Stacking DAO Monthly Recap – October 2026

Two months after stBTC launched, Bitcoin makes up more than half of Stacking DAO.

The protocol holds 136.6M STX and 631 stBTC, worth $93.3M together, and 86% of all Bitcoin staked on Stacks has come through Stacking DAO.

In October stBTC moved from bond windows to everyday deposits, and the STX side shipped its own upgrade.

Bond 2 filled through stBTC

Stacking DAO took its full 483 sBTC allocation in the second Bitcoin Staking bond, 96% of the 505 BTC in that bond. Across both bonds, 633 of the 735 BTC staked on Stacks sits behind stBTC. stBTC now holds 25.5% of all sBTC on Stacks.

At current prices the stBTC side is worth $49.3M and the STX side $44.1M. Stacking DAO TVL passed $100M on 8 October, before STX and BTC prices pulled back.

stBTC through its first new bond

New sBTC starts earning a week after it enters a bond, and its rewards reach the stBTC rate in full the week after. That lag pulled the displayed rate down for about two weeks after bond 2 closed. The rate is back at 2.2% in BTC, and one stBTC now buys 1.0035 sBTC.

Deposits changed too. Since 20 October, minting stBTC no longer waits for a bond window. Holders deposit sBTC, receive stBTC, and earn Bitcoin Staking yield through the stBTC conversion rate, credited daily.

Most stBTC is at work across Stacks DeFi, with 406 of 631 stBTC, or 64%, deployed in DeFi. Zest Protocol accepts stBTC as USDCx collateral at 60% max LTV, and borrowers with at least 20% LTV qualify for the Stacks DeFi boost. The Zest Protocol Levered Bitcoin Staking Vault filled its 100 BTC of capacity. The vault deposits stBTC, borrows sBTC against it, stakes the borrowed sBTC into more stBTC and repeats.

The STX side upgraded

STX staking yields climbed through October. Native staking pays 8.4% and stSTX 7.9%, against 6.7% for native staking at the start of the month. STX TVL held at 136.6M STX.

Native STX staking v2 went live on 13 October. BTC rewards go straight to a Bitcoin wallet with no claim step, and stakers can switch payouts to sBTC on Stacks at any time. The new pool charges a 5% fee, among the lowest on Stacks. Existing native stakers keep their 0% fee option and can migrate to the new pool in one click for the new features.

Open data and continuous testing

The new analytics page at app.stackingdao.com/analytics shows every reward payout, stBTC bond and signer on one screen. Stacking DAO has paid $4.7M in staking rewards to date, and stBTC was featured on CoinMarketCap.

Stacking DAO's contracts are also tested continuously by AI. The security harness runs the latest frontier models against the full Stacking DAO contract set and adds each new model shortly after release.

The road ahead

Bitcoin Staking on Stacks is two bonds in. Stacking DAO's focus is growing stBTC TVL and maturing the product.