Yield is real, but so is the lock-up
Staking quietly compounds your coin count, and over a year that adds up — but the reward is paid in the same volatile asset and often behind a lock-up. This tool isolates the extra value so you can weigh it against the flexibility you give up. Project the raw rewards on the staking rewards calculator.
Staking yield is real but so is the lockup cost
If you earn 8% APY staking ETH and ETH drops 15% in a month you're locked in, the staking yield didn't save you — it reduced your loss from 15% to about 14.4% for that month. Price exposure dominates staking yield at any realistic timeframe under 3 years.
Where staking genuinely helps: long-term holders who'd hold anyway now earn yield on top. The opportunity cost is liquidity — locked ETH can't be sold during a crash or used as collateral. On Bybit staking with liquid products, you can unstake same-day but yield is lower. On-chain validators lock for 7–21 days depending on network queue.
Tax treatment varies by country. Some treat staking rewards as income at fair market value on receipt, then capital gains on disposal. That means you may owe tax on rewards that later lose value. The gross yield you see on-screen is not the net-of-tax yield you keep.
Related: APY/APR converter, yield farming calculator, compound interest.