Kelp DAO is an Ethereum staking and EigenLayer native restaking solution. Kelp DAO participates in EigenLayer by pointing its Ethereum validators’ withdrawal credentials to EigenPods. In doing so, Kelp DAO enables ETH tokenholders that do not have the 32 ETH required to operate a validator node to not only stake ETH on Ethereum but also to restake ETH to EigenLayer to validate and secure modules built on EigenLayer, such as consensus protocols and data availability layers (litepaper pg. 4).

To participate, native ETH can be staked using the Kelp DAO application to receive ERC-20 rsETH, a non-rebasing liquid restaking token (LRT), at the prevailing exchange rate. As a non-rebasing token, the exchange rate between rsETH and ETH gradually increases as ETH staking rewards accumulate. It is also worth noting that Kelp DAO supports liquid staking tokens ETHx, stETH, and sfrxETH to receive rsETH when EigenLayer LST deposit caps are lifted. Staking-supported LSTs were last available from Feb. 5 to Feb. 9, 2024, after which EigenLayer reinstated its deposit caps for LSTs.