What is staking?
Staking is the process of locking cryptocurrency as economic collateral on a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain to participate in consensus — proposing and attesting blocks — and earn protocol rewards. Stakers are incentivised to act honestly because misbehaviour triggers slashing penalties on their locked collateral. Ethereum’s Merge (September 2022) shifted the largest PoS chain from PoW; staking now secures ~$100B+ of ETH.
Staking participation models
- Solo staking: 32 ETH minimum; run own validator hardware/software; maximum yield, full slashing exposure.
- Staking pools (custodial): Binance, Coinbase, Kraken — low minimum, but custody risk (centralised custody, regulatory action exposure).
- Liquid staking (decentralised): Lido stETH, Rocket Pool rETH — staker receives liquid token usable in DeFi; smart contract risk.
- Distributed validator technology (DVT): SSV, Obol — split validator key across multiple nodes for fault tolerance.
Yield economics
- Ethereum: base rate ~3-5% APR (inversely correlated with total ETH staked).
- Other PoS chains: Solana 6-7%, Cosmos 10-20%, Polkadot 12-15% (higher rates often reflect higher inflation, not real return).
- MEV boost: validators capture MEV via relays; can add ~0.5-2% APR.
Türk vergi ve düzenleyici bağlam
Türkiye’de kripto staking gelirlerinin vergilendirilmesi GİB tarafından net bir genel tebliğ ile düzenlenmemiştir; pratikte değer artış kazancı veya gelir olarak yorumlanabilir. CASP düzenlemesi (7518) staking hizmeti sunan kuruluşları SPK denetimine alır; müşteri-bilgilendirme, asset-segregation ve risk açıklama yükümlülükleri öngörür. Solo staker’lar self-custody’nin avantajlarını korur ancak slashing riskini doğrudan üstlenir.
Do: match staking model to risk tolerance — solo for control, LSTs for liquidity, custodial for simplicity; verify operator track record.
Don’t: chase highest APR uncritically — high yields often reflect protocol inflation diluting holdings, not real value capture.