Cardano ADA Staking

How ADA staking works on Cardano via Yield.xyz

Cardano ADA staking with stake pool delegation. No unbonding period — ADA remains liquid.

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What this yield is

• Asset: ADA (native Cardano token)
• Mechanism: Delegate entire balance to one stake pool
• Rewards: Epoch rewards (~5 days per epoch), must be claimed manually
• Unbonding: None — ADA remains liquid while staked
• Minimum: 5 ADA (includes 2 ADA staking deposit)

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Available yields

Yield ID	Description
cardano-ada-native-staking	Delegate ADA to stake pools

Cardano staking is unique: your ADA stays in your wallet and remains fully liquid. Only delegation preference is recorded on-chain.

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Required inputs

Argument	Required	Description
amount	No	Entire wallet balance is delegated
validatorAddress	Yes	Stake pool ID (pool1…)

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Actions & lifecycle

Enter

• Delegation registration transaction
• Entire wallet balance delegates to chosen pool
• Rewards begin after 2 epoch delay (~10 days)

Exit

• De-register delegation
• ADA is immediately available (no unbonding)
• Deposit refunded

Manage

• Change delegation to different pool
• Withdraw accumulated rewards

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Example flow

Get yield metadata

curl --request GET \
  --url https://api.yield.xyz/v1/yields/cardano-ada-native-staking \
  --header 'accept: application/json' \
  --header 'x-api-key: <API_KEY>'

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Pending actions

Action	Description
CLAIM_REWARDS	Claim accrued rewards (automatically added to staked balance)
STAKE	Redelegate ADA to a different stake pool

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Operational notes

Epoch delay

Rewards have a 2-epoch (~10 day) delay after initial delegation before they begin accruing.

Liquid staking

Unlike most chains, Cardano staking keeps your ADA liquid. You can spend or transfer at any time.

2 ADA deposit

When staking, 2 ADA is used as a staking deposit to register your address. This deposit is not included in the staked balance but is returned when you unstake. Transaction fees are deducted from this deposit.

Full balance delegation

You can only stake and unstake your entire balance, and only delegate to one stake pool at a time.

Automatic reward withdrawal

Unclaimed rewards are automatically withdrawn when the position is unstaked.

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Preferred stake pools

Pool	Address
Luganodes	0338d4f1c5e8ebee0689e22148c1483d411c5587d0ab986b8e824428
InfStones	65b0f6b38938cc3c5cfee6d3d2770847c773a4e7ca5e9d54c36f334e
Kiln	4e0356a826bbf3e0525cd4612061a1304710b0c8d12df5457ac17cdf
P2P	c29c92f8319150962650bc8a5e24d918491e8a7b3ac43525afe76baa
Coinbase Cloud	6804118fe78be9bf9213b9e829803952be87814d28b305fa52bf11d9
Everstake	e4abcf4408584601e7c707a8902996c0c291e1a3c8300b327ae3f6ab

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See also

Tezos

Similar liquid staking model

Non-EVM Overview

All non-EVM staking