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stake.link

How to Stake LINK with stake.link

stake.link lets you stake LINK in Chainlink Staking and receive stLINK, a liquid staking token that earns rewards while you can still trade it or use it in DeFi. stake.link stakes in both the Chainlink Community Pool and the higher-yielding Node Operator Pool, so the reward rate is typically higher than the Community Pool alone.

There are three ways to get stLINK:

Method Best for Waiting time
Deposit into the Priority Pool Staking at a 1:1 rate Until staking capacity opens up
Swap on Curve Getting stLINK immediately None, but you pay the market rate
Migrate from the Community Pool LINK already staked natively The Chainlink unbonding period

Option 1: Deposit into the Priority Pool

Section titled “Option 1: Deposit into the Priority Pool”

Chainlink staking pools have a capped size and are often full. The Priority Pool is an on-chain queue that stakes your LINK automatically as soon as capacity becomes available.

  1. Go to stake.link/stake and connect your wallet.
  2. Deposit LINK. If there is free staking capacity, or withdrawals waiting to be filled, you receive stLINK straight away. Otherwise your LINK is queued in the Priority Pool.
  3. Wait for staking capacity. The protocol distributes stLINK in batches of 15,000 LINK. When a large amount of capacity opens up, it processes the queue roughly every 24 hours until the queue is cleared.
  4. Claim your stLINK in the Priority Staking section of the stake.link app once a batch has been processed.

Things to know before you deposit:

  • reSDL holders go first. The queue is not first-come, first-served. Deposits from wallets that hold reSDL are staked before deposits that are not, and more reSDL means a larger share of each batch.
  • Queued LINK earns no rewards. LINK starts earning only after it is converted to stLINK.
  • You can leave at any time. You can withdraw LINK from the Priority Pool before it has been converted to stLINK.
Section titled “Option 2: Swap LINK for stLINK on Curve”

If you don’t want to wait, swap LINK for stLINK in the stLINK/LINK pool on Curve. You receive stLINK immediately at the current market rate, which can differ slightly from 1:1.

Section titled “Option 3: Migrate from the Chainlink Community Pool”

If your LINK is already staked in the Chainlink Community Pool, the migration flow converts it to stLINK without going through the Priority Pool:

  1. Connect the wallet holding your Community Pool stake and click Unbond. The app shows when your LINK will be fully unbonded.
  2. When the unbonding period ends, click Migrate. One transaction converts your unbonded LINK and any claimed native rewards into the same amount of stLINK.

If you unbond but don’t migrate, the Chainlink Staking contract restakes that LINK into the Community Pool after its 7-day claim window. The migration flow uses batched transactions, which hardware wallets don’t support yet.

After you stake

Section titled “After you stake”
  • Rewards arrive automatically. stLINK is a rebasing token: roughly every seven days your balance increases to include your rewards. No incoming transaction appears in your wallet.
  • The reward rate shown is net. The APY on stake.link already has protocol fees deducted.
  • Use it in DeFi. Many protocols can’t handle rebasing tokens, so wrap stLINK into wstLINK first. See stLINK vs wstLINK.
  • Withdraw when you want. See How withdrawals work.
Section titled “Related”