Staker quickstart
Staking a firm's token for yield, end to end. For stakers explains the two pools; this page is the doing.
1. Get the firm's token
Every firm has its own token, tradeable on its from the firm's storefront or the terminal. Buy the amount you intend to stake. If the firm has graduated, its token also trades on Raydium, but staking happens through the firm's own pages either way.
2. Choose your pool, honestly
This is the decision that matters, because the two pools are different products:
| No-risk pool | Backstop pool | |
|---|---|---|
| Your capital | Never touched | Real payout collateral, drawn when the firm's treasury and reserve run short |
| Yield | Smaller, steady | Meaningfully higher: a fixed premium carved from every eval fee |
| Exit | Liquid | Cooldowns and daily caps, longest for the largest positions |
| Airdrop points | None | None since 2026-08-06; the yield is the return |
Staking economics has the exact mechanics of how each is paid. Don't put capital in the backstop pool you can't afford to see drawn down; that's not fine print, it's the product.
3. Stake
Both pools stake from the firm's staking page in a wallet-signed transaction. Yield accrues from the firm's real evaluation revenue, a fixed slice of every eval fee routes to each pool (see the fee schedule), so a firm that sells nothing yields nothing. You're backing the firm's actual business, not an emissions curve.
4. What staking also gets you
- The daily giveaway. Every firm gives one evaluation account away per day, drawn from its stakers, with odds weighted so large positions can't dominate the draw. How the giveaway draw is fair covers the mechanism.
- Airdrop points, from spending rather than staking. Staking itself no longer accrues points in either pool: the backstop source was retired on 2026-08-06, and points already earned under it stay in the ledger. Evaluation purchases and referrals still earn. Points & the airdrop has the current rates.
- The comeback discount. A modest stake in either pool unlocks the per-wallet evaluation discount described in Evaluations & the rulebook.
5. Unstaking
No-risk positions exit freely. Backstop positions exit through health-scaled cooldowns and a pool-wide daily withdrawal cap, protections that exist so a rush for the door can't strip a firm's payout collateral overnight. Check Staker FAQ for the timing questions before you commit, not while you're waiting.