Top Crypto Staking Coins to Watch out for in 2023

While owning cryptos for price appreciation is a perfectly good strategy to go ahead with during a bull market – most of us newer participants in the crypto market have learnt it the hard way that simply HODLing your coins will get you returns, but wouldn’t be a source of passive income, as is the case with other investment asset classes with equities. Equities pay dividends, undergo stock splits and also issue bonuses to their shareholders as a way of sharing profits with them.

However, cryptos are nothing like equities, however, there is a way of making passive income from this space nonetheless. It is a concept popularly known as staking. Staking is essentially a system where you lock up your crypto assets in a particular smart contract on a blockchain network for a set period of time to help support the operation of the blockchain or the smart contract. In return for staking your crypto, you are able to earn more from your idle cryptos by putting them to use.

Now that you have understood what staking means – let’s take a look at some of the most popular crypto staking coins that you need watch out for in 2023 if you want to earn passive crypto returns.

Axie Infinity (AXS)

Axie Infinity – a blockchain based game that reached the height of its popularity back during the global Covid-19 lockdown period of 2020 is a definitive part of the list of top crypto staking coins you need to watch out for in 2023. Axie Infinity had risen to meteoric popularity back in 2020 amid the global lockdown, when many people were out of jobs and deprived of their sources of income, they had turned to blockchain based games and even managed to earn a solid income out of it.

Players in this game can discover, trade or even purchase upgrades for their ‘Axies’ and battle them against other players. With an expansive digital universe and many ‘Axies’ to find and collect – it is an immersive world to get lost in. Axie Infinity also allows users to stake their AXS tokens in order to receive rewards which range from tokens, custom skins and many other things.

Polkadot (DOT)

Polkadot, one of the newer entrants in the world of cryptos, born only in 2020 – but it has quickly risen up in terms of market capitalization and is now the 13th most valuable cryptos according to CoinMarketCap. Polkadot essentially serves as a solution to enable interoperability amongst different blockchain networks to transact and share data with one another. It also works to provide critical infrastructure to enhance the entire crypto space.

Polkadot’s native crypto token, DOT is the token that is used to validate transactions across the network and thus is able to offer very lucrative staking rewards for delegators on the network. Even holding a certain amount of DOT enables you to run a validator node that gives near 15% APR! It offers some of the best returns in the staking market amongst most major proof-of-stake based cryptos and can be expected to keep up the work in the time to come as it is still one of the most useful interoperability solutions in the market. This is the reason why Polkadot features on the list of top staking coins to watch out for in 2023.

Read more: Polkadot Price Prediction

Algorand (ALGO)

Algorand is a blockchain project that has its native crypto token called ALGO. This platform was designed to process many transactions very quickly, quite similar to the functioning to existing major payment processors like Mastercard or Visa. Algorand has the capacity to host other crypto and blockchain based projects and thus makes it a direct competitor to the altcoin king – Ethereum. Its native token, ALGO, is used to secure the Algorand blockchain and also pays for processing fees for transactions taking place on the Algorand platform.

Algorand is a open-source, proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network – which means anyone can view and even contribute to the platform’s code. It also has a operating protocol called pure PoS that is used to recruit network validators from a pool of users of the platform. But as a set procedure, a user’s influence is directly proportional to the amount of ALGO they have staked on the network itself. Thus, the more users stake, the higher chance they have to become a validator and contribute to the network. It is because of this reason that Algorand features on the list of top crypto staking coins to watch out for in 2023.

Read more: Crypto Lessons for 2023

Cosmos (ATOM)

To have some diversification in your asset portfolios – here’s another project that can rival Polkadot. Cosmos is quite similar to Polkadot, as it offers a way for various different blockchains to be able to communicate with each other and transfer data seamlessly. It also enables users to create custom blockchains that share the security of the Cosmos network and also be able to conduct transactions using ATOM – which is the native token of the Cosmos network.

The team essentially aims to create what they call an ‘internet of blockchains’, where a network of blockchains will be able to communicate with each other in a decentralized manner. Cosmos also happens to be a proof-of-stake (PoS) network, which is an essential feature to have a staking capability in a network.

Users can earn upto 19% APRs as a delegator and offers one of the best staking rewards on this list of top crypto staking coins to watch out for in 2023. To further add to that, it has no minimum amount requirement and also the lock up time for the cryptos is only 21 days. One can even earn over 20% in APRs as a validator node operator on the network but to do that, there is a minimum requirement of ATOM tokens that you will need to have.

Tezos (XTZ)

Tezos is one of the most unique blockchain projects to feature on this list. It is similar in functioning to that to the altcoin king, Ethereum – wherein it is designed to be a platform to build and execute smart contracts on. But it is unique because it focuses more on blockchain governance. Holders of Tezos’ native crypto token, XTZ gives them the right to vote on changes to the Texos’ software in a process that is called ‘baking’.

It was built with the idea of being a blockchain network that can evolve organically without the need for hard forks on the network. Hard forks are a crude solution to implement upgrades and it leaves behind a large portion of the existing user base out. Tezos intends to solve that by putting more focus on the governance aspect.

Its unique governance mechanism is as follows – a baker is required to lock up 6000 XTZ for a return of about 5.97% APR in staking rewards. But those who do not have that many XTZ can delegate other ‘bakers’ to bake on their behalf thus delegators have the freedom of quickly switching and brings about accountability and acting in the best interest of the network.

Due to all these reasons, Tezos forms a definitive part of the top crypto staking coins you need to watch out for in 2023.

Conclusion

This is a comprehensive list of some of the most unique and different projects that you can invest in 2023 to reap passive income, even if the bear market continues its spell. However, investors should do their own research as the crypto market is extremely volatile and locking up tokens for specific periods of time can be problematic too as you won’t be able to sell whenever you like. Thus researching further would bring about more understanding and conviction before investing your hard earned money into these cryptos.

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