How to judge a staking offer

Staking offers are everywhere, on every network, with rates from 2% to far higher. The same seven checks apply to all of them. This lesson gives you the list.

1. Where does the rate come from?

A network pays stakers in new coins and fees. An exchange or app passes that on, minus its cut. Anything above the network's own rate is coming from somewhere else: a promotion, a reward token, or the provider taking extra risk with your coins.

For ETH the network rate was about 2.5% a year in October 2026. When Kraken's US staking programme was shut down in 2023, regulators noted it had advertised returns of up to 21%.

2. What does inflation do to it?

Many networks pay stakers by creating new coins. If the supply grows 7% a year and stakers earn 7%, a staker's share of the network has not changed. The reward only keeps them level. Someone who does not stake is being diluted.

A high staking rate on a network with high inflation is mostly a transfer from holders who do not stake to holders who do. Compare the rate with how fast the supply is growing.

3. Who holds the keys?

Lesson 47 set out the range. On some networks you delegate from your own wallet and keep control. Solana's documentation, for example, states that delegating "does NOT give the validator ownership or control over your tokens".

With an exchange or an "earn" account, the company holds the coins. You are trusting it to stay solvent and honest.

4. How long to get out?

Every network has its own waiting period, and providers add their own.

• Ethereum: an exit queue that lengthens when many leave at once.
• Solana: stake can only be withdrawn after it deactivates at the end of an epoch, and an epoch is about two days.
• Other networks: from days to several weeks.

During that wait you cannot sell, and the price can move a long way. Check both the network's rule and the provider's terms. If a company offers an instant exit when the network does not, ask how it manages that and what it does with your coins in the meantime.

5. What does it cost?

Validators and providers take a share of rewards. A 10% commission on a 5% rate leaves you 4.5%. Check whether the advertised rate is before or after fees, and whether the fee can change.

6. Can I be slashed?

Rules differ. On Ethereum, a misbehaving validator has stake destroyed automatically. Solana's documentation says slashing "is not automatic" there. Where slashing exists, you share in the penalties of the validator you chose.

Pick validators with a long record of reliability, and consider splitting between several.

7. What about tax?

In the United States, staking rewards count as income when you gain control of them, valued at that moment. That is true even if you never sell. Lesson 58 explains.

Red flags

• A guaranteed or fixed high rate. Network rewards vary. A guarantee comes from a company, and is only as good as the company.
• No clear answer on where the yield comes from.
• Pressure. Countdown timers and "limited places" belong to sales, not to staking.
• A request to send coins to a person or an unknown address. Real staking is a transaction you sign in your own wallet, or a setting in your own account at an exchange you chose yourself. Lesson 18 covers investment scams.

The short version

Before you stake anything, be able to say in one sentence each: who pays the rate, who holds the keys, how long to exit, what the fee is, and what could cost you the stake.