Stacks Bond 2 sells out with 505 BTC enrolled

Bond 2 is the second staking bond launched under the Stacks blockchain’s PoX-5 upgrade, which utilizes the Proof of Transfer consensus system. The bond had an approximate capacity of 500 BTC and filled that by October 12, 2026, ending with 505 BTC enrolled alongside over 6.7 million STX.

The bond targets an annualized yield of around 3%, paid in BTC and funded by the earnings of Stacks miners. Bonds run for six months, with rewards distributed weekly. Participants must also stake a small amount of STX, roughly 5% of the value of the BTC they commit.

Stacks founder Muneeb Ali said the on-chain staking mechanism is working as intended and indicated that additional capacity may be offered in future cycles. Across both the Genesis and Bond 2, 735 BTC has now entered Bitcoin staking on Stacks, with Bond 2 accounting for the bulk of that total on its own.

Liquid staking drove participation

The most telling number in the sellout is not the headline 505 BTC. It is the approximately 483 BTC that arrived through Stacking DAO’s liquid staking product, stBTC. That means the vast majority of Bond 2’s capacity came through a liquid wrapper rather than direct staking.

The Xverse pool also helped drive participation, according to the research findings. In practice, stBTC holders keep earning bond rewards while using their position elsewhere in Stacks DeFi. One example cited is borrowing USDC on Zest Protocol without unwinding the staked BTC.

The concentration also cuts the other way. When one product channels nearly all of a bond’s deposits, the health of that product becomes a meaningful variable for the whole program. Liquid staking adds layers between the depositor and the underlying BTC, and each layer is another place where something can go wrong.

PoX-5 upgrade boosts staking

The bonds sit on top of the PoX-5 hard fork, which went live on July 30. Since then, total STX staked has climbed more than 25%, rising from 392 million to 493 million STX. Decentralized exchange volumes and synthetic Bitcoin holdings on Stacks, known as sBTC, reached year-high levels in Q3 2026.

The Genesis Bond, which launched on September 10, distributed 0.28 BTC in its first two weeks after launch. Bond 2 has now paid 1.21 BTC in rewards. The roughly 3% target is a target, and it depends on what Stacks miners earn, so the actual return could drift with network activity and broader market conditions.

What to watch next

For STX holders, the structure creates steady demand. Every BTC that enters a bond needs STX alongside it, roughly 5% of the BTC value, and Bond 2 alone paired 6.7 million STX. Liquid staking turned a six-month lockup into usable collateral, and that appears to be what filled the bond so quickly.

What to watch next is whether a third bond arrives with larger capacity, how much of it flows through stBTC again, and whether the actual payouts track the 3% target over the full six-month term.