$1,000, $10,000 and $100,000 Run Through the Math Before any arithmetic, the sentence that changes how you read all of it:
Before any arithmetic, the sentence that changes how you read all of it:
What you earn staking gold is more gold. Not dollars.
That distinction sounds pedantic until you run the numbers, at which point it turns out to be the whole thing. A staking rate applies to your quantity of metal. The gold price then applies to the entire position, yield included, and it is a much bigger number.
So this article does the maths twice. Once in gold, which is what the product actually does. Then again in dollars, which is what you will actually experience, and where the answer is uncomfortable enough that most calculators skip it.
GGBR is denominated at one thousandth of a troy ounce. That single design choice is what makes small positions possible, and it is the number every calculation below runs on.
So a thousand GGBR is one troy ounce of gold claim. At recent prices a single GGBR costs a few dollars, which means a meaningful gold position does not require four thousand dollars for a single unit the way a full-ounce token does.
Gold moves, so treat these as illustrative rather than a quote. The point is the shape, not the decimals.
Here is a year of accrual at several rates, shown in the units that actually accrue. We are deliberately showing a range rather than a single figure, because the liquid product carries a floating target rate and the current terms are published on the staking page rather than here.
The same thing expressed in ounces, which is the number that matters if you think in metal:
Read the second table and notice what it does not say. Nowhere does it tell you what your position is worth. It tells you how much metal you have. Those are different questions and conflating them is the single most common error in this category.
The vault accrues continuously through its exchange rate rather than paying out, so returns compound automatically without you doing anything. At these rates the one-year difference between simple and compounded accrual is a few tenths of a percent. Over five years it becomes a few percent of the position. Real, but not the headline anyone hopes for.
A 5% performance fee is taken from yield before it enters the vault, so every figure above is already the net experience rather than a gross number you need to discount.
You can confirm the fee yourself by calling performanceFeeBps() on the vault contract, which returns it in basis points.
This is the table that most staking calculators do not show you, and it is the one worth printing out.
Take the $10,000 position, hold it for a year at an illustrative 10%, so you finish with about 2,391 GGBR instead of 2,174. Now vary only the gold price:
Look at the bottom row. A 10% yield on a position that fell 20% leaves you down about 12%. The yield did real work: without it you would be down 20%. But it did not save you, and no realistic staking rate would have.
Look at the top row. The same yield on a 20% rise leaves you up about 32%. The yield is the smaller half of that number.
So the honest summary of the entire article:
The yield cushions the gold price. It does not cancel it, and it does not protect you from it. In any year where gold moves meaningfully, the price move is the dominant term and the yield is the adjustment.
If you would not be comfortable owning gold through a 20% drawdown, the yield does not solve that. It makes the drawdown shallower and leaves you holding the same asset.
For context on how large gold's moves actually are relative to any staking rate, gold set a record above $5,000 an ounce in January 2026 and traded in the mid $4,000s through the summer. That is a swing several times larger than a year of yield.
Six things, and none of them are hypothetical.
For the liquid product the target rate is adjustable by the operator, and our own product page says so. The table above assumes a constant rate for a full year, which is a modelling convenience rather than a promise.
Exiting the liquid vault means requesting a withdrawal, waiting out a notice period of currently seven days, then claiming. Your position stops accruing the moment you queue. Two round trips in a year cost you a fortnight of accrual.
Depositing, requesting and claiming are Ethereum transactions. On a $1,000 position, a few transactions during a congested period can eat a visible share of a year's yield. This is the main reason very small positions are inefficient to manage actively.
If you are converting into GGBR, the price you get depends on available depth, and GGBR's on-chain market is thin. On larger sizes this can cost more than several months of yield. Check depth before sizing.
The yield comes from a credit arrangement rather than from the metal. If the counterparty does not perform, the accrual is what stops. There is no insurance fund covering that, and the full picture is in Is Gold Staking Safe?.
Treatment varies by jurisdiction and can apply on entry, on accrual, or on disposal depending on where you are and how the position is characterised. This is not tax advice and you should get advice specific to your situation.
Everything above is arithmetic on assumed rates. Here is the one figure that is not assumed.
Between 20 May and 21 August 2026, the liquid vault's exchange rate rose from 1.000274 to 1.025817 GGBR per stGGBR. That is a realised increase of about 2.55% over 93 days, observed across 91 daily readings, and it did not decrease on any of them.
We are deliberately not annualising that for you, and it is worth saying why.
Multiplying a 93-day figure by four assumes the same daily pace continues for a full year, which is an assumption about the future dressed up as a measurement of the past. The realised figure with its window attached is the honest statement, and you can verify it yourself by calling exchangeRate() on the vault contract today and comparing.
Current target rates for each pool, including the fixed terms, are published on the staking page.
Your ounce count grows at the applicable rate, and your dollar outcome is that plus whatever gold does, which is usually the larger number.
At an illustrative 10% on a $10,000 position you would finish the year with roughly 10% more gold. Whether you are up or down in dollars depends almost entirely on the gold price.
The arithmetic is simple enough to do without one: multiply your GGBR balance by the rate for the accrual, then apply the gold price change to the whole position. Any calculator that outputs a dollar return without asking you for a gold price assumption is hiding the larger of the two variables.
Not in the liquid vault. The exchange rate is the same for every holder regardless of size, so returns scale linearly. Fixed-term pools differ by term rather than by size, and current terms are on the staking page.
Yes, automatically. Yield accrues into the vault's exchange rate rather than being paid out, so there is nothing to reinvest. At these rates the compounding benefit is a few tenths of a percent over one year and becomes more material over several.
A 5% performance fee is deducted from yield before it reaches the vault, so quoted vault returns are already net of it. Separately you pay Ethereum gas on deposits, withdrawal requests and claims, plus any slippage when converting into or out of GGBR.
Yes, in dollar terms, easily, if the gold price falls by more than the yield. You can also lose principal if the counterparty behind the yield fails to perform. The yield is not a hedge against either.
The exchange rate updates as yield is injected, so accrual is visible daily. Your token balance will not change, which is the design. Call convertToAssets() on your balance to see the current value of your position in GGBR.
For the liquid product it is a floating target, adjustable by the operator, and our product page states that. For fixed-term positions the rate is set when you deposit and holds for the term. These are different products with different trade-offs.
The vault enforces a small minimum deposit, and because GGBR is denominated at a thousandth of an ounce, a position can start at a few dollars. Whether it is worth starting that small depends on gas costs at the time, which can exceed a small position's annual yield.
The question "how much can I earn staking gold" has a precise answer and a useful answer, and they are different.
The precise answer: your ounce count grows at the applicable rate, linearly with position size, compounding automatically, net of a 5% performance fee.
The useful answer: in any year where gold moves more than a few percent, the gold price is the dominant term in your outcome and the yield is a modest adjustment to it. The yield is a reason to prefer holding gold this way rather than another way. It is not a reason to hold gold.
Size the position as a gold position. Then treat the yield as what it is, which is the carry improving from negative to positive rather than a return in its own right.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice.
exchangeRate(), performanceFeeBps(), withdrawalDelay()| Deposit | Ounces of claim | GGBR |
|---|
| $1,000 | 0.217 oz | about 217 |
| $10,000 | 2.174 oz | about 2,174 |
| $100,000 | 21.74 oz | about 21,739 |
| Deposit | at 6% | at 8% | at 10% | at 12% |
|---|
| $1,000 (217 GGBR) | 13.0 | 17.4 | 21.7 | 26.1 |
| $10,000 (2,174 GGBR) | 130 | 174 | 217 | 261 |
| $100,000 (21,739 GGBR) | 1,304 | 1,739 | 2,174 | 2,609 |
| Deposit | Starting oz | at 8% | at 10% | at 12% |
|---|
| $1,000 | 0.217 | 0.235 | 0.239 | 0.243 |
| $10,000 | 2.174 | 2.348 | 2.391 | 2.435 |
| $100,000 | 21.74 | 23.48 | 23.91 | 24.35 |
| Gold price after one year | Change in gold | Your position value | Your outcome |
|---|
| $5,520 (up 20%) | +20% | about $13,200 | up about 32% |
| $4,830 (up 5%) | +5% | about $11,550 | up about 15.5% |
| $4,600 (flat) | 0% | about $11,000 | up about 10% |
| $4,370 (down 5%) | −5% | about $10,450 | up about 4.5% |
| $3,680 (down 20%) | −20% | about $8,800 | down about 12% |