Best Liquid Staking Protocols
Top rated: Lido 8.2
Staking that hands you a tradable receipt token.
4rated →
6.8/10
Liquid Restaking
Company file: Puffer Finance, owners, incidents →
Puffer Finance
Native restaking on EigenLayer since 31 January 2024: operators post a 2 ETH bond plus prepaid Validator Tickets, lose the bond if slashed, and the protocol caps itself at 22% of Ethereum validators. The market has not rewarded it: TVL fell about 98%, from $1.84B in June 2024 to about $32.1M (27 Sep 2026).
Best for: A thoughtful operator design, if you can use the slow exit
Company file: Puffer Finance, owners, incidents →How this score was reached
6.8 is the weighted average of the five pillar findings below. Works, but something here costs you — money, control or certainty.
- Custody & Security35%
- 7.6
- Cost & Fee Transparency15%
- 7.2
- Regulation & Legal Standing5%
- 5.8
- Performance & Reliability35%
- 5.8
- Access & Support10%
- 7.4
Non-custodial and audited. A slashed operator loses its whole 2 ETH bond, and Puffer supports anti-slashing signing hardware. No incident on record as of 27 Sep 2026.
Stakers are paid through Validator Ticket sales. The standard two-step withdrawal is free and takes about 14 days; the instant route charges 1%.
Run by the Puffer Foundation, a Cayman Islands foundation company; early-stage governance.
TVL is about $32.1M, down about 98% from the June 2024 peak, so exit liquidity rather than design is the practical risk. In Sep 2026 the site asked users to withdraw from the existing UniFi vault ahead of a new one.
Clear documentation of the bond and ticket design; users must choose between a 1% instant exit and a two-week wait.
Strengths
- Operator bond is first loss; slashed operators lose the whole 2 ETH
- Self-imposed cap at 22% of Ethereum validators
- Free standard withdrawal (about 14 days)
Against it
- TVL down about 98% from the 2024 peak; exit liquidity is thin
- Instant withdrawal costs 1%
- Early-stage governance
A good design the market walked away from
Puffer's operators post a 2 ETH bond plus prepaid Validator Tickets, lose the whole bond if slashed, and can use anti-slashing signing hardware; the protocol caps itself at 22% of Ethereum validators. Ticket sales pay pufETH holders up front. No incident is on record as of 27 Sep 2026.
TVL has fallen about 98%, from $1.84B in June 2024 to about $32.1M, so exit liquidity rather than design is now the practical risk. The standard withdrawal is free and takes about 14 days; the instant route costs 1%. In September 2026 the site asked users to withdraw from the existing UniFi vault ahead of a new one.
Frequently asked questions
How does Puffer handle slashing?+
The operator’s 2 ETH bond is first loss: a slashed operator loses all of it. Puffer also supports anti-slashing signing hardware. Neither is an indemnity for pufETH holders beyond the bond.
How long does a pufETH withdrawal take?+
The standard two-step route is free and takes about 14 days (minimum 0.01 pufETH). The instant route pays out at once for a 1% fee to the treasury.
Can I run a Puffer node with less capital?+
Yes. A 2 ETH bond plus at least 28 Validator Tickets; the rest of the 32 ETH comes from stakers.
Assessed by
By Emily Volker
Editor-in-Chief · September 27, 2026
◆ Disclosure
CoinRadar Daily is a non-commercial project. We have no commercial relationship with Puffer Finance, earn nothing from any link on this page, and carry no advertising or sponsorship anywhere on the site. Findings rest on public sources; we did not open an account or transact.
Rubric v2.0How we score →
The rest of the liquid restaking table
- 02Puffer Finance — you are hereA thoughtful operator design, if you can use the slow exit6.8
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