What does staking bring over the years?

How the tool calculates

The formula is the classic compound interest formula: holding times (1 plus rate divided by the number of payouts) to the power of (number times years). The percentage you set is the nominal annual rate. If it pays out more than once a year and the reward is staked again straight away, the actual annual yield is higher. At 3.5 per cent nominal, monthly reinvestment gives 3.56 per cent effective, and yearly reinvestment gives exactly 3.5 per cent. Between monthly and daily there is barely anything left. The gap is small at low rates and grows with the rate: at 12 per cent nominal with monthly reinvestment, 12.68 per cent effective comes out.

The second line in the chart shows the same stake without reinvestment, that is, rewards that simply sit there. The gap between the two lines is the compounding effect. For the euro view two further assumptions come in: today’s market price and the annual price change you set. Both are calculation values. The calculator says nothing about how a price will move, and the reward rate you set is your assumption, not a promise from any network.

What actually happens in staking

Under proof of stake, participants put up coins as a pledge and in return propose blocks or confirm the work of others. Take part honestly and you receive new coins and transaction fees; break the rules demonstrably and you lose part of the pledge and are shut out. This slashing is the reason the stake creates security at all.

With Ethereum, running your own validator takes at least 32 ETH; since the upper limit was raised, a single validator can hold up to 2,048 ETH. Anyone with less can join a pool, in some cases from 0.01 ETH, but gives up keys or hands control to contracts. The staking page of the Ethereum project shows a continuously updated rate, given there as APR, that is, the nominal annual rate before reinvestment. On 13 September 2026 it stood at 2.5 per cent. At the same moment, 42,632,959 ETH were staked there, around 34 per cent of all ETH. That rate is not a fixed figure: the more coins are staked, the less falls to each validator.

Tax in Germany

This section describes German tax law and applies to private investors taxed in Germany; readers taxed in another country are governed by that country’s rules. Income from passive staking is, under the circular of the German Federal Ministry of Finance of 6 March 2025 (paragraph 48), as a rule other income under section 22 no. 3 of the German Income Tax Act (Einkommensteuergesetz), that is, current income at the moment it accrues and not first on a sale. The coins received are valued at the market price at the time of acquisition, and for simplicity the moment they are booked into the wallet may be used during the year. A separate exemption limit applies to this income: under section 22 no. 3 sentence 2 of the German Income Tax Act it is not taxable if, together with other income from services, it comes to less than 256 € in the calendar year. This too is an exemption limit and not an allowance, so at 256 € the full amount is taxable, not only the part above the limit.

The coins received count as acquired and therefore start their own one year holding period under section 23(1) sentence 1 no. 2 of the German Income Tax Act. An extension of that period to ten years, as sentence 4 provides for assets used to earn income, is not applied to currency and payment tokens; paragraph 63 of the same circular makes that clear. The worry that staked coins are tied up for ten years is therefore settled.

Where the calculator stops

It assumes the rate stays the same over the whole term and that every payout is staked again immediately and in full. Both are rare in practice. Provider fees, lock-up and waiting times when exiting, penalties for outages and the cost of the transactions are all missing. The euro figures hang on a price assumption you set yourself and on a market price that changes every ten minutes. Tax on the current income is not deducted. And the calculator does not distinguish between networks: lock-up periods, slashing rules and payout rhythms differ across Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Polkadot and Cosmos.

Frequently asked questions

Sources