Stacks Bond 2 Sells Out With 505 BTC Enrolled, 1.21 BTC Paid

Stacks has filled its second Bitcoin staking bond, enrolling 505 BTC alongside 6.7 million STX and paying out 1.21 BTC in rewards to participants so far. The bond hit its roughly 500 BTC capacity by October 12, 2026, according to the network's bond data, marking the second sellout under the PoX-5 upgrade that went live on July 30.

What is Bond 2 and how does it pay?

Bond 2 is the second staking bond launched under Stacks' PoX-5 upgrade. PoX stands for Proof of Transfer, the consensus mechanism the Stacks layer runs on top of Bitcoin.

The bond targets an annualized yield of around 3%, paid in BTC and funded by the earnings of Stacks miners. Terms run six months, with rewards distributed weekly. Participants must also stake a small amount of STX — roughly 5% of the value of the BTC they commit — which is why Bond 2 pulled in over 6.7 million STX alongside the 505 BTC.

The 3% figure is a target, not a guarantee. It depends on what Stacks miners actually earn, so realized returns could drift with network activity and broader market conditions.

Why liquid staking did the heavy lifting

The most telling number isn't the headline 505 BTC. It's the roughly 483 BTC that arrived through Stacking DAO's liquid staking product, stBTC — meaning the vast majority of Bond 2's capacity came through a liquid wrapper rather than direct staking. The Xverse pool also helped drive participation.

In practice, stBTC holders keep earning bond rewards while using their position elsewhere in Stacks DeFi — for example, borrowing USDC on Zest Protocol without unwinding the staked BTC. That liquidity turned a six-month lockup into usable collateral, and it appears to be what filled the bond so quickly.

The concentration cuts both ways. When one product channels nearly all of a bond's deposits, the health of that product becomes a meaningful variable for the entire program. Each layer between depositor and underlying BTC is another place where something can go wrong.

How it compares to the Genesis Bond

Bond 2 follows the Genesis Bond, which launched on September 10 and distributed 0.28 BTC in its first two weeks. Bond 2 has now paid 1.21 BTC — more than four times that amount.

Across both bonds, 735 BTC has entered Bitcoin staking on Stacks, with Bond 2 accounting for the bulk on its own. The Genesis Bond also reportedly drew interest from institutional investors.

What does the PoX-5 backdrop show?

The bonds sit on top of the PoX-5 hard fork, live since July 30. Since then, total STX staked has climbed more than 25%, from 392 million to 493 million STX. Decentralized exchange volumes and synthetic Bitcoin holdings on Stacks, known as sBTC, reached year-high levels in Q3 2026.

Stacks founder Muneeb Ali said the on-chain staking mechanism is working as intended, and indicated additional capacity may be offered in future cycles. For STX holders, the structure creates steady structural demand: every BTC entering a bond needs STX alongside it.

The open questions now are whether a third bond arrives with larger capacity, how much of it flows through stBTC again, and whether actual payouts track the 3% target across the full six-month term.