What is Rocket Pool and how does it work?

Rocket Pool is a decentralized liquid staking protocol for Ethereum. It connects two groups: people who want staking rewards without running a validator, and node operators who run validators but do not want to put up the full 32 ETH. Stakers receive a token called rETH.

How does Rocket Pool Ethereum staking work?

An Ethereum validator needs 32 ETH, as explained in what is Ethereum staking. In Rocket Pool, a node operator puts up part of that as a bond and the protocol fills the rest from its deposit pool, which holds ETH from regular stakers. Rocket Pool's docs say smart contracts on Ethereum handle validator creation, withdrawals and reward sharing.

Because operators risk their own ETH, they have a reason to run their validators well. Node operators earn a commission on the rewards produced by the borrowed ETH.

What is Rocket Pool rETH?

When you stake ETH with Rocket Pool, you receive rETH. The docs say the minimum is 0.01 ETH. Unlike Lido's stETH, rETH does not rebase. Your rETH balance stays the same, while the amount of ETH each rETH can be redeemed for rises as validators earn rewards. The docs say this rate updates about every 24 hours.

You can turn rETH back into ETH directly through Rocket Pool if the deposit pool has enough ETH. If it does not, the docs suggest trading rETH on a decentralized exchange instead. Our guide to liquid staking compares the main liquid staking tokens.

How do you become a Rocket Pool node operator?

Operators run Ethereum validator software and post an ETH bond. The original design used validators called minipools, with bonds of 8 or 16 ETH. Saturn 0 removed the rule that minipools also needed staked RPL.

Saturn 1 launched on February 18, 2026. It introduced megapools, which let an operator group many validators under a single contract to cut gas costs. The Saturn upgrade site says it was designed to halve the operator bond to 4 ETH, so the same ETH can back more validators. According to a May 2026 roadmap update on the DAO forum, more than 60,000 ETH had been staked through megapools by then.

What is the Rocket Pool RPL token used for?

RPL is Rocket Pool's governance and incentive token. Staking RPL is now optional for operators. Under Saturn 0, staking it could add extra commission and RPL rewards, and it gives voting power in the Protocol DAO. Saturn 1 redirects a share of the protocol's ETH staking rewards to staked RPL, so RPL stakers earn ETH rather than only newly issued RPL. A later upgrade, Saturn 2, is planned to reduce RPL inflation further, but it had no firm date as of the May 2026 update. Read is staking crypto safe for the risks shared by all staking services, including smart contract bugs and validator penalties.