Staking is the simplest way to earn passive yield on TON: you delegate coins to network validators, they secure consensus and pay you a percentage. Tonstakers is the largest TON liquid staking pool — $209M+ TVL per DeFiLlama as of May 2026, with more than 100,000 users in 166 countries. This guide walks through how to stake on Tonstakers, what you receive, and where tsTON works onward in DeFi.
What liquid staking is and why it matters
True TON staking means running your own validator. The minimum is around 300,000 TON, you have to maintain a server, monitor uptime, watch slashing. Not a retail product.
The alternative is pools. You drop your TON into a shared pot, the pool runs validators on behalf of all participants, rewards are distributed proportionally. Liquid staking adds something important — in exchange for the stake you get a receipt token (LST — Liquid Staking Token) that preserves liquidity. That token can be traded, used as collateral, farmed — while the underlying TON keeps working at a validator.
Tonstakers issues tsTON as its LST. It accrues yield through the tsTON/TON exchange rate growing — 1 tsTON over time is worth more than 1 TON because rewards accumulate inside the pool.
iThe tsTON formula
At launch the tsTON rate was 1:1. Now (May 2026) the exchange rate is around 1.07–1.10 TON per tsTON, depending on when you bought. That gap is the cumulative yield since launch.
Steps: how to stake TON via Tonstakers
- Install Tonkeeper or MyTonWallet, send the desired amount of TON to it. Minimum — 2 TON (1 to stake plus 1 for gas).
- Open tonstakers.com in a browser or via the mini-app in Telegram.
- Press Connect Wallet, pick your wallet via TON Connect, confirm the connection in the wallet.
- On the home screen enter the amount of TON to stake. Minimum — 1 TON.
- Verify APY and press Stake.
- The wallet shows a transaction — confirm. Gas ~0.1–0.2 TON.
- In 5–10 seconds the equivalent in tsTON appears in your wallet. From then on it grows in tsTON/TON rate.
No locks, no lock-up periods — the stake is immediately active and instantly liquid.
How yield works
TON rewards are paid out in validator rounds — roughly every 18 hours the network counts which validators worked correctly this cycle and credits them with TON for blocks and fees. Tonstakers rebalances stakes and updates the internal tsTON/TON rate on the same beat — that is the source of “rewards every 18 hours” in marketing.
Numbers:
- Network base rate — 3–5% per year, depends on active stakers and load.
- Tonstakers effective APY — usually 4–5% after pool ops costs.
- Auto-compounding — through tsTON/TON rate growth, no manual claim needed.
Tonstakers does not publish a single fixed fee but retains roughly 5–10% of validator rewards for operations — already reflected in the effective APY.
tsTON in DeFi: making it work twice
The big advantage of liquid staking is double yield. Base staking yield plus extra from using the LST in DeFi.
tsTON scenarios:
- Collateral in EVAA Protocol — pledge tsTON, borrow USDT at low LTV. You earn staking yield while still using the capital.
- LP in the tsTON-TON stable pool on DeDust — pegged pair with low IL, trade fees add 1–3% APR on top of staking.
- Swap tsTON to other LSTs for arbitrage — sometimes tsTON/stTON/hTON drift 0.3–1%, and arbitrageurs capture that.
- Leveraged staking — pledge tsTON, borrow TON, stake again on Tonstakers. About 2x leverage to the staking yield (with liquidation risk if tsTON/TON drifts).
!Leverage is not for beginners
Loop-staking via collateral sounds like “free yield” but it is leverage with all the usual risks. If you want to try, start tiny and make sure you understand the EVAA liquidation parameters.
Tonstakers security
What to know about risks:
- CertiK audit. Contracts have an independent audit, the report is public.
- Open code. All key contracts are published on the project’s GitHub; tsTON is a normal jetton, nothing magical.
- Validator diversification. Tonstakers spreads stake across several validators — that lowers slashing risk (loss of part of the stake due to a single validator misbehaving).
- Instant-exit buffer. A portion of pool TON is always free so users can exit immediately. In a mass exit the buffer can drain — then exit goes via the queue until the round ends.
What the protocol does not cover:
- tsTON/TON depeg under shock sell-offs (historically up to 1%).
- Regulatory risk in your jurisdiction — crypto staking is classified differently in different places.
- “All TON validators stop” scenario — exotic but theoretically possible.
Tonstakers vs Hipo vs bemo
TON has three significant liquid staking pools. Quick comparison:
| Parameter | Tonstakers | Hipo | bemo |
|---|---|---|---|
| LST | tsTON | hTON | stTON |
| TVL (May 2026) | ~$209M | ~$2.5M | ~$4M |
| Minimum | 1 TON | 1 TON | 1 TON |
| Audit | CertiK | CertiK | CertiK |
| APY | ~4–5% | ~4–5% | ~5% |
| DEX dominance | High | Medium | Medium |
By size and integrations Tonstakers is far ahead. Detailed comparisons — in the Hipo and hTON piece and the bemo and stTON comparison.
Open Tonstakers
The largest TON liquid staking pool. tsTON works in DeFi, 1 TON minimum, instant in and out.
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What commonly trips up newcomers
- No TON for gas. If the wallet only has tsTON, the unstake transaction will not send. Keep a 0.5–1 TON buffer.
- Bought tsTON on a DEX, not on the Tonstakers site. Functionally identical, but the DEX price can include a 0.1–0.3% premium over the internal rate. For large amounts stake via the site.
- Confused tsTON and stTON. In DeFi protocols these LSTs are not interchangeable. Check which jetton is in your wallet before using EVAA or a DEX pool.
- Expected a “fixed” rate. TON APY is floating, depends on validator activity. Do not panic if it shifted from 4.6% to 4.2% in a week.
Sources
- tonstakers.com — official site.
- DeFiLlama: Tonstakers — TVL history.
- docs.ton.org — TON staking technical docs.
- tonscan.org — network explorer.
