How & What To Stake on Coinbase – How To Activate Coinbase Staking?

May 15, 2022

What you'll learn 👉

How does staking work?

Blockchain security could be in a few different ways. Proof of Work is the most known one, bitcoin uses this technology, and currently Ethereum does as well, along with many other coins. This method requires ASsIC and GPU machinery to mine and earn rewards for keeping the blockchain safe. In recent years we have seen a new method, called Proof of Stake come to life, it became big enough that even ETH is moving towards it. PoS is a big part of decentralized finance.

In this case, you hold a certain amount of coins in your wallet and in return you get staking rewards, just like mining rewards. This proof of stake contribution is called staking. You need to hold a certain amount of the coin in your wallet, and need your external wallet online. Proof of Stake got a lot more popular due to the fact that ASIC miners are hard to come by and very expensive as well, usually out of stock.

GPU miners are similar in aspect, you can buy a lot at second hand market but you would have to pay top price to get it and that would make return on investment a lot slower. Due to these facts people realized it wasn’t smart to spend so much on machinery, and instead just buy coins and stake them which has a lot less risks involved.

What are Staking Pools

Not every investor could afford to reach the minimum coin requirement to stake a coin. For example this number is 32 ETH for Ethereum, or 1000 DASH which is over $170k+ so all of these makes it hard for one single investor to start staking. Alternative is to go with cheap entry PoS coins which limits your investments. This is where staking pools come into play.

In these pools people could gather their money together and become one single staker, which allows them to spend less but still participate. Instead of one person putting 32 ETH, 32 different people put in 1 ETH, or 320 people put in 0.1 ETH. You can participate with whatever you own, minimum requirements are usually quite cheap.

This means that people would have to simply just store their coins in their exchange and get interest for just having it there. Sort of like a savings account in Banks but you both earn crypto, and the price of crypto itself goes up as well. This is why people prefer staking over fiat interests. It is one of the most ideal passive incomes in the crypto world.

Is staking the same on every blockchain?

There is proof of stake as we mentioned, and there is also staking service in the DeFİ world as well. It is slightly different in that you put your money in staking projects. Instead of having money in your wallet, you buy the token and stake it on their website. For example you can buy CAKE token and then go to pancakeswap and stake there.

The work is easier since it is done by the project itself and you only need to unstake whenever you want to. This has caused one of the biggest bull runs in the crypto world during 2021. With DeFi world offering such passive income possibilities, many people started to look for good returns for their staking rewards, and more and more projects offered it with high returns.

Eventually not all succeeded, but the ones that did like Uniswap and Pancakeswap grew into top coin rankings very quickly. They were offering good passive income for people who would like to make a profit by simply staking. Proof of Stake coins also saw a huge increase in attention during same period as well. Which is why Coinbase now offers 4 coins that are PoS.

What coins can be staked on Coinbase?

Algorand, Cosmos, Tezos and ETH are the only coins that you can stake on Coinbase right now. It is a new service and surely will increase the amount of coins they are offering. Eventually there will be 10+ coins that you can stake at Coinbase staking pool. However for now, even ETH alone gets a good interest. ETH being the second highest coin in rankings and requiring 32 ETH to start which is over 100k dollars, is number in every staking pool right now.

How Does Earning Rewards With Coinbase Work?

Some protocols allow asset holders to receive incentives using Proof of Stake, which implies that you may earn rewards just by maintaining a minimum balance. Coinbase facilitates the connection of qualified clients to various platforms in order for them to get incentives from those protocols. You may be needed to accept certain terms or opt into staking depending on the asset.

Please Keep in Mind

You might be asked to agree to User Terms relating to the asset you want to stake. Please take your time to read them!
You’ll keep complete control of the crypto you’ve staked. Coinbase may or may not restore your crypto assets in the case of a slashing incident involving staked ETH2, depending on the reason for the slashing.
Coinbase may hold a part of your crypto with protocol lockups to ensure that all Coinbase clients have liquidity and may cash out their crypto as needed. This amount is usually very small and is not something to worry about.
In exchange for the service, clients will pay a small fee on their rewards which will be given to Coinbase. The clients’ return rate represents the final amount they will receive after fees have been deducted.

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What Countries Are Eligible for Staking and Inflation?

North America (Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, and the United States excluding New York and Hawaii residents), South America (Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela), Europe (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom), the Middle East (Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates), and Asia (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines) are among the countries eligible for staking and inflation (Algeria, Angola, Benin, and Burkina Faso).

What Are the Eligibility Requirements for Rewards?

Your identity must be confirmed.
You must have the required minimum balance for that coin. You may either buy or keep the required minimum amount on Coinbase, or you can transfer the Bitcoin from another wallet or exchange.
Coinbase only supports a few coin, so it is important you make sure the coin you wish to stake is supported.

Can I Earn Rewards in a Coinbase Vault?

Yes, there are incentives for keeping items in vaults. You’ll get incentives for crypto assets you’re saving in a multitude of forms (staking rewards, APY, etc.).

Can I Opt-Out?

Yes, but you won’t get any incentives till you opt back in. To opt-out of incentives, follow these steps:

On a desktop or laptop: Select “Financial Services” from the Settings menu. To opt-out, flip the Rewards symbol off from there.
On a mobile app: Select “Financial Services” in the iOS or Android app’s Settings tab. To opt-out, flip the Rewards symbol off from there.

How to Stake Coins on Coinbase

For most investors, staking their own cryptocurrency is a difficult task nowadays. To stake on your own, you’ll need to set up a node on your own hardware, sync it to the blockchain, and finance it with enough crypto to fulfil the minimum requirements, which include a large deposit (e.g. 32 ETH for Ethereum). All of this is taken care of for you on Coinbase. You keep complete ownership of your tokens and collect rewards while Coinbase stakes, produces, and signs blocks on your behalf.

Are there risks staking on Coinbase?

Not specifically on Coinbase. Since ETH is a brand new one, there are some network issues that cause people to earn less than expected. However, there is nothing specific to Coinbase that people need to worry about. As a USA registered company following every rule in the book, Coinbase is one of the most trustworthy and secure websites to use for staking or any other reason.

Obviously nothing in the online world is %100 safe, there are constant attacks on Coinbase that we do not hear or feel, so maybe one day one may actually hit, but this is true for every place, crypto and non-crypto. So picking Coinbase is the most secure and trustworthy one at least.

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Is there a staking minimum and maximum?

You need a minimum of 0.01 Algo to start staking and get rewards daily. You need 1 Atom for staking and get rewards weekly. You need 1 Tezos in order to stake and get rewards every 3 days. Lastly there is no minimum for ETH staking and you get daily rewards.

Conclusion – what can you stake on Coinbase

At the end of the day only you will get to decide what you want to do with your money. However many people realized that ETH is one of the top coins to buy, at whatever price because it offered so much. It is not just a coin, but it is a whole ecosystem that gets to be popular everytime something new happens. ICO craze? ETH got high, crypto collectibles? ETH goes high, DeFi madness?

Guess what, ETH got high. Nowadays it is NFT ‘s and NFT based play to earn games like Axie and ETH once again got high during this period. All in all ETH is always at the front lines whenever something new happens in the crypto world. Adding that popularity as a method to make passive income in ETH just made it a no brainer for many investors.

Obviously the returns are not super high, however it is still in ETH. Which means you get to have a certain amount of one of the best coins ever, but you will also have income on it as well. Proof of Stake is not just for ETH of course, there are many others, but the most popular one is ETH right now. It got popular again thanks to ETH as well.

Full transition to Ethereum 2.0 will not happen for a while longer, but it is being developed and offers the option right now. You can choose whatever coin that has PoS if you want to, it doesn’t guarantee any profit, however it does provide less risks involved compared to PoW that requires you to purchase machines and wait months even a year to make that return back. Instead of just having a coin, and if you decide not to, you can sell and get out.

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FAQs

How much can I earn with Coinbase staking❓

Each coin has different returns, and each of those returns changes based on the current market situation. ETH for example moves anywhere between %5 APR to %6 APR depending on the difficulty and network situation.

Plus fee’s that people pay for transactions changes it as well. It is suggested to check average returns before you invest, so that you would know how much it is at that point, but remember it will change during your staking period as well, it will not stay the same forever.

Is Coinbase good for staking❓

It is certainly as good as any other option. They are a great company with a good background and a good support from the community. If you are planning on staking in a pool, then Coinbase is at least as good as any other alternative you may consider.

Where do I see my rewards❓

Coinbase will automatically stake your coins for you if you are opt-in and you will see them in your crypto wallet. You will not have to do anything extra to get them back, it will be showing in your balance automatically.

How often does Coinbase pay out the staking rewards❓

Depends on the coin. For Algo and ETH it is daily, for Tezos it is 3 days, and for Cosmos it is weekly. So you will have to calculate when you will receive the rewards based on which coin you picked, their reward frequency and when you initially started staking.

Can you stake Ada on Coinbase❓

Unfortunately ADA is currently not available at Coinbase as we speak. However it is suggested to keep checking it, maybe in the future they could add in more coins to their list which may include ADA one day.

Can you stake SOL on Coinbase❓

Just like ADA , SOL is also not available for staking in Coinbase. However SOL could also be added later on, so it would be wise to keep checking it in the future.

Can I stake ETH 2.0 on Coinbase❓

Yes you can start staking Ethereum 2.0 on Coinbase today. It is available for as minimum as you can deposit and the rewards are daily.

Where can I view my staked coins❓

Your staked coins will be in your wallet and show up automatically. However if you want to see how much you earned so far, just go to the Lifetime Rewards section on Coinbase to see how much you have earned so far.

Can I stake funds stored in a Coinbase vault❓

Unfortunately you can’t stake directly from the Coinbase vault as of right now. You will need to withdraw your coins from the Vault into the wallet and opt-in if you want to stake your coins.

Can you stake on Coinbase Pro❓

Staking happens only on main Coinbase, not on Coinbase Pro.

What are the tax implications of staking on Coinbase❓

If you are a user from the USA, then any user that makes more than $600 on staking income will have to pay taxes. However Coinbase also helps you out with it and sends you the required form to fill out called 1099-MISC, so half of your job is already done, just fill out the form and send it over to the IRS to pay your income tax on staking rewards.