Overview of On-chain staking on Kraken – Kraken

On-chain staking

On-chain staking utilizes blockchain Proof-of-Stake protocol to generate rewards through a process typically called “staking”. We use the term “On-chain” to differentiate this traditional form of staking from a separate, “Off-chain” staking service we provide in limited geographies (Off-chain staking does not utilize Proof-of-Stake protocol).

Benefits of On-chain staking on Kraken vs staking on other platforms:

✓ Start earning rewards instantly — no waiting or bonding periods (other than ETH2!)
✓ Payouts twice a week*
✓ One of the highest returns in the industry
✓ Stake your assets in just three clicks from your Kraken balances
✓ Instant un-staking**

*ETH and FLOW will payout weekly
**FLOW only allows for rewards (not staked amount) to be un-staked, ETH is not currently available to unstake)

Assets eligible for On-chain staking

Currently we offer On-chain staking for Cosmos (ATOM), Ethereum (ETH), Flow (FLOW), Kusama (KSM), Polkadot (DOT), Tezos (XTZ).

We have plans to introduce On-chain staking for other assets in the near future — such as Dash (DASH). Follow our blog for announcements.

Balance hold & impact on equity for margin trading

While your assets are staked via our On-chain staking service, they are not available for trading and cannot be pushed to your external (non-Kraken) account. You will generally be able to instantly un-stake assets at any time for any amount.

Staking Ethereum (ETH) and Tezos (XTZ) also impacts your equity for margin trading, because they are a collateral currency and will be removed from your trading and equity balances while staked. Your equity balances affect your free margin and margin level for margin trading.

Rewards

All rewards that have been earned via staking are counted and will appear in the total rewards column on the Staking page, please note however that this is not an amount of accrued rewards - as these have either been added to your Staked amount or deposited into your Spot Wallet already. This is informational only.

Currency	Rewards Per Year (RPY)	Reward Schedule
Tezos (XTZ)	5.5%	Monday/Thursday Starting* at 01:00 UTC
Cosmos (ATOM)	7%	Sunday/Wednesday Starting* at 01:00 UTC
Polkadot (DOT)	12%	Tuesday/Friday Starting* at 01:00 UTC
Kusama (KSM)	12%	Wednesday/Saturday Starting* at 01:00 UTC
Ethereum (ETH)	5% to 17%	Sunday Starting* at 01:30 UTC
Kava (KAVA)	4.5%	Sunday/Wednesday Starting* at 02:00 UTC
Flow (FLOW)	4% to 20%	Thursday Starting* at 01:30 UTC

*Rates are estimates and are subject to change and compliance with Kraken’s terms of service.

Assets subject to a bonding period do not accrue rewards until that period had ended.

For select assets, your rewards may compounded with the Grow Rewards feature, which adds your earned rewards every week back into On-chain staking. This means if you continue to leave your funds staked you may earn more than the RPY percent.

Time

Unlike other staking services, at Kraken there is no minimum On-chain staking time needed to earn rewards. You start earning pro-rated rewards for On-chain staking as soon as your instructions to stake are processed by Kraken (which may be within minutes of you staking your funds).

For example, if you only utilized On-chain staking for a few hours and then un-staked your funds, you would still be credited pro-rated rewards on the next payout day. In contrast, on other services you wouldn't receive anything. Unlike other staking services we also have no bonding and unbonding period for On-chain staking (other than ETH2!).

Fees

There are currently no fees for staking or unstaking.

For Ethereum staking, due to the specific network rollout and complexity, Kraken retains an administrative fee from earned staking rewards and provides clients variable reward rate. See here for more details.

Mobile

It is not possible to stake or un-stake on mobile because the Kraken API (which is what the mobile app is based on) does not have any commands for staking.