stTAO Alternatives: Where to Stake TAO Now

stTAO was Tensorplex’s liquid staking token: you staked TAO on Tensorplex Stake and received an ERC-20 token that stood for your stake (Tensorplex docs). Tensorplex is now winding down Tensorplex Stake and the tTAO Bridge; tTAO is its wrapped TAO token. This is the timeline in Tensorplex’s own words.

We found no end date for manual withdrawals in Tensorplex’s docs, its withdrawal page or the two announcements. Because Tensorplex has already accelerated its timeline once, redeem soon.

These are the three steps in Tensorplex’s docs, with the details from its Manual Withdrawal page. Use only links from Tensorplex’s own docs. No step asks for your recovery phrase.

1. Burn remaining tTAO and stTAO. On the withdrawal page this means sending them to the burn address it shows, on Ethereum Mainnet only: burns on any other chain are not accepted. If your stTAO is on Base, bridge it to Ethereum first with the bridge the page names, Transporter. Copy the burn address from Tensorplex’s page only.
2. Provide a valid Bittensor SS58 address. Connect the Ethereum wallet you sent the tokens from and sign a message that contains the address, which starts with “5”. The page names Talisman as a wallet to create one. An address from another Substrate network, such as Polkadot or Kusama, means permanent loss of the TAO.
3. Wait for redemption processing. Withdrawals are not instant. The docs say they are reviewed and processed in batches, and the page says approximately once every two months. The page also says the payout is not shown on its site, so check your Bittensor wallet.

The page lists a post-sunset fee of 0.2 TAO plus a 2% withdrawal fee. Only eligible remaining balances qualify, and support covers withdrawal issues only. Tensorplex’s pages describe only this manual route: we found no Tensorplex statement about selling stTAO elsewhere, so we cannot say whether a market exists or at what price. Once the TAO arrives, Tensorplex recommends Backprop Finance to anyone who wants to keep staking.

Rates and fees change, so check each provider’s own page before you act.

Stake from your own wallet

Pros. No middleman, and you pick the validator. Root keeps your stake in TAO with no pool swap, fee or slippage, and plain unstaking settles at once, with no unbonding period (Bittensor docs). Cons. You do the work: choose validators, watch positions and protect your keys. A subnet stake swaps TAO into the subnet’s alpha token at the pool price, so its value follows that price. The chain minimum is 0.002 TAO per stake operation by default. See the best wallets, how to stake TAO and Root staking.

Exchange staking: Kraken

Pros. The simplest route if your TAO is already on Kraken: no wallet, flexible staking you can unstake at any time, weekly payouts and no minimums advertised. Cons. Kraken holds your TAO. It shows up to 5.12% on its UK page and up to 7.08% on its default site (October 2026), before a commission we could not find. Flexible staking pays rewards on up to 50% of the assets you stake, and geographic restrictions apply. Coinbase’s own Bittensor page says staking is not supported there. See Stakao vs Kraken.

Managed and non-custodial: Mentat Minds

Pros. You set up a proxy in your wallet, the minimum is 0.5 TAO for One-Click Strategies, and its FAQ says you can unstake instantly. Cons. It charges a standard 9% staking fee on the rewards you earn, so the fee grows with your rewards (Mentat FAQ). See Mentat Minds vs Stakao.

Managed and non-custodial: Stakao

Pros. Your TAO stays in your wallet behind a staking-only permission. The free plan has Auto Validators and Smart DCA. Premium (€19 per month or €168 per year, 7-day free trial) adds an AI agent or quant score that picks the subnets, and a risk engine that protects each position with a stop-loss and a profit lock. TAO that is not in a position stays on Root, where it keeps earning staking rewards. Stakao never takes a cut of your rewards. Cons. You need 2 TAO in the wallet, and there is no liquid token to use elsewhere. A stop-loss limits losses but cannot remove them: in a thin market, a sale can fill below the stop price.

Backprop Finance, the route Tensorplex suggests

Backprop’s docs describe a decentralized exchange built on top of Bittensor by Tensorplex Labs. Its trading terminal swaps TAO and subnet tokens from a connected wallet such as Talisman, and the docs list DCA and yield-compounding automation as features still to come. Pros. You stay in control of each trade. Cons. You choose and manage every position yourself, and we found no fee schedule in the docs.

We found one that is live: Hatom’s swTAO on MultiversX. Hatom’s docs, marked “as of 02/01/2025”, say you bridge TAO to MultiversX as wTAO through its TAO Bridge, stake it and receive swTAO, a receipt token whose price rises as staking rewards compound. swTAO can then be used in Hatom’s lending and stablecoin products. MultiversX’s public API lists the swTAO token as active, with Hatom as its website, and the contract that owns the token was still processing stake and unstake calls on 13 October 2026.

We read Hatom’s documentation and the chain data but did not open its app, so check its current terms and fees before you use it. The trade-off is different from native staking: your TAO leaves Bittensor through a bridge, so bridge and smart-contract risk apply. We found no other liquid TAO token with verifiable current activity, and we left out anything we could not confirm.

• Full control and no service fee: stake from your own wallet; the validator’s take still applies. Start on Root if you want TAO-denominated stake with no pool swap.
• TAO already on an exchange: Kraken is the simplest route, and it holds your TAO.
• Automation without handing over your TAO: Mentat Minds or Stakao. Compare a 9% fee on rewards with a flat price, and the minimums: 0.5 TAO in Mentat’s One-Click, 2 TAO in the wallet for Stakao.
• A liquid receipt token to use in DeFi: Hatom’s swTAO, after reading its terms.

Compare the full field in our guide to the best TAO staking platforms. This guide is information, not investment advice: rewards vary and subnet token prices can fall.

A liquid staking token represents your stake as a separate token that you can hold or trade. Stakao works differently: your TAO stays staked in your own Bittensor wallet, and you sign a staking-only permission that lets Stakao stake and unstake for you but never transfer your TAO. There is no receipt token, no bridge and nothing to redeem, and you can revoke access at any time.

The trade-off is plain: you cannot use a Stakao position as collateral or move it as a token. Other products make the other choice, and the right one depends on what you want to do with your TAO. To see how Stakao works, read how it works, compare the strategies and check the pricing. The staking permission guide explains what you sign.