How to Stake ZEN on Horizen Mainnet

Staking ZEN requires ZEN (the asset) and a small amount of ETH (for gas) on Horizen Mainnet. If your funds are on Base or a CEX, you must bridge them over first.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following ready:

• A Web3 Wallet installed (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, WalletConnect, etc.)

• ETH on Base (to cover initial bridging gas fees)

• ZEN tokens on Base (ready to be bridged and staked)

Detailed instructions for each step are provided right below.

Step-by-step Walkthrough

Step 1: Add Network & Tokens to Your Wallet

• Navigate to the Horizen Staking Landing Page and click Connect Wallet in the top-right corner.

1. In the onboarding panel on the right, click + Network to automatically add the Horizen network RPC to your wallet.

2. Click + ZEN to import the native token contract address into your wallet display.

• If your wallet doesn't support automatic network switching, add Horizen Mainnet manually using these parameters:

Step 2: Bridge ETH & ZEN from Base

Because Horizen operates on an L3 architecture, your assets need to be moved from Base over to Horizen before staking.

Note on ETH Gas: Moving ETH back to Base later takes ~7 days via the Hub. Only bridge a small amount of ETH, just enough to cover a few transaction gas fees.

1. Need Gas Fee Token (ETH)? In the onboarding panel, click Bridge ETH from Base .

   • This opens the official bridge interface to transfer ETH for gas fees (or you may head directly to https://bridge.horizen.io/)

     

   • Set direction: Base → Horizen. Select ETH, enter amount, click Transfer Tokens and confirm. (Takes ~1–2 minutes).

2. Need Staking Token (ZEN)? return to the panel and click Bridge ZEN from Base  to open Stargate.

   • Connect wallet and bridge your ZEN from Base → Horizen. (Fee is 0.06% + Base gas; takes ~2 minutes).

     

All onboarding steps for bridging and staking are responsive to your wallet holdings with a green check.

Step 3: Stake Your ZEN

1. Once ETH and ZEN are both in your Horizen Mainnet wallet, scroll down to My Position panel.

2. Make sure the Stake tab is selected.

3. Enter the amount of ZEN you wish to lock up, or click the MAX button to stake your full balance.

4. click Add to stake

5. Approve token spending in your wallet.

6. Confirm the stake in your wallet.

7. Confirm the transaction prompt inside your connected wallet.

Success! Once the transaction is confirmed on-chain, your staked balance and real-time yield will immediately update under My Position.

Managing Your Stake & Unstaking

• Claiming Rewards: Click Claim to pull earned yield into your wallet without disturbing your staked principal.

• Unstaking ZEN: Click Withdraw to unstake. There is no lock-up period for ZEN.

• Bridging Assets Back:

  • ZEN → Base: Use Stargate (Instant).

  • ETH → Base: Use Hub (~7-day challenge period + manual claim).

Troubleshooting & FAQs

Common reasons include:

1. Your wallet is still connected to Base (Chain ID 8453) instead of Horizen (Chain ID 26514).

2. You don't have ETH on Horizen to pay for gas.

3. Your ZEN is still sitting on Base or a CEX.

4. You didn't complete the initial Approve transaction prompt.

Don't panic! Check the following:

1. Ensure your wallet network is switched to Horizen Mainnet (26514).

2. Manually import the ZEN token contract address: 0x57da2D504bf8b83Ef304759d9f2648522D7a9280.

3. Check your transaction status on Stargate to ensure it completed.

Rewards accrue continuously from multiple ecosystem sources:

• Horizen DAO – ZEN Bootstrap (Live)

• Horizen DAO – ZEN LP Earnings (Live)

• zkVerify Node Emissions (Live)

• Horizen L3 Sequencer Fees (Live)

• Protocol & App Fee Sharing (Onboarding)

• Vela Confidential Compute (In Development)

For complete breakdown mechanics, review ZenIP-42408.

Reference & Official Contracts

As always, should you have any questions on staking, please reach out to the team via the Horizen Discord.