Stake your crypto assets

It's important that you review the risk disclosures before opting in.

Staking is when you offer some of your own crypto assets as collateral in order to be the one to validate transactions on a blockchain. Whoever validates the transactions is given a reward: more crypto. Staking rewards are a combination of network transaction fees paid by users and new issuance of the crypto. 

Note: The average price of your crypto holdings may fluctuate depending on the historic values of the rewards and when these rewards are paid out. For example, if you stake a portion of your ETH on January 1st, the total average price of your ETH holdings will be based on the ETH's market price on January 1st (rather than the average of the previous day's market price).  

To participate in crypto staking, the owner of an eligible crypto may need to lock their crypto assets in with the blockchain for a certain period of time. This period, if any, is dependent on the blockchain protocol. 

Learn more about crypto staking.

How you earn rewards while staking

Staking your crypto assets earns you a percentage of rewards, known as an Annualized Percentage Yield (APY) on the amount you hold with a given staked asset. Generally, the rewards are paid out in the native crypto asset of the protocol (such as ETH for Ethereum).

Note: With staking, the APY can change at any time, and depends on the network and rewards are not guaranteed. You can learn more about the risks of crypto staking in our Wealthsimple Crypto Product Risk Disclosure.

Warm-up period
Before you can earn rewards on a staked crypto asset, the staked asset must warm-up. Warm-up periods are different for every crypto. 

Cool-down period
As with staking warm-up periods, staked assets must go through a cool-down period to un-stake from the network. Cool-down periods are different for every crypto. 

Note: Crypto assets only need to go through the warm up (staking) and cool down (unstaking) periods once. Assets will also need to go through a new warm-up period if you wish to stake them again after unstaking them.

Reward-earning period 
After a crypto asset finishes its warm-up period, it will earn its first reward, and going forward, it will be eligible to earn rewards at the end of each reward-earning period. You can learn more about the reward-earning period for each crypto asset in their unique staking reference articles.

Taxes
Please note that the value of staking rewards is taxable and may be considered income. Additionally, selling staking rewards can have income and capital gain/loss implications. As always, WS doesn't provide tax advice and we encourage you to consult a qualified tax professional or otherwise obtain advice regarding your personal tax situation and the tax implications of using the Staking Functionality.

Canadian tax authorities have not published any guidance regarding the application of sales or income taxes to staking rewards.

How staking works with Wealthsimple

Below are some things to keep in mind about crypto staking with Wealthsimple. 

Wealthsimple uses third-party validators
Wealthsimple uses third-party validators to stake your crypto assets. Wealthsimple delegates your assets, as instructed by you, from our cold storage custodial wallets. Validators take on the role of validating transactions that take place within a blockchain. 

We perform thorough due diligence on our partner validators to ensure they have sophisticated staking operations that ensure uptime, mitigate risks, and provide seamless access to clients if they do not want to stake independently. 

Wealthsimple charges a fee
Wealthsimple charges a fee for staking your crypto assets. Refer to our Crypto Fee Schedule to learn more.

Note: You cannot sell or withdraw your staked crypto. Some assets have a minimum amount of time required to be staked before they can be unstaked. You can learn more about minimum staking times in each asset’s unique staking reference article.

Set up crypto staking with Wealthsimple

To set up crypto staking with Wealthsimple, you must first own a crypto asset that is available for staking. 

Once you wish to stake a eligible crypto asset, follow the steps below:

  1. Log in to the Wealthsimple mobile app
  2. Tap the Home tab Screenshot 2023-09-05 at 10.12.42 AM.png at the bottom of your screen
  3. Tap your Crypto account
  4. Under Portfolio, choose the eligible crypto you wish to stake
  5. Scroll down to Staking rewards and tap Get started
  6. Read through the information provided and tap I understand
  7. Tap Confirm to stake the entire amount of your eligible crypto

View or manage your rewards

To view or manage your crypto staking rewards, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the Wealthsimple mobile app
  2. Tap the Home tab Screenshot 2023-09-05 at 10.12.42 AM.png at the bottom of your screen
  3. Tap your Crypto account
  4. Under Portfolio, choose the staked crypto
  5. Scroll down to Staking rewards and tap Manage to view or manage your rewards

Automatically stake your future crypto purchases

You can turn on the option to automatically stake future crypto purchases of the same asset. To turn on auto-staking, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to the Wealthsimple mobile app
  2. Tap the Home tab Screenshot 2023-09-05 at 10.12.42 AM.png at the bottom of your screen
  3. Select your Crypto account
  4. Under Portfolio, choose the staked crypto
  5. Scroll down to Staking rewards and tap Manage to view or manage your rewards
  6. Tap the toggle button next to Auto-staking to turn on this feature

Unstake your crypto

Unstaking your crypto removes your assets from the staking process. 

To check if a crypto is eligible to be unstaked, refer to the asset’s unique staking reference article.

If eligible, you can unstake your crypto by following the instructions below:

  1. Log in to the Wealthsimple mobile app
  2. Tap the Home tab Screenshot 2023-09-05 at 10.12.42 AM.png at the bottom of your screen
  3. Tap your Crypto account
  4. Under Portfolio, choose the staked asset
  5. Scroll down to Staking rewards and tap Manage
  6. At the bottom of your screen, tap Unstake
  7. Tap Confirm to stop staking your crypto
Note: If you unstake a crypto before the next reward period, you give up any reward from the current period.

Crypto assets eligible for staking

Crypto Staking: Solana(SOL)

Crypto Staking: Ethereum(ETH)

Crypto Staking: Cardano (ADA)

Crypto Staking: Polkadot (DOT)

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Crypto staking

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