Rocket Pool, a decentralized Ethereum-based staking service, deployed its Atlas upgrade Monday night, introducing new architectural changes and making the protocol compatible with Ethereum’s Shapella hard fork upgrade.
Rocket Pool’s recent upgrade gives node operators immediate access to their staking rewards and lowers the barrier of entry to spin up an Ethereum validator, or “minipool,” in the protocol’s parlance. Instead of providing 16 ether (ETH), node operators can supply just eight plus some RPL – Rocket Pool’s governance token – to form a minipool, decreasing the amount of capital required to participate in Ethereum’s staking process.
“Minipools with only 8 ETH bonded by their owning node operator are matched with 24 ETH from the staking pool (provided by rETH holders) in order to make a validator,” according to Rocket Pool documents.
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RPL has rallied almost 30% to $55.37 in the six days since Shapella, per CoinGecko. Rocket Pool’s total value locked (TVL) increased more than 20% to $1.47 billion in the same period, making it the third-largest liquid staking entity, trailing only Lido and Coinbase, data from DefiLlama shows.
