How do I stake SOL?

Stake your SOL with Atomic Wallet to receive interest on your deposit! Here, we'll guide you through everything you need to know to stake your SOL and earn rewards. 

Contents

Getting started with staking

Staking looks pretty straightforward as a process—instead of just keeping your SOL deposit on your balance, you're choosing to stake it and earn interest. Where does the interest come from, though? 

By delegating your SOL to a validator of your choice, you're expressing your trust in them, which makes them more powerful on the Solana blockchain. As validators get paid for confirming blockchain transactions, they in turn pay back to those who supported them. That's how you earn your rewards! By staking your SOL in Atomic Wallet, you're choosing us as your validator.

SOL 101: the things you need to know before staking your coins

First reward In 4 days
Regular rewards Every 2 days
Yearly yield 7.4%
  • Network fees. You’ll have to pay a network fee every time you want to stake or unstake your SOL. That's why we strongly recommend against staking all your funds. Make sure to leave some small SOL amount on your available balance so that you can pay the fees. Otherwise, you won’t be able to unstake your deposit later on. The fees are charged by the Solana blockchain directly. If you're interested in learning more about how they work, see Does Atomic Wallet charge any additional transaction fees?
  • 0.000038 SOL will be reserved on your address for future fees for claiming/unstaking transactions when you stake. That means that these funds are still on your address and are available to send away or swap, but are not available for staking. It is done in order to avoid a situation in which you accidentally stake all of your funds and are unable to unstake your coins or claim your rewards.
  • Your deposit will be locked. Your SOL deposit will be frozen throughout the staking period. This means your staked SOL won’t be counted towards your total balance. Also, you won’t be able to transfer or swap them. 
  • Staking and unstaking does not happen immediately. Staking and unstaking takes several epochs (each epoch is around 3 days) to complete. Once you hit the Stake or Unstake button, your deposit will be frozen for several epochs. A fraction of the delegation becoming active (staked) or inactive (unstaked) at each epoch boundary after the button was clicked. More about it here.
  • Staking rewards. You'll start earning your SOL staking rewards in 2 epochs after your deposit was fully staked (which itself takes several epochs). After that, you'll receive your staking rewards automatically every epoch (~3 days).
  • Multiple delegations. If you decide to stake additional SOL after you've already staked some, the newly added staked amount will not be added to an already existing one. For example, if you had 2 SOL staked and decide to stake additional 3 SOL, you will have two delegations: one for 2 SOL and one for 3 SOL instead of having one delegation of 5 SOL. These are the rules of the SOL blockchain. If you wish to unstake your SOL, you will have to unstake each delegation individually. There is no way to unstake all of your SOL at once. 

How to stake SOL in your Atomic Wallet app

  1. Click Staking on the left sidebar;
  2. Select SOL;

  3. Click  Stake;

  4. Decide on the amount to stake. You'll be charged a network fee by the Solana blockchain for both staking and unstaking your deposit. The staking fee will automatically be deducted from the amount you're staking. We'd suggest you leave the same amount on your balance so that you can pay the fee once you decide to unstake your SOL; 

  5. Enter your password and click Confirm;

  6. Voilà, your SOL deposit is now staked! Remember, however, that it will take several epochs until your funds are fully staked. Relax and wait for your first rewards to arrive. See the Rewards section down below for more details;

  1. Select the Staking tab in the bottom panel;

  2. Tap SOL;

  3. Tap Stake;

  4. Decide on the amount to stake. You'll be charged a network fee by the Solana blockchain for both staking and unstaking your deposit. The staking fee will automatically be deducted from the amount you're staking. We recommend you leave the same amount on your balance so that you can pay the fee once you decide to unstake your SOL; 

  5. Enter your password and tap Confirm;

  6. Voilà, your SOL deposit is now staked! Remember, however, that it will take several epochs until your funds are fully staked. Relax and wait for your first rewards to arrive. See the Rewards section down below for more details;

Solana staking rewards

You'll receive your first staking rewards in 2 epochs after staking your deposit. Keep in mind that it takes several epochs to get your funds staked in the first place. Since one epoch amounts to around 3 days, this means you'll see your first rewards in 6 days after your deposit was fully staked.

After that, your rewards will arrive once every epoch, that is, every 3 days. There's no need to claim them, as they'll automatically be added to your staking deposit.

How to check whether you're receiving staking rewards

  1. Choose SOL from your coin list in Atomic Wallet.
  2. Select Receive.
  3. Copy your SOL address.
  4. Go to Solana Beach.
  5. Paste your address into the search bar.

  6. Scroll down a bit and switch to the Stakes tab.
    You'll see your staking accounts–Solana creates one whenever you make a new stake. Select the one you want to check on.
  7. Scroll down a bit again and select the Stake rewards tab.

    Here, you'll find a by-epoch history of your staking rewards. Please note that all rewards are added to your staking deposit, not your available SOL balance.

How to unstake your SOL

  1. Select SOL in the Staking tab.
  2. Select Unstake. Keep in mind, that if you had several delegations, you will have to unstake each one individually. It is not possible to unstake all of your SOL at once. 
  3. Enter the amount you want to unstake and select Unstake. Please note that unstaking takes several epochs, each lasting for around 3 days. 

In several days, your SOL will appear under Available withdrawals. Just select Withdraw to have your coins deposited to your SOL address.

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