> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.kyte.sh/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.kyte.sh/protocol/staking.md).
# Staking mechanics
How stake activates, earns, locks and unstakes.
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**In short.** New stake becomes **active at the next epoch** and stays **locked through that first active epoch**. Rewards accrue per share of active stake and can be claimed in WETH at any time.
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How new stake activates, earns and unlocks
The StakingPool uses a **reward-per-share accumulator** over *active* stake, plus a global **pending bucket**.
* `stake` adds to your pending balance for the current epoch. The tokens must arrive exactly (fee-on-transfer is rejected).
* When an epoch ends, the next interaction "rolls" the global pending batch into active supply and records the accumulator value at that moment (`activationAcc[epoch]`). The batch only earns rewards notified afterwards.
* `notifyReward` (FeeVault only) adds `amount × 1e36 / activeSupply` to the accumulator. If there is no active stake, the reward goes to `undistributed` and is added to the next notification.
* Newly activated stake is recorded as `recent` and is locked until `pendingEpoch + 2`. Pending stake is never locked.
* `unstake` takes from pending first, then from unlocked active stake (`StakeLocked` otherwise).
* `claim` pays all accrued WETH, if it is at least `minClaim` (currently 0; the timelock can raise it to at most 0.1 ETH).
**Invariant:** the pool always holds enough WETH for every staker's accrued plus pending rewards (fuzz-tested solvency).
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