STX

Stacks

Layer 2

A smart-contract layer anchored to Bitcoin that now pays BTC yield to stakers, but earns very little in fees.

Speculative turnaround v1.1 · as of 2026-10-21 · framework v1.13 Coinsight · all analyses
Bottom line

Stacks shipped what it promised in 2026: the PoX-5 hard fork went live on 30 Jul and Bitcoin staking has drawn ~735 BTC in two bonding periods. The token fell to $0.12 in August, −90% below its 2024 high of $3.86, then roughly tripled to $0.38 and is up +53% this year. The weak spot is the token economy: governance raised STX emissions twice since 2025, while chain fees are only ~$2M a year. Bitcoin staking has to grow much bigger before it can carry STX demand.

Scorecard (1–5)
Project
Token performance
Tokenomics
Price
$0.3768
+9.3% 24h · +13% 30d · CoinGecko 21 Oct
Market cap
$707.1M
rank #93 · FDV $707.1M, no max supply
24h volume
$24.8M
3.5% of market cap
From ATH
−90%
ATH $3.86, Apr 2024
2026 YTD
+54%
$0.2450 → $0.3768
STX staked
493M
≈ 26% of supply · Q3 report, 15 Oct

The last 12 months

$0.25$0.5$0.75Oct 25NovDecJan 26FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec2025-10-27: $0.469$0.47 peak2026-08-19: $0.1199$0.12 low2026-10-14: $0.4343$0.432026-10-21: $0.376$0.381Q1: sBTC TVL $437M2Block reward halves to 500 STX32026 roadmap published4PoX-5 hard fork live5Year low at $0.126Genesis Bond opens7Bond 2 lifts total to 735 BTC8Muneeb Ali becomes Labs CEO9Bond 3, monthly bonding starts10Epoch 4.1 upgrade
AdoptionTokenomicsProductTechMarketGovernanceUpcoming

Daily closes from CoinGecko, 22 Oct 2025 to 21 Oct 2026.

Key events
  1. 1
    31 Mar 26 Q1: sBTC TVL $437M. sBTC TVL closes Q1 at $437M after a $545M peak; the deposit cap is removed.
  2. 2
    Apr 26 Block reward halves to 500 STX. SIP-029 step-down at Bitcoin block 945,000, aligned with Bitcoin's halving cadence.
  3. 3
    30 Apr 26 2026 roadmap published. Three phases: Bitcoin staking, Clarity WASM scaling, then Bitcoin-native lending and sBTC as gas.
  4. 4
    30 Jul 26 PoX-5 hard fork live. Bitcoin staking activated and reward restored to 1,000 STX per block; all staked STX unlocked.
  5. 5
    19 Aug 26 Year low at $0.12. Low after the fork; STX then gained ~94% in a week, with no single confirmed catalyst.
  6. 6
    10 Sep 26 Genesis Bond opens. First bonding period for real BTC; it closes with ~230 BTC.
  7. 7
    10 Oct 26 Bond 2 lifts total to 735 BTC. ~505 BTC bonded, ~483 of it via StackingDAO's stBTC; STX staked rises to 493M.
  8. 8
    15 Oct 26 Muneeb Ali becomes Labs CEO. The founder takes over Stacks Labs as the Q3 report lands and Q4 priorities are set.
  9. 9
    ~Nov Bond 3, monthly bonding starts. Bitcoin staking moves to monthly bonding periods through Q4.
  10. 10
    Dec 26 Epoch 4.1 upgrade. Makes Clarity 7 the default; block height to be announced 30 days ahead.

How a BTC holder earns yield through Stacks

BTC holder
Bonds BTC or sBTC

Commits BTC for a ~6-month bonding period, paired with locked STX.

Miners
Bid BTC for each block

Spend BTC on Bitcoin to win the right to produce Stacks blocks.

Stacks chain
Block anchored to Bitcoin

Each tenure is tied to a Bitcoin block; users pay small STX fees.

Signers
Stakers confirm blocks

STX stakers sign blocks and run the sBTC peg.

PoX-5 contract
Pays out BTC

Miners' BTC goes to stakers and bonders as BTC yield; miners receive new STX.

Where STX comes in: miners are paid in newly minted STX (the mint), stakers lock STX to earn BTC, and every bonded BTC needs paired STX locked for the term. Users pay gas in STX, but no STX is burned, and sBTC-as-gas on the roadmap could bypass STX for fees.

Usage and adoption

USD per year, at today's price
Chain fees paid
~$2.0M
New STX (coinbase only)
~$19.8M

Fees: DefiLlama 30-day chain fees of ~$168k, annualised (page undated, read from a search snippet). New supply: 1,000 STX × ~144 Bitcoin blocks a day × 365 ≈ 52.6M STX at $0.377. Excludes SIP-031 endowment minting, so true new supply is higher. Fees cover roughly a tenth of issuance.

  • weak signal
    Chain fees
    ~$168k / 30 days

    DefiLlama, date uncertain. Paid usage is small for a $707M network.

  • medium signal
    BTC in Bitcoin staking
    ~735 BTC

    Genesis Bond (230) and Bond 2 (505) to mid-Oct. Real BTC committed, but ~483 BTC came via StackingDAO's stBTC.

  • medium signal
    sBTC supply
    2,949 BTC

    End of Q2 2026 (Stacks report). BTC brought onto Stacks; it does not need to hold STX.

  • medium signal
    DeFi capital deployed
    ~$121M

    DefiLlama via Q1 report: Zest $75.9M, Granite $26M, StackingDAO $20M.

  • weak signal
    Wallets
    1.6M cumulative

    Q2 2026, +8% QoQ; 110k new wallets in Q2. Counts addresses, not users.

Stacks' adoption story is BTC, not STX: sBTC and Bitcoin staking bring real bitcoin in, while fees paid in STX stay around $2M a year. Watch BTC bonded per period and whether fees grow faster than the ~52.6M STX a year of new supply.

Project

What it is
A smart-contract chain (live since 2021) that settles its blocks on Bitcoin through Proof of Transfer. Its Clarity contracts can read Bitcoin state, and sBTC is its 1:1 BTC bridge token.
Team
Founded by Muneeb Ali and Ryan Shea as Blockstack. Development is led by Stacks Labs (Muneeb Ali became its CEO in Oct 2026), with the Stacks Foundation and a SIP-031 endowment funding the ecosystem.
Technology
Miners bid BTC to produce Stacks blocks; that BTC goes to STX stakers. Since PoX-5 (30 Jul 2026) BTC holders can bond BTC or sBTC with locked STX for ~6 months to earn a BTC yield without leaving Bitcoin custody.
Traction
sBTC supply 2,949 BTC at end of Q2; sBTC TVL peaked at $545M in Q1. ~735 BTC bonded in Bitcoin staking (Genesis Bond 230, Bond 2 505). 1.6M cumulative wallets (Q2). All company-reported.
Competitors
Other Bitcoin layers and BTC-yield products: Babylon, Rootstock, Core, BOB, Lightning, plus wrapped BTC on Ethereum and Solana (WBTC, cbBTC).
Key risks
Fees are tiny next to emissions; most TVL is BTC that need not touch STX; ~483 of Bond 2's 505 BTC came through one protocol (StackingDAO); sBTC relies on a signer set.
Roadmap
Monthly BTC bonding periods from ~10 Nov; Epoch 4.1 (Clarity 7 default) targeted for early Dec; later Clarity WASM for 100x throughput and sBTC as gas, both undated.

Token performance

1-year return (22 Oct 2025 → 21 Oct 2026, CoinGecko)
STX
-12%
BTC
-22%
ETH
-35%

STX beat BTC and ETH over 12 months thanks to the August–October rebound. Over 3 years it is down roughly −25% (from ~$0.50 in Oct 2023, a manual and uncertain figure) vs BTC ~+179% and ETH ~+53%; 3-year figures are manual because the free CoinGecko API covers 365 days.

Range 2026
$0.12 low (19 Aug) to $0.43 high (14 Oct), daily closes; now $0.38
12-month drawdown
−74%, from $0.47 (27 Oct 2025) to $0.12 (19 Aug 2026); then +214% off the low
Liquidity
$25M traded in 24h, 3.5% of market cap; rank #93
Relative strength
−12% over 12 months vs BTC −22% and ETH −35%; +53% YTD, mostly since the August low
ATH check ATH check passed. STX began trading in 2019; its $3.86 high (1 Apr 2024) came years later and is also the current-cycle high, so it is the reference. Price is −90% below it.

Tokenomics

Supply
~1.88B STX circulating (CoinGecko, same as total). No hard cap since SIP-029 and SIP-031.
Emissions
Coinbase restored to 1,000 STX per Bitcoin block by SIP-045 (it had dropped to 500 in Apr 2026), ≈ 52.6M STX a year or ~2.8% of supply, called provisional until PoX-6.
Endowment
SIP-031 (Jul 2025) mints extra STX for an ecosystem endowment over five years; sources disagree on the size (100M upfront plus ~300M, or 500M in total).
Utility
Gas for transactions, staking (stacking) to earn BTC, and the STX lock required to pair with bonded BTC in Bitcoin staking.
Concentration
493M STX (~26%) staked after PoX-5; foundation and endowment holdings are the main source of new float. No vesting unlocks of note remain.
Sinks
No burn. Staking locks supply and Bitcoin staking adds a ~6-month STX lock; fees are too small to matter.

Bull case

Monthly bonding periods push bonded BTC well past 735 BTC, so the paired STX lock and staking (493M) tighten float; Epoch 4.1 ships in December; STX holds above $0.33 (late-Sept closes) and retakes the $0.47 October 2025 high.

Bear case

Bitcoin staking stays a niche for a few protocols while 1,000 STX per block plus endowment minting keeps diluting holders; fees stay near $2M a year; price gives back the rebound and retests the $0.12 August low.

Watch before the next re-run

  • BTC bonded per monthly period (Bond 3 from ~10 Nov)
  • Chain fees vs ~52.6M STX a year of new supply
  • Epoch 4.1 launch and PoX-6 emissions review
  • $0.33 support and the $0.43–0.47 resistance zone

Where to trade

Krakenlisted

STX against EUR · USD

24h $611.5k · ±2% depth $213.7k

OKXlisted

STX against EUR · USDT · USDC · TRY

24h $1.07M · ±2% depth $98.2k

Largest exchanges

Exchange24h vol±2% depth
UpbitSTX/KRW$4.15M$304.6k
BinanceSTX/USDT$2.03M$139.7k
BithumbSTX/KRW$1.04M$56.1k
OKXSTX/USDT$981.9k$88.6k
BybitSTX/USDT$871.8k$21.7k

Deepest DEX pools

Pool24h vol±2% depth
BitflowSTX/USDC · Stacks$311.3k–
BitflowSTX/SBTC · Stacks$37.9k–

Pool size (TVL), fee tier and fee APR are not in yet: they need DefiLlama, which this setup cannot reach so far. CL = concentrated liquidity (higher fees, more impermanent-loss risk).

On-chain share of all STX volume: 1.8%.

As of 21 Oct 2026 · CoinGecko tickers (24h volume, ±2% depth). ±2% depth is the money it takes to move the price 2% either way: the real size of a market. Exchanges ranked by volume among well-known venues; pools by depth. Not investment advice.

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