How to stake Cardano ADA

How to stake your Cardano ADA

Staking is a really easy way to earn passive income and support the Cardano network. It’s also a simple way to be involved in the validation of transactions on the Cardano blockchain without having to run a mining rig, or do much at all!

Staking is vital for the Cardano network so if you’re in on ADA you should really be staking with an independent pool not only to support the network you’ve invested in but also to maximise your investment and benefit from the passive gains.

move your cardano ada to a crypto wallet

So you’ve bought some Cardano, but how do you stake it?

To stake Cardano you’ll need to have your ADA stored in a cryptocurrency wallet such as Deadalus or Yoroi. You can stake directly from most of the top exchanges but leaving your crypto on an exchange is not recommended.

Deadalus is the daddy of Cardano wallets. It was created by IOHK and is a full node wallet that runs on your computer. Yoroi, by Emurgo, is much simpler and is the one I use. It runs in your browser and as an iPhone app which is really convenient and extremely user friendly.

When your wallet is set up and ready to go, you need to transfer your ADA into your wallet. This is recommended even if you are not thinking of staking because a wallet is a much more secure place to store your crypto long term compared to an exchange.

check out the staking pools and choose one 

Once the ADA is in your wallet you can then choose the staking pool that you’re going to delegate to.

How to stake ADA using Daedalus

In Deadalus, select the network tab, hit “Delegate” and then browse the list of staking pools or search for a particular pool name (like Upstream) or ticker (for example UPSTR).

How to stake ADA in Yoroi (Desktop)

In Yoroi, go to the delegation list tab and either type in the name of the pool you want to stake with or browse the list of SPOs.

How to stake ADA in Yoroi (mobile)

Staking is a very low risk investment strategy but, as always, you should always do your own research to make sure the pool you’re supporting has a positive mission, good investor rewards and is supporting decentralisation, the purpose of the Cardano network. 

After you’ve selected a pool and decided to stake you have to enter your spending password. You’ll then pay a small ADA fee to the operator and that’s it! You’ve staked your ADA and you can eagerly anticipate your rewards!

You can only stake to one pool per wallet and if you have already staked your wallet to a pool, each time you add some fresh ADA to that wallet it will auto-stake to the same pool. If you want to stake to multiple pools you can do that by setting up multiple wallets and following the process above each time.

When do I get my staking rewards?

The first time you stake Cardano it can take up to 20 days for your first reward to be deposited in your wallet. Usually, you’ll receive your first reward after 15 days. You’ll then receive an ADA reward at the end of every epoch which lasts 5 days.

If you found this article useful consider staking your ADA with us at Upstream! We’re an independent pool dedicated to sustainability and financial education. Find out more about Upstream here or follow us on twitter @Upstream_ADA