Injective Releases Liquid Staking with Stride

Published in

Injective

4 min readApr 3, 2023

Injective has launched liquid staking for its native token INJ for the first time!

stINJ (the official liquid staked form of INJ) was made possible by Stride, a specialized app chain for liquid staking. With stINJ, users can unlock far more liquidity and yield generation opportunities across the Injective ecosystem. In turn, liquid staking introduces far more use cases and utility for the native INJ token as well.

To celebrate this milestone, Injective stakers will receive an exclusive Stride (STRD) airdrop, enabling the community to take part in governing the Stride DAO that helped to create stINJ.

What is Liquid Staking and stINJ?

Traditionally, staking requires users to lock up their tokens in order to secure a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network. However, locked tokens cannot be utilized for DeFi endeavors (trading, lending, etc.). Liquid staking aims to solve this issue by enabling users to stake while still maintaining their liquidity.

Liquid staking is the act of delegating your tokens to a service that stakes for you without losing access to your funds. stINJ is a tokenized derivative of staked INJ enabled by Stride, an interchain protocol specializing in liquid staking. Stride is not only the first liquid staking zone for the cosmos ecosystem but also facilitates the most liquidity for major tokens such as ATOM.

Stride allows you to stake INJ while also minting stINJ (staked INJ). stINJ is a representation of your staked INJ tokens that can be utilized elsewhere. So while your INJ is staked and earning rewards, you are able to take the stINJ to participate in distinct DeFi protocols. stINJ can also be redeemed for INJ at any time with Stride.

Why is Liquid Staking Important for INJ?

Liquid staking improves capital efficiency and maximizes yield for users, in addition to allowing users to earn passive income through staking. Staking is an important facet within the Injective ecosystem. Staking INJ allows you to participate in the Injective DAO governance, secure the network and earn rewards. Injective currently has a staking APR of 17% which means that most users are incentivized to stake their holdings.

Without liquid staking, using a token in DeFi requires that it be unstaked, thereby forfeiting its staking reward. But with liquid staking, INJ can be used to both participate in DeFi and earn staking rewards, lowering the barrier to DeFi usage. Effectively, this means that while you are earning staking rewards, you can also engage with trading, yield farming, lending and much more simultaneously.

How Can You Start Liquid Staking INJ?

Getting started is easy!

Simply, visit the Stride app here.
Connect your wallet and select INJ from the dropdown menu
Enter your desired stINJ amount and click “Liquid Stake”
Select “Start Staking” to approve the transaction

A more complete walkthrough on minting stINJ and initial use cases can be found on the article written by a Stride community member here.

How Can You Use stINJ in DeFi?

stINJ is expected to unlock a myriad of use cases over time.

There is currently an stINJ pool on Astroport. In fact, the stINJ pool is one of the most liquid pools on Astroport already! Users can pool their INJ and stINJ into this pool in order to provide further liquidity while also taking part in trading.

stINJ can also be used as collateral on other DeFi applications, further increasing utility for INJ itself.

Stride (STRD) Airdrop for INJ Stakers

Stride is also celebrating the launch of stINJ, by airdropping STRD tokens to Injective stakers!

Here are the details

Snapshot: Monday, October 24th at 17:08 UTC (Injective block 17469200)

Min threshold: 25 INJ, max threshold: 26,500 INJ

STRD to be airdropped: 100,000

Stakers will be able to claim STRD pro rata their staked amount. Addresses with less than 25 INJ staked at snapshot are excluded, because the airdrop amount would be negligible. Addresses with more than 26,500 INJ staked are included, but only up to that amount.

Giving STRD to INJ stakers introduces them to the Stride DAO, and allows them to have a voice. This is important, because the Stride DAO can help make decisions such as selecting Injective host-chain validators.

The Future of Liquid Staking INJ

Liquid staking is a fundamental building block for financial applications within Web3. The launch of stINJ marks the start of a new chapter for the Injective community that brings INJ utility as a whole to entirely new heights.

About Injective

Injective is a lightning fast interoperable layer one blockchain optimized for building the premier Web3 finance applications. Injective provides developers with powerful plug-and-play modules for creating unmatched dApps. INJ is the native asset that powers Injective and its rapidly growing ecosystem. Injective is incubated by Binance and is backed by prominent investors such as Jump Crypto, Pantera and Mark Cuban.