Stacks enables Bitcoin staking in 19 days with PoX-5 hardfork

Bitcoin staking through Stacks is set to go live in about 19 days. The PoX-5 hardfork, scheduled to activate on the Stacks mainnet around July 29, 2026, will lay the technical groundwork for BTC holders to earn yield directly on their holdings without giving up custody of their coins. How Bitcoin staking on Stacks actually works The system relies on Stacks’ Proof of Transfer (PoX) consensus mechanism, which has been operational since 2021. Under the new staking framework, participants lock BTC on Bitcoin’s layer 1 alongside STX tokens to form what Stacks calls “bonds.” Those bonds generate BTC rewards at an initial annual percentage yield of roughly 3%. The BTC stays on Bitcoin’s base layer under your own custody, while the STX component ties the staking activity into the Stacks network’s economics. Neither asset needs to be wrapped, bridged to another chain, or deposited into a smart contract controlled by someone else. Previous iterations of this concept have already shown meaningful traction. Dual Stacking with sBTC, an earlier offering from the Stacks ecosystem, attracted over $100 million in user participation and facilitated substantial BTC payouts. The rollout timeline and w...