How PAPER staking pays

Where the payouts come from

Staked PAPER is paid in USDC from two sources.

• Half of every trading fee. Papertrade takes 2% of the gain on a winning close, and carves the same 2% out of the pool's gain when a trade loses or is liquidated. Half of each fee goes to stakers, half to the developers.
• Pool overflow. The pool that takes the other side of every trade has a cap of $5.00M. Once its running total is above the cap, every further dollar it gains from trader losses can be swept to stakers.

Neither source runs on a schedule. Payouts follow how much traders trade and lose. Fees are paid out only while the payout queue is empty and the pool can cover them, and the overflow exists only while the pool is at its cap.

What a staked PAPER has earned

Payouts go to whoever is staked at the moment they are distributed. A token staked since launch has collected all of them; a token staked later has missed everything paid before it.

Why most of it came in the first hours

The first 8 hours after launch brought 98% of everything a staked PAPER has earned.

In those hours trader losses kept the pool at its cap, so the overflow ran hour after hour, and fewer PAPER were staked to share it. The largest hour paid stakers $5.72M; the last full hour paid $48.5K. Since the pool first dropped below the cap, the overflow arrives only in bursts, when the pool is back there.

This is arithmetic on the last hours, not a forecast. The pace has fallen far since launch and can drop to nothing.

Staked, idle, claimed, waiting

PAPER earns only while it is staked. Staking and unstaking are instant, with no lockup and no cooldown. PAPER that sits in a wallet unstaked earns nothing.

Earned USDC waits in the staking contract until the wallet claims it; a claim moves it to the trading balance. PAPER Scope counts both: what a wallet has claimed and what is still waiting.

What “paid back” means on PAPER Scope

Payback is what staking has paid a wallet, claimed or waiting, divided by the wallet's net loss. At 100% the PAPER has cost the wallet nothing so far, and everything it earns after that is on top.

The same payouts look very different depending on the cost. A wallet that farmed cheaply is paid back many times over by the amount that returns only part of the median cost.

Short answers

Is there a lockup on staked PAPER?

No. According to the Papertrade docs, staking and unstaking are both instant.

How often does PAPER staking pay?

There is no schedule. The fee share accrues as trades settle, and the overflow is swept when the pool is above its cap. Some hours pay a lot, many pay almost nothing.

Can the payouts stop?

Yes. Below the cap only the fee share is paid, and while the payout queue is active fees are not paid out either. If traders stop trading, there is nothing to pay from.

Does PAPER have to be claimed?

Earned USDC stays in the staking contract until it is claimed. It can be claimed at any time.