Before You Stake

Aptos has made certain staking design choices that could impact when and how users receive validator rewards.

Here's what users should know before they stake:

• Users have two choices to "exit" tAPT - (1) trading it for APT and (2) unstaking it from Tortuga

  • Trading it for APT can be done instantly. The trading price may not match the price one would get by unstaking it from Tortuga, since it's set by the market.

  • Unstaking from Tortuga could take up to 30 days to receive APT (explanation in next point). While this results in the price from the Tortuga contract, this method could take longer.

• Unstaking takes up to 30 days because Aptos has a 30-day lockup period. Everyone who unstakes needs to wait until the end of the cycle for their APT to be unlocked from the validator.

  • Note: the lockup is by validator, meaning all unstaked APT on that validator gets unlocked at the same time. Two unstakers could wait different amounts of time depending on when they unstake.

  • This is different from other chains, where two unstakers wait the exact same period, no matter when they unstaked.

• When a user unstakes from Tortuga, they instead receive a Ticket . This Ticket is claimable for APT as it becomes available from the validator. Unstake to get a Ticket, then claim Ticket to get APT.

  • Tickets are processed in first-in-first-out order and never expire.

• When a user unstakes from Tortuga, 0.3% of the unstaked tAPT is burned (this number is controllable by governance). This is not a protocol fee. Instead, the APT associated with the burned tAPT is claimable by everyone else holding tAPT.

  • This is to dampen volatile periods with large unstaking.

• Again, none of this applies when trading tAPT to APT via a DEX.