Kelp DAO (rsETH) Review
10% fee and a delayed-open licence
of 10
Kelp charges a 10% fee on rewards earned on ETH deposits for rsETH, with a 7 to 10 day withdrawal window, and licenses its code under BUSL-1.1 converting to GPL v3 in 2028. Its token mechanics, slashing detail and audits could only be partly confirmed.
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Fee
10% on rewards earned on ETH deposits
Withdrawal
7-10 days
Restaked into
EigenLayer and the wider ecosystem
Licence
BUSL-1.1, change date 31 Dec 2028 to GPL v3
Auditors
Sigma Prime, Code4rena
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (7.0 + 2.0 + 6.0 + 5.0 + 5.0) ÷ 5 = 5.0.
Pros
- Fee published as 10% on the rewards earned on ETH deposits
- Withdrawal window stated as 7 to 10 days
- Business Source License 1.1, converting to GPL v3 on 31 December 2028
- Sigma Prime and Code4rena named as auditors in Kelp's documentation
Cons
- The receipt token's rebasing-versus-accruing model could not be verified
- Slashing conditions and any insurance were not verified from a fetched page
- The GitBook documentation and audits page returned 404 on direct access, so several facts came via search extraction
What is published
Kelp charges 10% on the rewards earned on ETH deposits for rsETH, states a 7 to 10 day withdrawal window, and its LICENSE file — read directly — is a MariaDB Business Source License 1.1 with a change date of 31 December 2028, after which it converts to GPL v3. Sigma Prime and Code4rena are named as auditors.
What could not be read directly
Kelp's GitBook documentation and its audits page returned 404 on direct access, so the fee, withdrawal and auditor facts were confirmed through search extraction of Kelp's own pages rather than a clean fetch, and the token's rebasing model and the slashing detail could not be verified at all.
The slashing gap is the important one: a restaking token carries additional slashing conditions by design, and we could not confirm how Kelp documents them. The review reflects what could be read and flags what could not.
How it compares
Eigenpie (mLRT)
Isolated per-LST restaking, little else documented
Karak
Nine-day withdrawal with a slashing window, docs blocked
EigenLayer
The restaking layer itself, opt-in slashing stated
Symbiotic
Twelve named auditors and a stated risk framework
Swell Restaking (rswETH)
Value-accruing rswETH, no licence file
ether.fi (eETH / weETH)
MIT-licensed, three-way reward split published
YieldNest (ynETH)
BSD-licensed with slashing stated plainly
Mellow
Six named auditors on a Symbiotic-and-EigenLayer vault
Renzo (ezETH)
Fee split and withdrawal delays published in full
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.Kelp DAO — documentation (fee and withdrawal) — checked
- 2.Kelp DAO — rsETH LICENSE (BUSL-1.1) — checked
Frequently asked questions
What does Kelp DAO charge for rsETH?
Kelp charges a 10% fee on the rewards earned on ETH deposits.
How long does rsETH withdrawal take?
Kelp states a withdrawal window of 7 to 10 days.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.