Native STX Staking Basics

Learn how to earn BTC rewards through Stacking DAO's Native STX staking pool.

Native STX staking lets you stake STX and earn BTC rewards without receiving a liquid token. Your STX never leaves your wallet: it is locked there by Stacks while it is staked. You choose how your rewards reach you: claim them yourself, have them sent to your Stacks wallet as sBTC, or have them sent as BTC to a Bitcoin address.

At a glance

Feature	Details
Deposit asset	STX
Reward asset	BTC, paid as sBTC or as BTC (your choice)
Liquid token	None
Where your STX is held	In your own wallet, locked while staked
Fee	5% of rewards
BTC payout option	Available from 2,000 STX staked
Staking cycle	About 2 weeks
Starts earning	From the start of the next cycle
Points	1 Stacking DAO point per day for every 2 STX staked

Where the yield comes from

Stacks uses Proof of Transfer. Bitcoin miners commit BTC while competing to produce Stacks blocks. That BTC funds rewards for eligible staking positions.

How rewards are paid

Rewards build up during each staking cycle and are distributed about twice per cycle (roughly once a week), rather than all at once at the end.

You choose one of three ways to receive them:

Option	What happens	Good to know
Claim yourself	Rewards collect on the Bitcoin Rewards card in the app until you claim them. When you claim, you can take them as sBTC in your Stacks wallet or as BTC at a Bitcoin address.	Nothing is sent until you claim.
Sent as sBTC	Rewards are sent to your Stacks wallet automatically, as sBTC.	Sent once at least 1,000 sats have built up.
Sent as BTC	Rewards are sent automatically, as BTC, to the Bitcoin address you provide.	Needs at least 2,000 STX staked. Sent once your rewards are at least 10 times the Bitcoin network fee, so the fee never takes more than 10% of a payout. That is 5,000 sats when Bitcoin fees are low, and more when the network is busy. The fee is taken from your rewards.

You pick an option when you stake, and you can change it at any time under Payout settings on your Native Staking position. Changing it is a transaction that you approve in your wallet. Once it confirms, the new option applies, including to rewards you have not claimed yet.

With the two automatic options, rewards that have not reached the minimum yet wait on a Native staking payout tile under Active positions. You can click Withdraw on that tile at any time to receive them in your Stacks wallet as sBTC.

Fee

Stacking DAO charges a 5% protocol fee on native staking rewards. It is taken from your rewards, never from your staked STX, and the APY shown in the app already includes it. The fee is set by Stacking DAO governance and is applied when rewards are claimed or sent to you.

Tracking your position

The Staking Overview section of the app shows how far the current cycle has progressed, when rewards are next distributed, the rewards generated so far in the cycle, and your estimated annual yield.

Native staking compared with liquid staking

Native STX staking is designed for users who want BTC rewards without a liquid token. Users who need a transferable token, or who want to use their position across supported DeFi applications, can choose stSTX or stSTXbtc instead.

If you staked before V2

Stakes made before native staking V2 are in the original Stacking DAO pool, which is being migrated to V2. If this applies to you, your Native Staking card shows a Move to V2 button. Moving takes one transaction and lets you choose how your rewards are paid. See Depositing STX in Native Staking Pool.

Next steps

• Depositing STX in Native Staking Pool

• Withdrawing STX From Native Staking Pool