Staking STRK means locking Starknet’s native token in the network’s staking contract to help secure the network and earn newly minted STRK as rewards. Holders can run a validator with at leas
Staking STRK means locking Starknet’s native token in the network’s staking contract to help secure the network and earn newly minted STRK as rewards. Holders can run a validator with at least 20,000 STRK, or delegate any amount to an existing validator. Reward rates currently sit at roughly 7% to 7.7% a year, depending on the data source. Withdrawing takes seven days.
Staking went live on Starknet mainnet on November 26, 2024. It is part of Starknet’s move to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model, in which people who lock tokens help run and secure the network.
STRK has three jobs on Starknet:
Staking is in the second of four planned phases. As of October 12, L2BEAT described Starknet as running five permissioned sequencers controlled by StarkWare, with three of the five needed to decide a block.
There are two ways to take part, and both earn rewards from the same system.
A validator must stake at least 20,000 STRK and run a full node. In the current phase, validators attest to blocks once per epoch. An epoch is a fixed period on the network. Attesting means the validator confirms that a block is valid. Rewards in each epoch are all-or-nothing, so a validator that misses its attestation earns nothing for that epoch.
Delegators can stake any amount of STRK through a validator. They do not run any hardware. They can switch validators at any time without a lockup period.
Rewards are newly minted STRK. According to Starknet’s staking documentation, the minting rate equals the 4% mainnet coefficient divided by 10, times the square root of the percentage of STRK staked. In plain terms, more staked STRK means more total minting, but each token earns a lower rate because rewards are shared among more stakers.
At the time of writing, Staking Rewards data shows a reward rate of 7.66% and a staking ratio of 21.03%. Staking provider Stakely lists a 7.10% APR. These rates change daily.
Validators also take a commission from their delegators’ rewards. Stakely charges 10%, and it explains how a commission works with an example. If the network APR is 10% and a validator charges a 5% commission, the delegator’s effective APR is 9.5%, not 5%. This is because the commission is taken from the rewards, not from the staked principal.
An October 19 analysis by ICKWEB3 counted about 1.54 billion STRK staked across 137 validators.
Staking comes with a few trade-offs that holders should know before locking tokens:
Starknet also accepts wrapped bitcoin for staking. STRK holds 75% of total staking power and BTC holds 25%. BTC stakers earn STRK rewards. According to Starknet, BTC staking does not change STRK stakers’ APR, because BTC stake does not affect STRK minting.
Liquid staking is another option. Endur issues xSTRK, a token that represents staked STRK and can be used in DeFi while the underlying STRK keeps earning rewards. In August, Endur added private liquid staking, which keeps a user’s position and yield hidden from public view.
On October 22, a non-binding Snapshot poll closed with 93.52% of voting power backing research into turning Starknet into an independent, post-quantum Layer 1. The vote approves research only. Any move to Layer 1 would need a separate governance vote. StarkWare plans to publish a draft whitepaper in November.
STRK would remain the native token. Crypto News Flash noted that on an independent chain, staked STRK would replace Ethereum’s validators as the main defense against attacks. This stake was worth about $84 million at October 22 prices. StarkWare also targets late 2026 for Staking v3. In that phase, validators would vote on blocks, and a block would be final once validators holding more than two-thirds of the stake approve it.
STRK staking lets holders secure Starknet and earn minted STRK, with reward rates currently around 7% to 7.7% a year. Validators need 20,000 STRK and a full node, while delegators can stake any amount and switch validators freely. Unstaking takes seven days. BTC can also be staked, holding 25% of staking power, and Endur offers liquid and private staking options. About 1.54 billion STRK was staked as of October 19.
