StackingDAO

Summary

Ketju does not approve StackingDAO because its $38M in deposits is below the size limit for a full review. StackingDAO issues liquid staking tokens on Stacks: stSTX (STX rewards compound into the token’s rate), stSTXbtc (BTC rewards paid out), and stBTC (sBTC placed in reserves and PoX-5 bond positions). DefiLlama showed about $38M across the three tokens on 2026-09-25, so we have not reviewed its contracts, keys, and withdrawals. Two standing facts would keep it unapproved even above the size limit. Ketju has not reviewed the Stacks chain, and StackingDAO’s own restricted-countries page bars United States residents from the app. We made no finding against the protocol itself.

Review triggers
• TVL stays above the size limit for 30 days
• The Stacks chain review resolves to approved
• StackingDAO removes the United States from its restricted countries

Ketju checks this memo every night and opens a review if its venues or files show a warning or a cited document changes. The first confirmation is due 2026-12-25.

Research

How it works

A depositor sends STX to the core contract (SP4SZE494VC2YC5JYG7AYFQ44F5Q4PYV7DVMDPBG.stacking-dao-core-stx-v2) and receives stSTX at the current ratio. The protocol delegates the pooled STX into Stacks consensus (PoX) through its signers, and the stSTX/STX ratio rises as rewards arrive. stSTXbtc pays the same position’s rewards in BTC or sBTC instead. stBTC takes sBTC and earns from PoX-5 sBTC bond positions. All three are liquid-staking tokens and depend on the Stacks chain and its signer set. The BTC products also depend on the sBTC peg.

Who controls it

One deployer has published the contracts’ Clarity source on chain. A DAO registry governs state changes. A dao-executor is the sole admin and acts only by executing an approved proposal script, while a dao-multisig runs proposals and applies a timelock to non-urgent ones. Clarity Alliance has published four reviews, the latest covering the PoX-5 contracts, and an Immunefi bounty of up to $100,000 is live. Because the protocol is below the size limit, we have not verified the multisig signers, timelock length, signer set, or incident history.

Withdrawals

A stSTX holder can get STX back in three ways: a swap on Bitflow at market, an instant unstake from idle STX held by the protocol for a 1% fee, and a withdrawal that burns stSTX for an NFT claim. The claim pays at the end of the stacking cycle, or at the end of the next cycle when withdrawal starts within a day of a cycle end. Instant unstaking works only while the protocol holds idle STX. A client position would be large relative to a $38M protocol. A Stacks or sBTC disruption would also delay withdrawals, and the protocol cannot prevent that.

Class rule

The size limit for a full review applies. Ketju will review StackingDAO again only after a survey that others can repeat shows protocol TVL above the size limit for 30 days. By then Stacks must also have passed Ketju’s chain review, and StackingDAO must have removed the United States from its restricted countries. Crossing the size limit would start that review; it would not mean approval.

Size limit

Reported TVL measures how much the protocol holds. It does not measure quality or eligibility, and it does not show whether a client could withdraw a position at size. Ketju will review the protocol in full when its deposits pass the size limit for a full review. That review covers how it works, who controls it, how holders could lose money and whether a position can be sold or redeemed at size.

Sources

Each claim above comes from one of these sources. Where Ketju could not verify a number, the memo states that.

• Stacking DAO docs: liquid and native staking overview · primary · accessed 2026-09-25
  Supports: stSTX, stSTXbtc, stBTC, rewards accrue to the ratio
• Stacking DAO docs, stSTX core contract · primary · accessed 2026-09-25
  Supports: core contract address, deposit, init-withdraw
• Stacking DAO docs, withdrawing from stSTX · primary · accessed 2026-09-25
  Supports: Bitflow swap, instant unstake 1% fee, withdrawal NFT at cycle end
• Stacking DAO docs, audits and security · primary · accessed 2026-09-25
  Supports: single deployer, dao-executor sole admin, dao-multisig timelock, Clarity Alliance audits, Immunefi bounty
• Stacking DAO docs, restricted countries · primary · accessed 2026-09-25
  Supports: United States restricted
• DefiLlama: StackingDAO protocol data · secondary · accessed 2026-09-25
  Supports: current TVL, chain

The asset and the chain

This memo covers the protocol. A position also holds an asset and settles on a chain. Whichever of the three holds the most power over the position decides who can freeze it. These tables describe control and do not judge quality.