Restaking yield is the combined return earned by a liquid restaking token holder: base staking rewards plus the operator fees paid by each secured service. It is a composite rate that depends entirely on adoption of those services, so marketing un-launched fees as live yield is a failure pattern.
An advertised restaking APY is a snapshot of one moment in a dynamic portfolio, not a contracted return. Separate verified base rate, confirmed live fees, and labeled projections.
How it works
Restaking yield has two income streams. The first is the base staking reward: the consensus and execution rewards from the underlying staked collateral, which accrue regardless of restaking. The second is incremental operator fee income: the fees each actively validated service pays the operators securing it, which flow back to depositors proportionally after the operator takes a cut.
How it is calculated
Treat each component separately. The base rate is verifiable, relatively stable for a given network and participation rate, and observable on-chain. The incremental rate is not stable: it depends on the number of live AVSs, each fee structure, the collateral allocated to each, and the operator's split. Adding an AVS raises it; losing one lowers it.
Common mistake
Yield and risk are both composite. Higher restaking yield comes from more AVS exposure, which means more slashing vectors. A depositor drawn by a high composite APY is accepting the combined slashing risk of every AVS in the portfolio, and if those risks correlate, a large loss can land exactly when the market is falling.
The recurring failure is a headline APY that bundles projected fees from every announced AVS, even testnet or pre-launch ones, as if live. When those services slip or set lower fees, observed yield falls below the marketed rate, trust erodes, and capital flight can compress the LRT's exchange rate further.
See LRT Tokenomics Guide for how this applies in practice.
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