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What liquid staking is
TON secures itself with proof of stake. Roughly 377 validators lock 671M Gram as collateral and are paid for producing blocks. Taking part directly needs about 821.7K Gram and a server that stays online every hour of every round.
A liquid staking protocol pools deposits from many holders, puts them to work with validators and issues a liquid staking token (LST) that represents your share. The token stays in your own wallet; you can hold it, send it, or return it to the protocol to get Gram back.
Run a validator
Lock your own Gram with the Elector contract and run a node that signs blocks. Full control and full rewards, but serious capital and operations.
- Minimum
- ≈821.7K Gram to be elected today
- Liquidity
- Locked for each round
- Effort
- High: dedicated server, 24/7 uptime
- Who it suits
- Operators with large holdings
Nominator pool
Pool your Gram with a validator that runs the node for you. Simpler than validating, but your stake is locked and you manage entries and exits yourself.
- Minimum
- Varies by pool
- Liquidity
- Locked for each round
- Effort
- Medium: manage rounds yourself
- Who it suits
- Holders loyal to one validator
Liquid staking
Deposit into a protocol that spreads stake across validators and gives you a token for your position. Rewards compound automatically.
- Minimum
- From 1 Gram (KTON)
- Liquidity
- Token stays transferable; unstake in ≤ ~36 h
- Effort
- Low: hands-off
- Who it suits
- Most holders
How the token earns: exchange rate, not rebasing
Most TON LSTs, KTON included, are rate-appreciating. Your token balance never changes; what changes is how much Gram each token redeems for. The rate is simply the pool’s total Gram divided by the token supply.
When a round settles, the pool adds that round’s net rewards to its Gram while the token supply stays put, so the rate steps up for every holder at the same moment. Right now 1 KTON redeems for 1.0830 Gram.
Because rewards are booked once per round, two readings taken inside the same round show the same rate. That is also why honest APY figures are measured over several rounds, as we do on the live data page.
Where the yield actually comes from
The yield is the validator reward the network pays, minus what the protocol keeps. In the last completed round the network paid about 16.3% a year, gross. A protocol cannot pay more than its validators earn without taking risk somewhere else, so treat any much higher figure with suspicion.
In KTON’s case the pool lends Gram to validator operators for each round and is repaid with interest when the round settles. That interest is the only source of yield: no trading, no lending your Gram out to DeFi. A 16% governance fee is taken from rewards, never from principal, and the APY you see is already net of it. Over the last 30 days that left holders 13.6%.
| Figure | What it means | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Network APY (gross) | Last completed round’s reward, annualized, before any fee | 16.3% |
| KTON APY (net) | Realized growth of the KTON exchange rate over 30 days, after fees | 13.6% |
| Rounds per year | How often a staked Gram earns (every other 18.2 h cycle) | ≈241 |
Getting your Gram back
Gram staked with validators is frozen until the round settles, and no LST changes that. Protocols differ in what they do while you wait:
- Queued withdrawal (KTON and others): you return the token, the protocol issues a payout receipt, and your Gram arrives when the current round ends, up to about 36 hours. If the pool cannot cover every queued withdrawal at that point, the request is returned to you as KTON and you can submit it again. KTON can also pay small amounts now from the Gram it keeps aside, for a 0.2% fee.
- Buffered instant exit (some others): the protocol keeps part of its Gram unstaked as a reserve and pays you from it immediately while it lasts. Faster, but the idle reserve earns nothing.
- Selling on a DEX: you swap the token for Gram on a decentralized exchange. Speed depends on the pool’s depth; thin pools mean a worse price for large amounts.
- 1Election
Validators send their stakes to the Elector contract. The window closes about 2.3 hours before the round starts.
- 2Validation
The elected set (now 377 validators) signs blocks for one cycle of 65,536 seconds, about 18.2 hours.
- 3Hold
Stakes stay frozen for about 9.1 hours after the round, so misbehaviour can still be punished.
- 4Payout
Stake plus rewards come back. The same Gram can join every other election, so it earns about 241 times a year.
Risks and a checklist before you deposit
Liquid staking adds risks on top of ordinary staking. None of them are reasons to avoid it, but each is worth five minutes:
- Smart-contract risk. Is there a public audit by a named firm, and is the deployed code open source? KTON’s TonBit audit and contracts are public.
- Validator risk. Validators that misbehave can be fined. A protocol that spreads stake across many monitored validators limits the damage.
- Exit risk. How long does unstaking take, and what happens if many people leave at once?
- Governance risk. Who can change fees or upgrade contracts, and with what delay? Read the protocol’s docs, e.g. KTON’s governance chapter.
- Phishing. Only use the official app address, check it in your wallet’s TON Connect prompt, and never type a seed phrase into a website.
When running your own validator makes sense
If you hold well above 821.7K Gram and can operate infrastructure, validating yourself keeps every reward. The TON docs list the hardware and network requirements. To stay in every round you need stake for two overlapping cycles, and downtime is fined.
Many large holders choose a middle path: delegate to a professional operator or an institutional product with clear terms, such as KTON Premium for vesting and treasury needs.
Our pick, and why
KTON liquid staking
KTON is the liquid staking protocol our team built after years of running public TON pools. You deposit Gram, receive the KTON token, and each KTON redeems for more Gram after every round. Over the last 30 days that came to 13.6% a year after fees, measured on-chain.
Same 16% fee as Tonstakers, which holds 80.8% of liquid-staked Gram, and a higher measured yield: 13.3% against 12.4% over 90 days, 13.6% against 12.7% over 30. Moving from tsTON.
- Publicly auditedThe KTON V2 contracts were reviewed by TonBit in 2025, and the report is public.
- No code change without noticeThe upgrade role is switched off: turning it back on shows on-chain and then waits 48 hours. Tonstakers, Stakee and Hipo can change their code without a wait. The contracts are open source.
- A fee on rewards only16% of rewards, never of your principal. No deposit fee; a standard withdrawal costs only network gas.
- From 1 Gram, your walletTonkeeper, MyTonWallet, Wallet in Telegram, OKX and other TON Connect wallets, or the Telegram Mini App.
KTON keeps almost every deposited Gram working with validators instead of parking an idle buffer, and that is where its yield comes from. You can withdraw now from the little Gram the pool keeps aside, for a 0.2% fee; anything larger settles when the current round ends, up to about 36 hours. If you need to move large amounts out in minutes, a protocol with a bigger buffer may suit you better. See the comparison.
Running a treasury, fund or vesting schedule? KTON Premium offers staking with vesting contracts for investors, fund managers and digital-asset treasuries.