), unified under the KERNEL token.
KERNEL is the governance and utility token of the KernelDAO ecosystem, with a 1 billion max supply. It launched via a Binance Megadrop with its TGE / listing on 14 April 2025. Kelp users earned Kelp Miles / Kernel Points that fed into airdrop eligibility.
