Crypto Staking. The most important one.

“There are 3 eras of currency: Commodity based, politically based, and now, math-based.” — Chris Dixon, Co-founder and Former CEO of Hunch

Definition of Staking

🔷 Crypto staking is a way of earning passive income, and it can be seen as the crypto world’s equivalent of earning interest or dividends while holding onto your underlying assets.

Staking allows you to earn cryptocurrency as a reward for using your existing holdings to vouch for the accuracy of transactions on an underlying blockchain network. While this sounds complicated, everyday users can often do it directly from their digital wallets, or they can use services provided by crypto exchanges that will handle the technical details for a cut of the proceeds.

🔷 Generally speaking, cryptocurrency staking offers returns that exceed those you can earn in a savings account. However, staking is not without risk. You’ll earn rewards in crypto, a volatile asset. Sometimes, you have to lock up your crypto for a set period of time. And there is a chance that you could lose some of the cryptocurrency you’ve staked as a penalty if the system doesn’t work as expected.

That said, staking can also be a way to grow your crypto portfolio using assets you plan to hang onto for a while. Staking is also a more energy efficient way of running a crypto network than the mining process used by Bitcoin and some others. If you own a cryptocurrency that uses a proof of stake blockchain, you are eligible to stake your tokens. Staking locks up your assets to participate and help maintain the security of that network’s blockchain. In exchange for locking up your assets and participating in the network validation, validators receive rewards in that cryptocurrency known as staking rewards.

The most popular crypto exchanges with the highest and the lowest rate of staking ⬇️

OKX — Overall Best Crypto Staking Platform Offering up to 300% APY

OKX is our top pick for staking cryptocurrencies in 2022. This global crypto exchange offers trading on more than 340 popular cryptocurrencies and gives investors a chance to earn interest on many of them.

OKX’s staking platform is integrated right into the exchange, making it very simple to use. Users can choose from a wide selection of coins to stake, some earning up to 70% APY. Many coins are available to stake with flexible staking periods and there are higher rates available for 15, 30, 60, 90, or 120-day lock-up periods.

🆒 Pros

• 20+ million users around the world
• Offers trading on 340+ crypto tokens
• Flexible staking or lock-in periods for higher rewards
• Earn up to 300% APY for specific tokens
• Interest is paid out hourly

⛔️ Cons

• Doesn’t specify fees for purchasing crypto with a credit card

BuyBitcoinBank’s Review ⬇️

💭“As a result of staking, OKX also offers ‘Loans’ where the receiving end of staking is getting their funds, it’s essentially a p2p model. Users can apply for bitcoin and other crypto loans with low interest rates and large amounts. You can borrow against bitcoin or use other assets as collateral to keep your loans secure. OKX offers Fixed and Flexible loan terms meaning you can choose what period of time you wish to loan money for. OKX Jumpstart similar to a Launch Pad feature and is a product that helps new projects launch and grow their communities on OKX. Traders are able to participate in new token campaigns by staking their OKB and receiving tokens from new projects based on their staking amounts. Unlike buying tokens in offerings, getting them via Jumpstart is similar to liquidity mining because users get all their staked assets back after the campaign ends. Every project on OKX have their own rules and conditions, such as total tokens available, minimum and maximum stakes etc.”

eToro — Top-tier Crypto Exchange with High-interest Staking

eToro is primarily a brokerage platform that supports crypto in addition to stocks, ETFs, forex, indices, and commodities. More than 27 million people now use eToro to trade, for its strong commitment to regulation, simple user interface, and cost-effective pricing structure. eToro is also, however, one of the best crypto staking platforms in the market.

A fee of 1% is collected on both buy and sell orders. In addition to Bitcoin, eToro is home to nearly 80 of the best altcoins. This is inclusive of some of the best metaverse coins, such as Decentraland and Axie Infinity. Depositing funds into eToro is seamless, as the broker supports debit and credit cards, e-wallets, and bank transfers.

🆒 Pros

• Authorized and regulated by the SEC, FCA, ASIC, and CySEC
• 27+million clients
• Automated staking on eligible coins
• Buy crypto from just $10 at a commission of 1%
• Copy trading services
• No deposit fees on USD payments

⛔️ Cons

• Only 3 coins are supported for staking

Wikitoro´s Review ⬇️

💭 “eToro’s staking is guaranteed safe. The staked crypto assets instantly become the property of eToro’s users. eToro meanwhile, gains the trust of eToro’s users by executing the entire staking procedure on their behalf, in a safe, effective and secured manner. As a result of staking, your cryptocurrency is often locked up for a period of time, where it can’t be transferred. This can be a drawback since you cannot trade staked tokens during this time, regardless of price changes.”

WhiteBIT

The SMART Staking on WhiteBIT page features over 40 different plans with a great variety of coins. A user can choose the one that suits you based on the size of the interest rate, terms, and the minimum/maximum amount of the deposit.

That being said, a user can participate in several plans at the same time, getting more benefits from staking. At the end of the period of the plan, it will be automatically closed, and their funds with the interests will be credited to the main balance.

For example, the users decide to participate in the USDT SMART plan for a period of 360 days and with a 30% interest rate. Having held 10,000 USDT, the users will have 13,000 USDT on their balance in 360 days.

🆒 Pros

At the moment, staking is a low-risk tool for generating passive income. And for a good reason, as users note its main advantages:

• it is suitable for everyone, without the need to purchase expensive equipment;
• staking investments are considered low-risk;
• the original investment amount is protected and will be returned with a profit.

⛔️ Cons

• At the same time, some skeptics believe that staking isn’t a good tool since you cannot operate with the coins that have been invested until the end of the staking period.

Beincrypro’s Review ⬇️

💭 “It is another outstanding exchange product that allows you to receive passive income in cryptocurrency with really high-interest rates. It looks like an analog of a bank deposit. Users deposit funds on a SMART Staking plan and receive interest after the plan expires. Moreover, the plan can be canceled anytime, and the assets will return to the balance instantly. However, in this case, you will not make a profit. As you see, they are much higher than most other platforms offer for staking. In essence, SMART Staking is crypto lending, and such high-interest rates are backed by funds from margin trading.Perhaps, the only drawback is that you cannot re-deposit to the same plan until it expires. Though, this is fully offset by the availability of alternatives and high-interest rates.”

Crypto.com — Earn up to 14.5% APY in Passive Interest

Crypto.com is a leading digital asset exchange that offers the lowest trading commissions in this industry. After recently reducing its fee structure, it is now possible to buy and sell crypto at a commission of just 0.075%. This means that for every $1,000 worth of crypto traded, a commission of just $0.75 will be collected.

The best interest rates are offered on longer-term agreements. Crypto.com staking rewards offer an APY of up to 14.5% on crypto and up to 8.5% on stablecoins. Moreover, the best APYs require the user to stake CRO tokens, which are native to Crypto.com. Those using the Crypto.com exchange will have access to more than 250 coins. Debit/credit card payments attract a fee of 2.99%.

🆒 Pros

• Lowest crypto trading fees in the industry
• Earn up to 14.5% on crypto interest accounts
• Stablecoins are supported too
• Choose from a flexible, 1-month, or 3-month term
• Minimum investment of just $1

⛔️ Cons

• Debit/credit cards attract a fee of 2.99%

The College investor’s Review ⬇️

💭“Staking means that you lock your coins up for a period of time and, in exchange, earn interest on them. The rates that you’ll earn varies with the length of time your coins are staked. Interest is paid in the coin that you stake rather than in USD or other fiat money. The app feature that allows you to earn interest is called Crypto Earn. You’ll receive a weekly payout on your simple interest earnings. The app will show how much your staked coin was worth at the time of payout.Because your staked coin is locked up based on the term you’ve selected, it doesn’t really matter what the coin’s price does (i.e., whether it goes up or down) because you can’t sell it. This can be good and bad. But it does help you avoid panic-selling at the bottom. Terms are one and three months. There is also a flexible term option. Longer terms pay more and the flexible option pays the least. You’ll get higher rates if you stake 50,000 or more CRO. Staking 500,000 or more CRO will earn an additional 2%.”

Coinbase — Earn up to 5.75% via a User-Friendly Staking Platform

Coinbase is a popular crypto exchange and broker that supports 100 coins. It is home to a user-friendly platform that will appeal to beginners. As of writing, Coinbase supports six coins for staking — namely, Algorand, Cardano, Cosmos, Ethereum, Solana, and Tezos. In terms of yields, the best APY on offer is 5.75%, when staking Algorand.

Do note that Coinbase staking is not accessible to US clients. Moreover, staking rewards are only paid on crypto assets purchased on the Coinbase platform. This could be a sticking point considering that Coinbase charges a trading commission of 1.49%. Furthermore, buying coins directly with a debit card will cost 3.99%.

🆒 Pros

• Top staking platform for beginners
• No minimum staking amount required
• Heavily regulated

⛔️ Cons

• Debit/credit cards attract a fee of 3.99%
• Better staking yields are available elsewhere
• High trading commissions

Personal Finance’s Review ⬇️

💭 “Staking is a popular way to passively earn crypto by simply holding on to minimum balances of certain cryptocurrencies. And at Coinbase, you can stake multiple assets without paying any fees. Coinbase also lets you transfer existing crypto balances from external crypto wallets to stake through its platform (these transfers have a $0 fee). ”

KuCoin — Flexible Staking Terms on Low-Caps With High Yields

The final option to consider on our list of the best crypto staking platforms is KuCoin. Like many of the providers discussed today, KuCoin is a centralized crypto exchange that supports multiple markets. In the case of earning passive income, KuCoin not only supports crypto staking but interest accounts too. Therefore, those in the market for crypto with the most potential might consider adopting a buy-and-stake approach at KuCoin. Crucially, however, all staking agreements on Kucoin are flexible, which means withdrawal requests are supported at any time.

🆒 Pros

• High yields offered on low-cap crypto asset
• Flexible withdrawal terms

⛔️ Cons

• KuCoin is not regulated
• Many of the coins supported for staking are extremely volatile

Captainalcoin.com’s Review ⬇️

💭 “Kucoin has shown great initiative to make this feature super easy for its users by establishing its own staking and mining platform Kucoin Earn. With different kinds of benefits for its users such as solutions for low liquidity problems through the liquidity trading market or withdrawals of staked assets without sacrificing rewards, Kucoin Earn has definitely established itself as one of the important players in the staking world. To sum it up, Kucoin Earn is indeed one of the best platforms out there where you can earn by staking, mining, and trading with anyone who is interested in taking part in the staking ecosystem. “

⁉️ The most popular question about Smart-Staking on WhiteBIT

How to choose a plan?

☑️ There are 44 plans (at the time of writing) with various coins on our exchange. They differ based on the size of the interest rate, terms, and the minimum/maximum deposit amount.

How many plans can I use at the same time?

☑️ You can simultaneously invest in many plans. The only condition is that you cannot invest in the same plan until the end of its period. For example, you can use several plans for the same coin at the same time, but their conditions (a staking period and interest rate) must be different. Let’s say that you invest in the USDT SMART plan with a 30% interest rate intended for 360 days. It means that you will not be able to use this plan again till the end of its period. You can invest in other plans, including those with USDT. However, for this coin, the staking period must be different (10, 20, 30, 90, or 180 days).

Which balance can a deposit be made from?

☑️ To be able to invest in a SMART plan, you should first replenish the Main Balance. Before depositing, we recommend checking whether the sum on the Main Balance exceeds the required minimum for this SMART plan. To do so, go to the Balance → Spot tab at the top of the site page. To read a step-by-step guide on how to replenish the balance, tap here.

Where will the funds go when the staking period ends?

☑️ After the end of the period, the plan will be closed automatically, and your funds, together with the percentage, will be credited to your Main Balance.

Can I close a plan before the required period ends?

☑️ Any plan can be closed before the end of the staking period, but in this case, you will not receive interest.

CRYPTO NEWS:

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🆕 BNB Chain, the native blockchain behind the Binance crypto exchange, is up and running as of Oct. 7 according to an update from the network. Activity on the network was briefly suspendedafter confirmed rumors of a cross-chain exploit.

🆕 The largest European crypto exchange WhiteBIT and NaUKMA will teach blockchain and cryptocurrencies together.

🆕 In a statement released on Oct. 6, the European Union introduced another set of sanctions against Russia due to the prolonged and recently escalated conflict in Ukraine. The new sanctions include a complete ban on cross-border crypto payments between Russians and the EU. This statement includes the prohibition of, “all crypto-asset wallets, accounts, or custody services, irrespective of the amount of the wallet.”

🆕 The crypto community is upset about a recent discovery stemming from the Celsius bankruptcy case as a court filing has revealed over 14,000 pages of the usernames and trading histories of the company’s customers. While the file does not disclose personal information tied to the user’s finance providers or the customer’s residential address, the crypto community believes there are other ways these identities can be doxxed.