The service is run by stakefish Inc., a British Virgin Islands company . Wikipedia credits Chun Wang, a co-founder of F2Pool, with launching it in 2018 .

stakefish

Staking provider· founded 2018

What Is stakefish? The Non-Custodial Staking Provider Explained

stakefish is a validator company that runs proof-of-stake nodes on Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos and more than a dozen other networks. Token holders and institutions stake with it to earn network rewards ¹⁵. Its main retail product is non-custodial. You stake from your own wallet, and on Ethereum you keep control of the withdrawal address, so stakefish runs the validator but cannot move your ETH ³. It has operated validators since 2018 ¹¹⁰. The contracting company is stakefish Inc., registered in the British Virgin Islands ⁸. stakefish has no token of its own.

Facts checked October 23, 2026 10 cited sources No score on this page, no affiliate links

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At a glance

What it is: Validator operator and staking service ¹
Operating entity: stakefish Inc., British Virgin Islands ⁸
Running validators since: 2018 ¹¹⁰
Founder: Chun Wang, also a co-founder of mining pool F2Pool (per Wikipedia) ¹⁰
Networks: Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, Cardano, Sui, Polygon, Tezos, Babylon, Starknet, Monad and others ⁵
Staked (company-stated): 826,280 ETH and 508,092 SOL, per its homepage on Oct 23, 2026 ¹
Custody: Non-custodial for retail; custodial option for institutions ³⁴
Ethereum fee model: 0% on consensus rewards; commission on tips and MEV via a smoothing pool ³
Certification: SOC 2 (company-stated) ¹²
Not available to: Sanctioned jurisdictions and persons; non-accredited investors in Singapore ⁸
Official site: stake.fish
Profile updated: October 23, 2026

Company and ownership

stakefish began running validators in 2018. Its early work included Cosmos, where it says it won the "Game of Stakes" testnet competition ⁷. Wikipedia credits Chun Wang, a co-founder of the Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool, with launching stakefish in 2018 ¹⁰. On Ethereum, its first validator came online at the Beacon Chain's genesis in December 2020. It joined Lido's node operator set in February 2021 ⁹.

Its legal terms are with stakefish Inc., a British Virgin Islands company ⁸. The company says its team is spread across time zones to keep nodes covered 24 hours a day ². It names Lido, BitGo and ether.fi as partners ². It also runs oracle nodes for Chainlink and Centrifuge ⁵.

Products

Classic staking (Ethereum). You deposit ETH from your own wallet to create validators that stakefish operates. Following Ethereum's Pectra upgrade, one validator can hold up to 2,048 ETH. A dashboard tracks validators, rewards and exits ³.
Network staking (Solana, Cosmos and others). You delegate tokens to stakefish's validator address from a wallet. The tokens stay in your account, and stakefish's commission is deducted from rewards ⁶⁷.
Restaking. It supports EigenLayer through custom withdrawal credentials and stakes BTC through Babylon ¹⁵⁹.
Institutional staking and API. Platforms and treasuries can call an API to stake, track and unstake across chains. On Ethereum, institutions can choose custodial "Enterprise Staking" or non-custodial "Client Staking" ⁴.
Integrations. In 2023 stakefish added staking from Safe multisig wallets and "Validator NFTs" that make validators transferable ⁹.

How ETH staking with stakefish works

Connect your wallet in the stakefish dashboard and choose how much ETH to stake (32 ETH per validator under the classic setup) ³.
Your deposit goes to Ethereum's official deposit contract. The validator's withdrawal address points to your wallet.
stakefish runs the validator keys and infrastructure. Consensus-layer rewards are paid by the network straight to your withdrawal address ³.
Execution-layer tips and MEV go into stakefish's fee/MEV smoothing pool. Validators share that pool so payouts are steadier, and stakefish's commission comes out of it ³.
To leave, you request an exit. Your ETH comes back after Ethereum's exit and withdrawal queue, which can take days depending on network traffic ³.

Fees and commissions

stakefish charges commission on rewards, not on your staked principal. Its terms say the applicable fee is shown when you use a service and can change with notice. Fees already paid are not refundable ⁸. Published rates as of October 23, 2026:

Network	Commission	Unbonding / exit
Ethereum (classic)	0% of consensus rewards; commission on tips and MEV through the smoothing pool (50% in stakefish's calculator) ³	Ethereum exit queue (variable) ³
Solana	5% of protocol rewards; 10% of MEV rewards ⁶	About 48 hours, per stakefish ⁶
Cosmos	5% ⁷	21 days ⁷

You also pay network transaction fees. Institutional pricing is not published.

Custody, slashing and security

Custody. Retail staking is non-custodial: on Ethereum you control the withdrawal address, and on delegation networks your tokens stay in your account ³⁶. The institutional Enterprise option is custodial ⁴.
Slashing. stakefish's site claims "zero slashing" ³, but its terms do not guarantee that slashing won't happen ⁸. If you are slashed or penalized only because of stakefish's actions, it may refund you, at its discretion, up to the amount of fees you paid ⁸. In other words, a refund is capped at the fee, not the lost stake.
Your own key risk. If you lose the wallet that controls your withdrawal address, the staked funds are lost for good. stakefish cannot recover them ³.
Controls. stakefish says it is SOC 2 certified ¹⁴. No report or auditor was published on the pages checked.

Who can use stakefish

The service is not available to people or entities in US-sanctioned jurisdictions, people on OFAC or similar sanctions lists, or non-accredited investors in Singapore. Using a VPN to get around these restrictions is prohibited ⁸. Disputes go to binding individual arbitration under the terms ⁸. Check local rules on staking and its tax treatment yourself.

Incident record

1 outcome unclear

No stakefish-specific hack, slashing event or outage was found in the sources checked as of Oct 23, 2026

—outcome unclear

Outcome: No incident on record in sources checked; this does not prove none occurred
Loss: —
Recovered or reimbursed: —

Source: stake.fish

Hacks in DefiLlama’s public database are also scored as the security record on the stakefish rating page.

Questions about stakefish

Is stakefish custodial?

Not for regular users. You stake from your own wallet, and on Ethereum you control the withdrawal address. Only the institutional "Enterprise Staking" option is custodial ³⁴.

How much does stakefish charge on Ethereum?

Nothing on consensus-layer rewards. Its commission comes from execution-layer tips and MEV in its smoothing pool, shown as 50% in stakefish's calculator ³.

Who owns stakefish?

The service is run by stakefish Inc., a British Virgin Islands company ⁸. Wikipedia credits Chun Wang, a co-founder of F2Pool, with launching it in 2018 ¹⁰.

Does stakefish cover slashing losses?

Only partly. If slashing results solely from stakefish's actions, it may refund up to the fees you paid, at its discretion ⁸.

Can I use stakefish from the US?

The terms do not exclude the US in general. They exclude sanctioned jurisdictions and persons, and non-accredited investors in Singapore ⁸.