Active Staking

Where Participation Earns Lasting Ownership

Active Staking is the mechanism through which Noon distributes $NOON to users who participate in the ecosystem primarily through USN and sUSN holdings and deployment into partner protocols, with eligibility applying once $NOON has been awarded.

TL;DR

1. To be eligible to Active Staking, you need to hold USN / sUSN, or deploy into partner protocols

2. Throughout the month, you earn Active Staking Points (ASP), which determine your share of the monthly $NOON reward pool. At month-end, your ASP share converts into your $NOON allocation

3. You can claim 10% of your allocation immediately, or stake for a defined staking period. Staking for 12 months or longer vests 100% of your allocation.

4. Any portion of your allocation that does not vest, whether by choice or by unstaking early, is rolled into the next month's Open Staking reward pool. Nothing is burned; it goes back to the community

5. Voting power is based on your vested $NOON and grows over a 48-month curve. Staking for 4 years takes you to 100% of voting power

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1. Active staking points (ASP)

Active Staking operates on a monthly cycle. During each month, you earn Active Staking Points (ASP) based on your USN and sUSN holdings and deployment into partner protocols. ASP is a points-based accounting unit that determines your percentage share of the monthly reward pool.

ASP balances are displayed in the Noon dApp during the month. ASP may be influenced by multipliers and, when applicable, specific activities. In practice, the more ASP you accrue relative to the total ASP across all participants, the larger your share of the monthly reward pool.

At month-end, this share is converted into your $NOON allocation for the month, i.e., your total potential reward before any claim or staking decision.

2. Maximising allocation

Your $NOON allocation represents your total potential reward for the month. Once your allocation is determined at month-end, you can choose to claim a portion of it immediately or stake it to be able to claim more of it over time. This is a familiar "vesting" mechanic to many digital asset users.

2.1. Vesting curve

The vesting curve for your Active Staking allocation is described by the following formula:

10% + [ (t / T)³ × 0.73 + (t / T) × 0.27 ] × 90%, over 12 months

This vesting is conducted on a non-linear, accelerating schedule, as per the formula above. If claimed immediately, you receive 10% of your total monthly allocation (and the remaining 90% of $NOON is treated as intentionally unvested tokens from Active Staking and is rolled into the next month’s Open Staking reward pool).

To increase rewards, your $NOON allocation can be staked for a defined staking period. To maximise your rewards, staking for 12 months, 2 years, or 4 years results in 100% of your monthly allocation vesting, while a shorter staking period (3, 6, or 9 months) results in only a portion vesting.

Your allocation becomes a realised reward only as it vests, contingent on completion of the selected staking period.

2.1.1. Active Staking periods, and corresponding vesting schedule

Fig. 1 - Active Staking Periods, and corresponding vesting schedule

For staking periods shorter than 12 months, the portion of the monthly allocation that does not vest is treated as intentionally unvested tokens from Active Staking. These tokens never become claimable under Active Staking and are instead rolled into the next month's Open Staking reward pool and allocated instead to participants in that month's Open Staking rewards pool.

At the end of the selected staking period, all vested $NOON associated with your monthly allocation become claimable. Once claimed, the $NOON is fully transferable and may be used at your discretion, including being staked in Open Staking.

3. Leaving early: what happens to rewards

Active Staking positions can be unstaked prior to completion of the selected staking period. When unstaking occurs early, rewards are limited to the amount corresponding to the last fully completed staking period.

Any remaining amount that would have vested after that milestone does not vest, is treated as forgone due to early unstaking, and is rolled into the next month's Open Staking reward pool.

Example: If a user selects a staking period of 12 months, and unstakes after 7 months, they will only receive the portion corresponding to the 6-month staking period (29.85%); the remaining amount (70.15%) of their month's allocation is rolled into the next month's Open Staking reward pool.

4. Voting power under Active Staking

Your voting power determines the weight of your vote in our community governance process, i.e., how much influence your vote has when the community contributes to making protocol-level decisions.

Under Active Staking, your individual voting power is calculated based on the amount of vested Active Staking $NOON you held at any point in time, and is then multiplied by our voting power curve:

10% + [ (t / T)³ × 0.73 + (t / T) × 0.27 ] × 90%, over 48 months

This is where the difference between staking for 12 months, 2 years, or 4 years becomes material. While all three periods vest 100% of the token allocation, the voting power they unlock differs significantly.

At 12 months, a user has reached a quarter of the 48-month curve, corresponding to approximately 17% of maximum voting power. At 24 months, this increases to approximately 30%. A full 4-year commitment reaches the ceiling: 100% voting power.

In practical terms, a user who stakes for 4 years carries nearly six times the governance influence of one who stakes for 12 months with the same number of tokens.

4.1. Leaving Early: what Happens to voting power

If an Active Staking position is unstaked early, your voting power is reduced to zero.