VeChain Launches StarGate Staking Program With $15 Million Bonus Pool

VeChain, a leading blockchain foundation, has launched its StarGate staking program, marking a significant upgrade to native staking on the VeChainThor blockchain. The program, which began on July 1, is backed by a $15 million bonus pool over six months. This initiative comes in the wake of the SEC's recent guidance, which clarified that protocol staking activities do not constitute securities offerings. The industry is now anticipating approvals for staking ETFs by late 2025, positioning VeChain at the forefront of the institutional staking wave.

The launch of StarGate is a key milestone in VeChain's Renaissance technical roadmap. This upgrade introduces improved tokenomics, a new staking model, and features like EVM equivalence and JSON RPC. The goal is to enhance the economic attractiveness and ease of building on the VeChainThor blockchain. The new Weighted Delegated Proof of Stake consensus mechanism allows VET holders with as little as 10,000 VET to participate in staking, thereby enhancing network security and earning rewards. This shift aims to broaden accessibility and decentralize the network.

Sunny Lu, CEO and Founder of VeChain, commented on the SEC's guidance, stating that it validates VeChain's compliant and accessible staking model. The model treats rewards as compensation for network services rather than investment returns. VeChain's innovative approach leverages NFTs to represent participation, ensuring simplicity for users and full regulatory alignment. This model is particularly appealing to institutions that are increasingly attracted to the crypto industry, especially as major ETF issuers seek staking integration for their products and banks receive authorization to validate Ethereum transactions.

To encourage widespread adoption of the new staking model, the VeChain Foundation has committed 5.48 billion VTHO tokens, valued at approximately $15 million, to provide a six-month bonus boost to the rewards program. This initiative offers substantially enhanced Annual Percentage Yields (APY) to early participants who migrate their existing nodes and stake their VET tokens. Even after the six-month bonus window, nodes will continue to generate higher APY than the current iteration. The approved staking tiers include nodes with a VET staking requirement ranging from 10,000 VET to 15.6 million VET.

Lu emphasized that as regulatory clarity emerges globally, VeChain is positioned to lead the next wave of compliant and accessible blockchain participation. The generous rewards pool ensures that early adopters benefit while contributing to network decentralization. To participate in StarGate staking and earn enhanced rewards, VET must be moved from exchanges to self-custody wallets, such as VeChain’s official wallet - VeWorld. Only self-custodied tokens will be eligible to receive the staking NFT required for activation. VET holders can use tools like the VeChainStats VTHO Staking APY Estimator or the Redeno Staking Simulator to calculate potential rewards and choose their optimal staking tier based on their VET holdings.

VeChain is a pioneer in blockchain-powered solutions for the tokenization of assets and actions. Built on this foundation, the VeBetter ecosystem leverages decentralized applications (dApps) to drive sustainability, rewarding users with B3TR tokens for their impactful actions. By incentivizing sustainable choices, VeBetter fosters long-term behavioral change, creating a lasting positive impact on society. Since its launch in 2024, VeBetter has enabled nearly 20 million tokenized, sustainable actions.