RHEA LST Review 2026: Liquid Staking for NEAR

RHEA LST is the liquid staking part of Rhea Finance, a DeFi platform on the NEAR blockchain. DefiLlama describes it as liquid staking for the Rhea Finance ecosystem, and it has been listed since 12 November 2025. It reports about $75.7 million in total value locked, up 1.8% over seven days.

The product works through rNEAR. You stake NEAR, receive rNEAR, and it earns staking rewards while staying usable inside Rhea, for example in a rNEAR/NEAR pool on the DEX.

Rhea itself is broader than staking. Its homepage presents it as a chain-abstracted liquidity solution built on NEAR Intents, covering swaps across 24 chains, cross-chain lending and a solver liquidity program. It lists backers such as Dragonfly Capital, Jump Crypto, OKX Ventures and the NEAR Foundation.

Liquid staking lets you stake a token to earn rewards without locking it in an inactive form. With RHEA LST, you deposit NEAR and receive rNEAR in return. rNEAR represents your staked NEAR plus the rewards it earns, and the homepage says it remains usable across the Rhea ecosystem.

Because you hold a tradable token, you can use it in places like the rNEAR/NEAR pool on Rhea's DEX. Rhea also offers lending and cross-chain trading built on NEAR Intents, which is an intent system where solvers compete to fill trades. The project does not detail how rNEAR rewards are calculated or how redemption works, so users should read the app and docs for that.

Fees for staking NEAR into rNEAR are not published publicly available to us. That includes any commission taken from staking rewards and any unstaking delay or charge. Users would normally see these on the stake page in the Rhea app or in the project's documentation.

Other Rhea products have their own costs, such as DEX fee tiers on pools and lending borrow rates. The homepage lists these as fields, but the values did not load in the text we have. Network gas fees on NEAR also apply to any transaction.

DefiLlama lists two audits for the project, but the project does not name the auditors or give the reports. The homepage security section says an independent audit is required before any market reopens, real-time monitoring runs on every live market, and a weekly AI audit takes place. It also links to a transparency report. The wording suggests markets were paused at some point, but the project does not explain why, so we do not make claims about any incident.

Liquid staking carries smart-contract risk, the chance that rNEAR trades below the value of the NEAR behind it, and the usual risks of NEAR itself. Funds sit in on-chain contracts rather than with a custodian, so you keep wallet-level control but rely on the code. Regulatory status is not stated publicly.

RHEA LST is for NEAR holders who want to earn staking rewards while keeping a liquid token they can use in DeFi. It is less suited to people who want a simple, single-purpose staking product, or who are not comfortable with smart-contract risk.