Liquid Staking Token (LST)
A tradable token representing staked assets plus their accruing rewards — stETH being the best-known example.
A liquid staking token is the receipt you receive from liquid staking: it represents your staked coins and grows in value (or quantity) as staking rewards accrue. stETH, rETH and similar tokens trade freely and plug into lending, liquidity pools and restaking.
Two risks distinguish LSTs from holding the raw asset. First, a peg risk: an LST should track its underlying 1:1, but market stress can push it to a discount (stETH briefly traded well below ETH during 2022’s turmoil). Second, smart-contract and validator risk from the issuing protocol. The yield compensates for these — it isn’t free.