Staking Baskets

A brand new innovation for Cardano.

Introducing Staking Baskets

Staking Baskets is a groundbreaking new innovation and schematic for furthering decentralization on the Cardano blockchain. Developed by Âtrium</Lab> with support from MLabs, a renowned specialist in Haskell and Rust, Staking Baskets are a smart-contract system that allows users to delegate their ADA to a large number of Stake pools in a user-friendly way whilst earning additional Cardano Native Tokens (CNT’s) on top. Custom Staking Baskets will also be available, forming a Staking Basket ecosystem that covers a large range of the stake pool network.

Why use a Staking basket

Strengthening the network

Before Staking Baskets, wallets could only stake to one pool at a time. This has seen smaller pool operators left struggling with a lack of delegation and often having to close down operations due to a lack of profitability.

With Staking Baskets, we hope to see delegation reach the far reaches of the ecosystem, providing smaller pools with the support they need to continue producing blocks and strengthening the network.

Diversification

Delegating to one pool comes with the risk that your delegation may not necessarily produce blocks each epoch, especially if you choose a smaller pool. Delegating to a larger pool mitigates this risk but can lead to smaller groups of pool operators running multiple pools, centralizing the network. By spreading your delegation across multiple pools, you can diversify your staking portfolio and encourage network decentralization.

More rewards

Âtma Staking Baskets will distribute additional tokens to users for staking on Cardano. Cardano’s first Staking Basket, ‘Diffusion’, will distribute ADA + Âtma tokens for supporting Cardano’s decentralization. Other basket owners can create their own Staking Baskets and incentivize them with their own rewards.

How do Staking Baskets work?

Staking Baskets are smart-contracts on the Cardano blockchain that take the user’s ADA and delegate it across multiple pools in the ecosystem. For depositing the ADA, users will receive basket tokens that can be used to withdraw their initial ADA deposit + their rewards. These basket tokens are liquid and can be sent to other wallets. They can also be swapped on a DEX, given that there’s a liquidity pool.

Diffusion

Diffusion is Cardano’s first Staking Basket. It is a collection of 50 community voted for stake pools that can be delegated to through the Staking Basket smart-contract system, rewarding holders with Ada stake rewards and additional Âtma DAO tokens.

Diffusion is owned by the Âtma DAO, with fees and proceeds going to the Âtma DAO treasury.

The Stake pool composition of the basket was initially voted for by the Cardano community, using ADA as the voting power. Once the DAO is operational, Âtma DAO token holders can propose a change to the Diffusion stake pool composition, fees, and Âtma Token Issuance rate.

Diffusion is live on Cardano’s preview network with millions of tADA delegated to multiple pools for our incentivized testnet.

This is the BasketState currency symbol for the contract: 773830f49fe4992d72f0f16613c7ab46adaa0d930195b9e2131628bf

This is the currency symbol for the Basket token: ffbea8425064c5d7874498f07b7b117e503eb4d2891267a3c00ae6d5

General questions

What is rebalancing?
Diffusion needs to rebalance the ADA in the smart contract every epoch to ensure that no pool is saturated and the ADA is evenly distributed across the single pool operators in the basket. In this rebalance period, users cannot withdraw or deposit. This period will be short and at the end of every epoch.

How do I withdraw?
Withdrawing is as simple as depositing. Simply click the withdraw button on Âtrium.io and choose how much you would like to withdraw. The transaction sends your Basket tokens to the smart-contract and in exchange, you’ll recieve your Ada.

Are funds secure?
Âtrium</Lab> does not have access to any funds in any of our smart contracts. The only way you can withdraw your ADA is with your basket tokens, and only the smart-contract can mint those tokens. Each epoch, your basket token’s value will increase from staking rewards. The smart contract is designed never to let the exchange rate be lowered. Diffusion will not lock the user’s funds, users can deposit and withdraw their ADA at any time with exception to the short rebalancing phase each epoch.

Anastasia Labs has audited the Staking Basket contracts and the Staking Baskets have undertaken over a year of testing on the Cardano’s preview network. The admin of Staking Baskets does not have the ability to withdraw; at worst a malicious Staking Basket creator could only take an epoch of ADA rewards from their users. Âtrium will only be including Staking Baskets that come from reputable creators on its platform.

Fees + Rewards

What are the fees?
In each epoch, the Staking Basket contract takes a small portion of the staking rewards collected. These fees go to the Âtma DAO treasury.

How are rewards distributed?
Users will be able to opt-in to earn Âtma token rewards on the Âtrium.io interface. These Âtma rewards can then be claimed every epoch utilising the Dripdropz token claim functionality. Users have a year to claim each Âtma reward, with unclaimed Âtma going to the Âtma DAO treasury.

Legal

Can I use Staking Baskets in my country?
Cryptocurrency is still fairly new to the World; it’s important that you ask a lawyer in your jurisdiction before you use any financial products on the blockchain.

Pools

How do pools get rewarded?
Pools in Staking Baskets will be given the fee they charge when users normally stake to their pool.

How will you choose the pools?
Diffusion is composed of a selection of pools voted for by the wider Cardano Community. The first ever vote took place early 2025 and was done by ADA holders. In future, the Âtma DAO token holders will be able to propose a change to Diffusions composition.

Is Âtma DAO releasing more Staking Baskets?
Maybe, its up to the DAO to decide. ‘Diffusion’ is Âtma’s first Staking Basket, pioneering the way and demonstrating how this staking method affects the network and its participants. Once we have refined the offering and demonstrated its success, we will be open-sourcing Staking Baskets and allowing partners to create their own Staking Basket compositions.

Can my pool join a Staking basket?
Any pool on the Cardano network can join a Staking Basket. However, for Diffusion, the selection comes down to an Âtma DAO vote. So make sure to notify your network and encourage them to participate in the proposal and voting process.

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