Kraken Staking: How It Works, Risks, and What You Can Earn

When you stake on Kraken staking, a built-in feature of the Kraken exchange that lets users earn rewards by locking up certain cryptocurrencies to support blockchain networks. Also known as crypto staking, it’s one of the simplest ways to earn passive income in crypto—no trading, no complex DeFi pools, just hold and get paid. Unlike mining, which needs powerful hardware, staking on Kraken runs in the background. You send your coins to Kraken’s wallet, they participate in network validation, and you get a share of the rewards—usually paid weekly or monthly.

Kraken staking works with a handful of major coins like Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain that switched to proof-of-stake in 2022, Solana, a fast, low-fee network popular for DeFi and NFTs, and Cardano, a research-driven blockchain with its own stake pool system. Each coin has different reward rates—some pay 3-5% APY, others go as high as 10% or more. But higher rewards usually mean higher risk. For example, staking Solana means your coins could be slashed if the network has a major outage, and Kraken doesn’t cover that loss. You’re trusting Kraken to manage the technical side, but you still bear the network risk.

Not all coins on Kraken are stakable. You can’t stake Bitcoin, for example—its network doesn’t support staking. And while Kraken handles the complexity, you give up direct control of your keys. That’s fine for beginners, but if you’re someone who wants full custody, you’d need to use a wallet like Phantom or Keplr and stake directly. Kraken staking is a middle ground: easy, reliable, and good for earning without learning the full stack. But don’t expect to get rich. The returns are steady, not explosive. And if the crypto market crashes, your staked coins will drop in value too—your rewards won’t save you from a bear market.

There’s also the tax side. In most countries, staking rewards are treated as income when you receive them. Kraken provides transaction history, but it’s your job to track and report. No one else will do it for you. And while Kraken is one of the more regulated exchanges, nothing stops governments from changing rules overnight. If staking gets restricted in your country, you might have to unstake and move your coins—possibly at a loss.

What you’ll find below are real, hands-on guides that cut through the hype. You’ll see exactly how much you can earn on Kraken staking with different coins, what the hidden risks are, how to compare it to other platforms, and which tokens actually make sense to stake right now. No guesswork. No marketing fluff. Just what works—and what doesn’t—based on what real users have experienced.