Rocket Pool: rETH, megapools, commission and RPL for finance teams

rETH grows against ETH instead of paying out rewards, and Saturn 1 changed how node operators bond, earn and stake RPL. What to record.

2026-10-17 · 7 min read

If your treasury holds rETH, your rewards arrive as a rising exchange rate, not as new tokens, so nothing shows up in the wallet until you redeem or sell. If you run Rocket Pool nodes, the February 2026 Saturn 1 upgrade changed your bond, your commission flows and the role of RPL, and your accounting memos probably need updating.

How rETH works

A liquid staker deposits ETH (as little as 0.01 ETH) and receives rETH [2]. The number of rETH you hold never changes. Instead, the rETH-to-ETH ratio rises as validators earn consensus rewards, priority fees and MEV, and the protocol updates that rate roughly every 24 hours [2]. Rocket Pool's own example: 10 ETH deposited at a 1:1 rate could later be redeemed for 12.5 ETH once the ratio reached 1.25 [2].

Minting directly through the protocol gives rETH worth your ETH less a 0.05% deposit fee [3]. Redeeming directly only works when the protocol holds enough unstaked ETH; otherwise holders sell on a decentralized exchange, possibly at a small discount to the protocol rate [2]. Saturn 1 now keeps a buffer of new deposits in the rETH contract, roughly 1% of rETH TVL, to improve redemption liquidity [1]. A protocol-level withdrawal queue that can force validator exits (RPIP-71) passed a community vote in autumn 2026, but as of mid-October it is not live and is planned for the Saturn 2 upgrade, tentatively 2027 [8].

Node operators after Saturn 1

Saturn 1 went live on Ethereum mainnet on 18 February 2026 [8]. It replaced one-contract-per-validator minipools with megapools: a single contract per operator that serves as the withdrawal address for all of that operator's validators [1][5]. New legacy minipool deposits are disabled; existing minipools can migrate [1].

• Bond: an operator supplies 4 ETH per validator and the protocol matches 28 ETH from rETH deposits, down from an 8 ETH bond on the old minipools [1]. The bond size is a governance parameter, and an October 2026 vote kept it at 4 ETH [1][8].
• Commission: revenue on the borrowed ETH is split under the Universal Adjustable Revenue Split. Defaults are 5% to node operators, 9% to megapool RPL stakers (the voter share), 0% to the protocol treasury, and the remainder, about 86%, to rETH holders [4].
• Rewards on the operator's own 4 ETH stay with the operator; the contract tracks how much capital belongs to the operator versus rETH stakers and treats everything else as rewards [5].
• Penalties and shortfalls: governance oracles can add to a megapool debt balance, and if an exited validator returns less than the borrowed ETH, the shortfall becomes debt. Rewards and the operator's capital pay down debt before the operator can claim anything [5].

RPL is now optional, and earns ETH

Before Saturn, operators had to stake RPL as collateral. Saturn 0 in October 2024 removed the 10% collateral requirement, and under Saturn 1 there is no RPL requirement to add megapool validators [1][5]. RPL staked on a megapool now earns a pro-rata slice of the 9% voter share, paid in ETH every 28 days, plus continuing RPL inflation rewards [4]. Unstaking takes two steps with a 28-day waiting period, during which the RPL earns nothing and the request cannot be cancelled [4]. For the books, that means staked RPL is a restricted asset for at least 28 days after you decide to exit, and you will see two claimable reward streams in different tokens.

Accounting for rETH: common approaches

There is no FASB or IASB guidance written for liquid staking, so treatment is a policy and judgment matter. KPMG's April 2026 staking publication gives one detailed US GAAP view [6]:

• Depositing ETH for a liquid staking receipt token generally means derecognizing the ETH and recognizing the receipt token [6].
• Because a receipt token is designed to be redeemable for the underlying, KPMG expects it to fall outside ASU 2023-08 fair value accounting unless the redemption right is not legally enforceable [6]. Out of scope means cost less impairment, so the rising rate is not booked while you hold.
• On redemption, only the extra ETH received versus ETH originally staked, valued at the ETH price on the deposit date, is staking income; the rest of the gain is price movement [6].
• If your entity concludes rETH is in scope, it is remeasured to fair value each period, and only the part of the change caused by the higher exchange rate is staking income [6].

For node operators, KPMG's framework treats the operator as a validator: rewards are revenue, and the 5% commission is part of what the operator is entitled to [6]. The operator's 4 ETH bond is generally still the operator's asset, since staked tokens are usually not derecognized [6]. For US tax, Rev. Rul. 2023-14 says a cash-method taxpayer includes staking rewards in income when it gains dominion and control over them [7]; for node operators, that points to when rewards become claimable. Whether swapping ETH for rETH is itself taxable is not settled in US guidance, and Rocket Pool's own docs note it may be taxable in some countries [2].

What to do

• Record the rETH exchange rate and ETH price on every deposit date; you need both at redemption.
• Decide and document whether rETH is in or out of ASU 2023-08 scope, with legal input on redemption enforceability.
• For node operators, reconcile the megapool contract: operator capital, borrowed ETH, unclaimed rewards and any debt balance.
• Track staked RPL, unstaking requests and their 28-day unlock dates separately from liquid RPL.
• Book ETH voter-share rewards and RPL inflation rewards as separate income streams at their claim-period values.
• Watch the Saturn 2 governance timeline; rETH withdrawals and bond changes would alter your liquidity assumptions.

Sources

1. The Saturn 1 Upgrade (docs source: upgrades/saturn-1/whats-new.mdx) (Rocket Pool)
2. Staking Overview (docs source: liquid-staking/overview.mdx) (Rocket Pool)
3. Staking Directly via Rocket Pool (docs source: liquid-staking/via-rp.mdx) (Rocket Pool)
4. RPL Staking and Claiming Rewards (docs source: node-staking/megapools/staking-and-claiming-rewards.mdx) (Rocket Pool)
5. RPIP-43: Megapools (Rocket Pool Improvement Proposals)
6. Hot Topic: Accounting for staking activities (April 2026) (KPMG)
7. Rev. Rul. 2023-14 (IRS)
8. Rocket Pool voters back rETH withdrawals, keep 4 ETH bonds (Crypto Briefing)

General information for finance teams, current as of publication. Not legal, tax or accounting advice.

All Newsroom explainers