This article shows you how to stake USUAL into USUALx, how to unstake when you want your USUAL back, and what to watch for at each step.
How to stake
Go to app.usual.money and connect your account
Navigate to the Stake page
Enter the amount of USUAL you want to stake
Approve USUAL spending (one-time approval)
Confirm the stake transaction
Receive USUALx in your account at the current exchange rate
From this point, your USUAL is earning. The exchange rate of USUALx to USUAL will grow as daily emissions flow through the staking contract.
How to unstake (basic)
Go to the Stake page
Click Unstake
Enter the amount of USUALx you want to unstake
Review the current exchange rate and the unstaking fee (if active)
Confirm the transaction
Receive USUAL in your account
Your USUAL balance will reflect the accrued growth via the exchange rate, minus any unstaking fee.
How to unstake (locked USUALx)
If your USUALx is in the Locking Module, you need to wait until your lock period ends before you can unstake:
Go to the Lock page
Check the unlock date for your lock position
Wait until the unlock date
Click Unlock to move the USUALx back to the standard staking pool
Click Unstake to redeem USUAL
Locked USUALx cannot be unstaked before the end of the lock period. Plan accordingly.
The unstaking fee
As of 2025, an unstaking fee of 10% is applied to USUALx withdrawals. The fee is redistributed as follows:
1/3 → remaining USUALx stakers
1/3 → USUAL* holders
1/3 → DAO treasury
When the fee makes sense to pay:
You have held USUALx for long enough that the accrued rewards clearly exceed the 10% fee
You need immediate liquidity and cannot wait for a lock to expire
You are rebalancing between positions
When to avoid unstaking:
You have been staking for a short time (the fee eats most of your rewards)
You can wait for a locked position to unlock naturally (no fee on orderly lock unwinds)
Check the current fee in the app — it can change via governance.
A worked example
Suppose you stake 10,000 USUAL at exchange rate 1.000 and unstake 3 months later at exchange rate 1.020:
Your 10,000 USUAL → 10,000 USUALx at stake
After 3 months: 10,000 USUALx → would return 10,200 USUAL (at the new exchange rate)
Unstaking fee (10%): -1,020 USUAL
Net received: 9,180 USUAL
In this case the fee is higher than the rewards. You lose money by unstaking early.
Same example after 18 months with exchange rate 1.150:
10,000 USUAL → 10,000 USUALx at stake
After 18 months: 10,000 USUALx → 11,500 USUAL (at the new exchange rate)
Unstaking fee (10%): -1,150 USUAL
Net received: 10,350 USUAL
At this point the rewards exceed the fee. Unstaking is economic.
This is illustrative. Real exchange rates depend on staking TVL and emission flow.
Gas costs
Standard ERC-20 staking transactions. Typical gas on Ethereum:
Stake: 1 transaction (+ 1 approval if first time)
Unstake: 1 transaction
Plan around gas prices. Staking during low-gas periods is meaningfully cheaper.
Note: Unstaking is not instant in some future upgrades — check the app's current unstaking flow before you plan a specific exit date.
Technical note (for DeFi users): Staking calls deposit(uint256) on the USUALx contract (0x06B964d96f5dCF7Eae9d7C559B09EDCe244d4B8E). Unstaking calls withdraw(uint256). The fee is applied at contract level and distributed on-chain. Locking uses the separate USUALx Lockup contract at 0x85b6f9bddb10c6b320d07416a250f984f0f0e9ed. See the docs for the full ABI.
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