How to stake ADA by delegating to a pool

The mechanic

What does delegating actually do?

A Cardano address has two halves: a payment credential, which controls spending, and a stake credential, which decides where that balance's block-production rights point. Delegating changes only the second. As the Cardano developer portal puts it, delegating "doesn't move funds, it just assigns the staking rights attached to your address" (developers.cardano.org, checked September 11, 2026). Nothing is sent to the pool and the operator can never touch your balance.

That is why Cardano staking is called liquid: "your ada stays in your wallet and remains spendable at any time" and "there is no lock-up, and you can switch pools whenever you like" (cardano.org, checked September 11, 2026). There is also no slashing. A pool that goes offline costs its delegators the rewards for that epoch and nothing else, because delegated ada "is never at risk" and "you never lose principal".

Two certificates go on chain the first time: a stake address registration and a delegation certificate (docs.cardano.org). After that, changing pools "will only incur the usual transaction fees".

Doing it

How do I delegate, step by step?

1. Use a self-custody wallet. Cardano's wallet finder flags staking support for Lace (browser extension), Eternl (iOS, Android, browser extension), VESPR (iOS and Android) and Daedalus (desktop full node); Lace and Eternl are also flagged for hardware wallets (cardano.org/wallets, checked September 11, 2026).
2. Open the staking section. In Lace it is the Staking tab, where you "choose a stake pool from the list" and confirm (lace.io); in VESPR it sits under the Explore tab (docs.vespr.xyz); Daedalus uses a Delegation Center. The screens differ, the transaction is the same.
3. Search by ticker or pool ID. Tickers are not unique, so confirm the pool ID on the operator's own site or an explorer before you sign.
4. Check the deposit and fee, then sign. A first delegation shows a 2 ADA deposit on top of the network fee. VESPR's documentation puts it plainly: "the 2 ADA deposit is required when first registering your wallet to stake. This will be returned if you choose to de-register your wallet."
5. Leave it alone. Delegation does not expire. It stays pointed at that pool until you change it, and survives restoring the wallet on another device.

VESPR does not support partial delegation, so the whole balance delegates as one, and in-app de-registration is not available yet (docs.vespr.xyz, checked September 11, 2026). Hardware wallets work normally: the keys stay on the device and you approve the certificate there.

Timing

When does a new delegation start earning?

Cardano runs on epochs: "a period of five days in the Cardano network during which stake distribution is fixed and rewards are calculated" (cardano.org glossary), made of 432,000 one-second slots (docs.cardano.org). Rewards earned in one epoch are paid two epochs later.

The cycle, as IOG's Lace team documents it, runs over five epochs: in epoch N you delegate; at the end of N a snapshot records your balance; in N+2 that stake is active and counts towards the pool's chance of making blocks; in N+3 rewards are calculated; in N+4 they are paid (lace.io, checked September 11, 2026). In calendar terms that is "about 15 to 20 days after you delegate, provided the pool mints blocks", then one payout per epoch after that.

So delegating mid-epoch gains nothing for that epoch, and switching pools costs you no rewards: the old pool keeps paying until the new delegation reaches its active epoch.

Getting paid

How are rewards paid out, and how do I spend them?

Rewards are credited to your stake address, not to a spending output. They "compound automatically" because they are "automatically part of your delegated stake", so each snapshot counts a slightly larger balance with no action from you (cardano.org, checked September 11, 2026).

Moving rewards into your spendable balance is a separate withdrawal transaction, and your wallet has a button for it. Since the Plomin hard fork there is one extra condition: "you will not be able to withdraw them unless you delegate your ada's voting rights to a DRep or a predefined voting option" (intersectmbo.org, checked September 11, 2026). Abstain is one of those predefined options, so you can satisfy the rule without picking a representative, and wallets prompt for it when a withdrawal is blocked.

How much you earn is not fixed. It depends on the pool's blocks that epoch, its fees, the total stake on the network and the protocol's reward pot, so any single figure is stale the moment it is written. Read the estimate your own wallet shows next to each pool, which is recalculated against current chain data.

Choosing

What should I look at when picking a pool?

We do not recommend pools. These are the four numbers every listing shows.

Saturation. "A pool becomes saturated when it has more stake than an optimal amount set by the protocol. Staking with a saturated pool can decrease your rewards" (cardano.org). The cap is the total staked supply divided by k, currently 500. Past it, extra stake earns nothing more.

Pledge. The operator's own ada, committed to the pool to make it "more attractive to people who want to delegate". A pool that does not honour its declared pledge earns zero rewards for that epoch (docs.cardano.org), so a real pledge means the operator loses money too if the pool goes down.

Fixed cost and margin. The operator's fee, taken in that order: declared costs come off the epoch's rewards first, then the margin, then "the remainder is split fairly (proportional to delegated stake), amongst all stakeholders who delegated to the pool". The protocol floor on fixed cost is 170 ADA per epoch, so a very small pool spends much of its rewards covering it.

Blocks produced. Rewards are adjusted by the fraction of the epoch's blocks the pool actually made, so uptime matters more than a cut-price fee. Cardano's guidance is to "look at the pool's historical performance, which reflects its success rate in producing blocks".

The numbers

Which protocol parameters set the staking rules?

These are live chain values read at epoch 654. They are governed parameters and can change by on-chain vote, so check them against the chain, not an old article, this one included.

Tokens and safety

Do my native tokens change anything, and what should I avoid?

Native tokens sit in the same addresses as your ada and are along for the ride. Staking is measured on the ada your stake key controls, so a wallet full of tokens earns on its ada alone. Every output holding tokens also holds a minimum amount of ada (docs.cardano.org, checked September 11, 2026), and that ada still counts as stake. Delegating does not move, lock or risk tokens such as $CATSKY, policy ID 9b426921a21f54600711da0be1a12b026703a9bd8eb9848d08c9d921copy.

The do-nots are short. Never send ada anywhere to stake it: real delegation is a certificate signed in your own wallet, so any site asking you to transfer funds to a staking service is a scam. Never type your recovery phrase to delegate, because you should "never share your recovery phrase, even with support staff or moderators" (cardano.org/common-scams, checked September 11, 2026). Treat a promise of a fixed return as fraud, since real rewards vary every epoch. Check the URL of any wallet or pool site, and keep a little spare ada so you can always pay a fee to change pools or withdraw.

Related: all guides · buy ADA and withdraw it to a wallet · Cardano transaction fees explained · best wallets for Cardano tokens