Staking risks

Staking with Coinbase is safe. However, we encourage all customers to fully review and understand the staking process before staking.

Unstaking takes time

The balance you stake will be unavailable to sell or send until you unstake it. 

You can request to unstake at any time, but the process can take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks, depending on the asset. 

Most staking assets have predetermined unstaking periods, listed here. Time to unstake Ethereum is dependent on network conditions, and unstaking isn’t guaranteed to be completed in any specific amount of time.

Crypto fluctuates, so there’s a risk that the market price could be higher or lower by the time unstaking is complete.

Protocol penalties (or “slashing”)

Some staking protocols impose penalties (“slashing”) for validators who violate protocol rules. According to a 2023 study, only .04% of ETH validators have been slashed since 2020, making the occurrence rare but not impossible. Additionally, this has never occurred at Coinbase. 

In the event of a slashing incident, Coinbase may or may not replace your assets, depending on the cause of slashing

Coinbase’s User Agreement commits to reimbursing slashing penalties resulting from mistakes made  by Coinbase or any of its third-party validators, where appropriate. You are not required to take any action in this situation to receive this reimbursement. 

There are a few situations where Coinbase will not reimburse for slashing penalties. For example, if slashing occurs as a result of a hack, your own actions, or a bug in the protocol itself, it is possible you could lose some or all of the crypto you have chosen to stake as Coinbase isn’t responsible for reimbursement.

Staking rewards

Staking rewards come from the underlying crypto network, not Coinbase. Coinbase cannot guarantee that you will earn any reward and does not have any discretion in the calculation or payment of rewards. 

Protocol rules and network conditions can change, so past rewards are not necessarily predictors of future staking payouts. Other factors such as Coinbase’s hardware, software, or network downtime can also result in lost rewards. 

Staking rewards are not guaranteed. It is possible that rewards you earn will be higher or lower than estimates based on past network behavior. Not earning any reward on staked assets is also possible.

Receiving staking rewards

Staking rewards received from the network will be credited to your account at regular intervals minus Coinbase’s staking commission. 

More information about our pricing and fee disclosures can be found here.

Canadian customers

Additional information, including the names and other information regarding the validators and information regarding lock-up periods and rewards, can be found in the Staking Risk Statement and Crypto Asset Statement.