Bitcoin staking 101
Card 1 of 6
Read · 1 of 4
What is stacking?
Stacks is a Bitcoin layer with its own token, STX. Stacking means locking STX to take part in its Proof of Transfer (PoX), and being paid for it in bitcoin.
Nothing is lent out and no new bitcoin is made. The bitcoin comes from somewhere else: the next card.
From the report What is Stacks? The Bitcoin Layer 2 unlocking native $BTC yield
Read · 2 of 4
Who pays the yield
Stacks miners. To win a block's STX reward, a miner commits bitcoin, and that bitcoin is paid out to the people who lock STX.
Miners commit up to what they expect the STX reward to be worth, so the pool rises and falls with the STX price.
From the report What is Stacks? The Bitcoin Layer 2 unlocking native $BTC yield
Read · 3 of 4
PoX cycles
Rewards are counted in reward cycles of 2,100 Bitcoin blocks, about two weeks: 26 a year.
Our Stacks model runs 210 of them, about eight years, and checks each one: did the miners' bitcoin cover what was owed that cycle?
From the report What is Stacks? The Bitcoin Layer 2 unlocking native $BTC yield
Read · 4 of 4
Bonds in BTC
PoX-5, live since 29 July 2026, lets bitcoin holders join by pairing their BTC with a small STX bond. Bonds target 3% a year in BTC, fixed for six months.
Bonds are paid first from the miners' bitcoin. The rest splits 85% to STX stackers and 15% to a reserve that, under PoX-5, can only grow: spending it needs a new SIP (Stacks Improvement Proposal).
From the report What is Stacks? The Bitcoin Layer 2 unlocking native $BTC yield
Try it on the live model
Move the STX fall until a bond cycle goes unpaid
Why?
Bonds are owed a fixed amount of bitcoin for six months, but miners bid with what their STX reward is worth. A large enough fall cuts the pool below what the bonds are owed, and under PoX-5 the reserve cannot pay the gap. Read it in What is Stacks? The Bitcoin Layer 2 unlocking native $BTC yield →
Quiz
Where does the bitcoin that pays stackers come from?
How long is a PoX-5 bond's rate fixed?
Under PoX-5, what can the reserve pay for?