Bitcoin Staking, powered by Babylon, allows you to stake your Bitcoin (BTC) to help secure Bitcoin Supercharged Networks (BSNs) while earning rewards – all without moving your BTC off the Bitcoin blockchain. Clients now have the ability to stake Bitcoin (BTC) on Kraken. When a client stakes BTC, they will receive staking rewards in BTC. BSNs are blockchains or decentralised applications that leverage native BTC staking through the Babylon protocol.

By staking through Babylon’s protocol, you delegate your BTC to participate in securing the Babylon Genesis blockchain (and its connected Bitcoin Supercharged Networks). In return, you earn rewards in Babylon’s native token BABY, without requiring you to send your Bitcoin to a third party or bridge it to another blockchain. Your Bitcoin is held in a self-custodial, time-locked output on the Bitcoin blockchain - until the unbonding period ends. To find out more about Bitcoin staking, how it works, and the risks, read our complete guide to crypto staking.

To allocate your Bitcoin to Bonded Staking simply follow the steps in the section below. After which you will earn rewards and improve the security of other blockchains without leaving the safety of the Bitcoin network.

Bitcoin Staking will generate rewards paid out in Babylon’s native token, BABY, for securing the Babylon Genesis blockchain.

The reward rates (or Annual Percentage Rate (APR)) for Bitcoin Staking is variable. Kraken will display an estimated Overall APR for Bitcoin Staking. This figure is an estimate of the annualized return and it can fluctuate over time.

*Reward Asset: reward tokens from any system that access Bitcoin staking security and liquidity via Babylon Genesis.

Note: Reward assets and associated APRs may change over time.

You will start generating rewards once your stake is active, accrue rewards daily, and get paid out to your spot wallet in reward assets on a weekly basis.

Bitcoin Staking is bonded, meaning you have to wait a specific amount of time before your funds are unlocked. This wait time is a Babylon protocol requirement, and is typically around 7 days. 

During the unbonding period:

No - stake as much BTC as you choose, with no constraints by Kraken.

If Bitcoin Staking is not showing as an option in your account, you may not be eligible.

To unstake your staked Bitcoin, follow these guides:

There are currently no transaction fees for Bitcoin staking or unstaking. Kraken takes a commission based on the rewards you receive from the network. 

The reward rates shown are an estimate of the rewards you could earn on the assets you hold, before our commission, and are based on the average staking rewards accrued over the past period.

Commissions for Bitcoin Staking are based on current Bitcoin balances staked, ranging from 10-26%. More details can be found in the Fees section here.

For additional information, please refer to our Terms of Service.

Participating in the staking process is not a risk-free endeavour. Individuals should be aware of the following risks.

We will compensate you for any slashing penalty and non-payment of applicable restaking rewards, unless this results from your actions, network maintenance or a bug, a hack, and in certain other situations. For a full list of circumstances where we won’t compensate you for slashing penalties, please refer to our Terms of Service. 

You retain ownership of staked assets, staked assets remain your property while staked, and title to your staked assets remains with you at all times and doesn’t transfer to us.