Crypto with real staking yield
Which cryptocurrencies pay a real staking yield?
Scoring pass 18 Sept 2026. Market snapshot 28 Sept 2026.
What this list asks
The rule
A token qualifies when its Real Staking Yield variable (yield after the token's own inflation, scored 1 to 10) sits in the top quartile, and market capitalisation is at least $100M. Rows are ordered by composite score.
Headline APRs ignore the emissions that fund them. A 20% APR paid out of 25% inflation is a 5% haircut dressed as income. Ranking on the yield that survives the token's own dilution is the only version of this question worth answering.
The insight this dataset adds
Real staking yield correlates just 0.03 with the vesting-schedule variable and 0.06 with the circ/FDV ratio, so yield quality is essentially independent of unlock structure, which is why this list looks little like the no-unlock list despite shared big caps at the top. Only 36 of 251 tokens score 6 or above on the variable, which is the arithmetic statement of how rare a genuinely accretive yield is. Universe median is 4 of 10.
The 40 tokens
Ranked by composite score within the qualifying set. Every row links to the full token page, where the variable-by-variable scores behind the ranking are published.
| # | Token | Yield var | Score | Verdict | Market cap | Dilution |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hyperliquid HYPE | 7/10 | 193/250 | HOLD CORE | $19.77B | 4.5x |
| 2 | Ethereum ETH | 7/10 | 187/250 | HOLD CORE | $327.18B | 1x |
| 3 | Wrapped Lido Staked ETH WSTETH | 9/10 | 185/250 | HOLD CORE | $12.39B | 1x |
| 4 | Solana SOL | 7/10 | 170/250 | HOLD | $69.93B | 1.08x |
| 5 | GEODNET GEOD | 6/10 | 169/250 | HOLD | $118.2M | 2.16x |
| 6 | Maple Finance SYRUP | 7/10 | 168/250 | HOLD | $248.9M | 1.07x |
| 7 | Chainlink LINK | 5/10 | 165/250 | HOLD | $11.19B | 1.34x |
| 8 | Ether.fi ETHFI | 7/10 | 162/250 | HOLD | $674.0M | 1.04x |
| 9 | Pendle Finance PENDLE | 7/10 | 160/250 | HOLD | $415.3M | 1.62x |
| 10 | Rocket Pool ETH RETH | 9/10 | 159/250 | HOLD | $992.1M | 1x |
| 11 | Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH CBETH | 8/10 | 158/250 | HOLD | $508.2M | 2.25x |
| 12 | Aerodrome Finance AERO | 8/10 | 157/250 | HOLD | $801.1M | 2x |
| 13 | Aave AAVE | 6/10 | 156/250 | HOLD | $2.27B | 1.04x |
| 14 | Sui SUI | 5/10 | 146/250 | HOLD | $4.74B | 2.44x |
| 15 | BNB BNB | 5/10 | 144/250 | HOLD | $102.03B | 1.5x |
| 16 | Sky (formerly Maker) SKY | 6/10 | 141/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $1.84B | 1x |
| 17 | Curve Finance CRV | 6/10 | 140/250 | HOLD | $526.7M | 1.93x |
| 18 | Injective INJ | 7/10 | 139/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $732.1M | 1x |
| 19 | Avalanche AVAX | 6/10 | 138/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $4.89B | 1.53x |
| 20 | Jito JTO | 6/10 | 134/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $295.9M | 1.9x |
| 21 | Synthetix SNX | 7/10 | 130/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $141.0M | 1x |
| 22 | Akash Network AKT | 6/10 | 129/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $196.0M | 1.3x |
| 23 | Gnosis GNO | 6/10 | 128/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $315.5M | 1.14x |
| 24 | Bittensor TAO | 6/10 | 128/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $3.42B | 1.85x |
| 25 | TRON TRX | 6/10 | 125/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $31.78B | 1x |
| 26 | PancakeSwap CAKE | 6/10 | 123/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $832.5M | 1.26x |
| 27 | Polygon system Token POL | 5/10 | 123/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $1.23B | 1x |
| 28 | The Graph GRT | 5/10 | 121/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $340.9M | 1.06x |
| 29 | Celestia TIA | 6/10 | 120/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $436.9M | 1.21x |
| 30 | Ethena ENA | 5/10 | 120/250 | CAUTIOUS HOLD | $2.60B | 1.49x |
| 31 | Stacks STX | 7/10 | 118/250 | WATCH | $594.0M | 1x |
| 32 | Aptos APT | 6/10 | 116/250 | WATCH | $712.6M | 2.41x |
| 33 | Sonic (prev. Fantom) S | 5/10 | 115/250 | WATCH | $148.4M | 1x |
| 34 | Cardano ADA | 6/10 | 113/250 | WATCH | $9.20B | 1.2x |
| 35 | Toncoin TON | 5/10 | 110/250 | WATCH | $4.61B | 1.87x |
| 36 | dYdX DYDX | 5/10 | 109/250 | WATCH | $113.5M | 1.18x |
| 37 | THORChain RUNE | 5/10 | 106/250 | PASS | $244.4M | 1.08x |
| 38 | Theta Network THETA | 5/10 | 105/250 | WATCH | $225.4M | 1x |
| 39 | Polkadot DOT | 7/10 | 103/250 | WATCH | $2.01B | 1.23x |
| 40 | Convex Finance CVX | 5/10 | 103/250 | WATCH | $194.9M | 1.07x |
Scores are from the research pass dated 18 Sept 2026 and do not move with price. Market caps are from the snapshot fetched 28 Sept 2026.
Common questions
- Which cryptocurrencies pay a real staking yield?
- 50 tokens qualify. Hyperliquid (HYPE), Ethereum (ETH), Wrapped Lido Staked ETH (WSTETH), Solana (SOL), GEODNET (GEOD) lead the list.
- What is the rule?
- A token qualifies when its Real Staking Yield variable (yield after the token's own inflation, scored 1 to 10) sits in the top quartile, and market capitalisation is at least $100M. Rows are ordered by composite score.
- Does appearing on this list mean a token is a buy?
- No. The list clears one stated rule as recorded at the scoring pass on 18 Sept 2026. Every row links to the full token page, where the weaknesses are listed next to the strengths.
Sources
- [CoinGecko /coins/markets] Market caps, snapshot fetched 28 Sept 2026.
- [Early Thunder scoring pass] All 25-variable scores and percentiles, pass dated 18 Sept 2026.
- Each token page carries its own claim-level source list, including sources whose links have gone dead (marked unverified, not dropped).