Why staking yield is contested
Native ETH staking pays around 3% APR. Two scholarly views compete:
View A: Staking yield is a service fee for the validation work the staker (or their delegate) performs. The yield is earned, not paid for the time-value of money. Halal.
View B: Staking yield is paid in proportion to the size of the stake, scales with duration of locking, and exists structurally even if the validator does no incremental work. That makes it indistinguishable from interest. Haram.
Reasonable scholars disagree. The framework's default is to treat the question as Mashbooh — uncertain — and to exclude staking from the bot's tiers entirely. We hold spot ETH and do not stake.
Why liquid staking derivatives are different from staking ETH directly
stETH is not ETH. It is a derivative token issued by Lido whose value tracks ETH plus the accrued staking yield. Buying stETH is buying both ETH exposure and a claim on Lido's staking yield. Even if you set aside the staking-yield debate, three additional issues compound:
- Counterparty risk via Lido — you are exposed to Lido's validator selection, slashing risk, and governance.
- Peg risk — stETH historically traded at a discount to ETH during stress (most notably 2022). The peg is not algorithmic; it is liquidity-driven.
- Layered uncertainty (gharar) — the staking yield is contested; the peg is not guaranteed; the protocol is one of many. The combined uncertainty pushes well past the gharar threshold most scholars accept for spot trading.
For the same reasons, rETH (Rocket Pool) is excluded.
What about ETH itself
ETH is permissible (with caveats). The bot trades spot ETH, never stakes it, and treats stETH and rETH as separate, excluded instruments. If a customer wants ETH exposure, the bot's spot ETH position is the cleanly halal version of that exposure.