How do my staking rewards work?

illustration of a wallet with Luno's staking icon on it

Who can use this feature?

Staking is currently only available to Luno customers in Malaysia and South Africa.

When you stake your crypto, you’ll earn regular rewards for your contribution. You might be a little unsure about some of the terminology around staking rewards, or maybe you’re just curious to learn more about how these rewards work, exactly. Let’s dig in.

How much do I get rewarded?

You’ll earn a percentage of your staked crypto, indicated by the ARP (Annual Rewards Percentage) shown to you before you stake. The ARP is an estimation of how much your staked coins could earn per year. This percentage varies depending on network conditions (see the note below for more info).

Luno doesn’t charge a fee to stake or unstake your cryptocurrency, but we do take a staking service fee. Our service fee has already been deducted from the reward you receive, so the ARP you see is what you earn after this deduction.

Tip

Visit our Fees and Limits page to view the staking service fee.

So, look at your ARP to mean: this is more-or-less how much my staked crypto could grow after one full year.

Here’s a hypothetical example to illustrate this: if you staked 100 coins with an ARP of 3.5%, your estimated total rewards for the year could add up to 3.5 coins, depending on how much that percentage fluctuates throughout the year.

Why does the percentage vary?

Staking rewards are set by the blockchain and could vary depending on network conditions. Since staked crypto is used to validate transactions, your crypto won’t be needed as much if there aren’t a lot of transactions taking place, so rewards will be lower in value. This variation is outside of Luno’s control. The ARP you see on Luno is an average percentage, based on the last 30 days of staking rewards.

When do I get rewards?

Now that you have an idea of how much your staked crypto could earn, let’s talk about when you can expect rewards to arrive in your Staking Wallet.

First reward

Once you’ve added crypto to your Staking Wallet, there’s a waiting period before you earn your first reward.

Why the delay? Staking solutions are different depending on the cryptocurrency, and registering newly staked coins can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few weeks. Ultimately, this waiting period is outside of Luno’s control – it depends on the blockchain’s design and how much demand there is on the blockchain, which can create queues.

We will always provide you with an estimated waiting period in the app before you commit any funds.

Note

Depending on the blockchain, you may not be able to unstake your crypto until the initial waiting period is over. In other words, you won’t be able to do anything with those funds while you wait for your stake to become active. We will warn you about this before you stake your crypto.

Regular rewards

After you get your first reward, you’ll start receiving your rewards like clockwork, at regular reward intervals.

When you increase your stake by topping up your Staking Wallet with more funds, those additional funds will go through the same waiting period as well. In other words, your regular rewards won’t immediately increase in value. The first one or two rewards may be the same, then you’ll start to get larger rewards as your newly-staked crypto comes into effect.

Last reward

You’ll continue to receive regular rewards until you decide to unstake your cryptocurrency (move it out of the Staking Wallet).

Similar to the waiting period for your first reward, the time it takes to move funds out of your Staking Wallet depends on the blockchain and demand on the network. This is outside of Luno’s control, but we’ll always provide you with an estimated waiting period in the app before you commit any funds.

By the way, what am I actually being paid for?

Your staked crypto is used to validate transactions on that cryptocurrency’s blockchain. The rewards are a bonus for your contribution to keeping the blockchain running smoothly and securely.

Tip

Follow this link to learn more about what staking is and how it works.

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