Locking tokens to help secure a proof-of-stake network, earning protocol rewards in return.
Last verified 13 September 2026 · written by the DexLadder team
What it means
Locking tokens to help secure a proof-of-stake network, earning protocol rewards in return.
Why it matters when you trade
Staking rewards are issuance, not profit from thin air: they dilute non-stakers to pay stakers. Yield falls as total stake rises — Ethereum's issuance curve scales roughly with the inverse square root of total stake — so early participants are paid most. The real risks are the lock-up, the exit queue, and, for delegated stake, the operator's conduct.
Worked example
If total staked doubles, the per-validator reward rate falls by roughly 30% under a 1/√stake curve, before any fee income.
See it on live markets
DexLadder runs staking against live market and pool data, with simulated capital, so you can watch it act on an order instead of reading about it — no account, no wallet, nothing installed.