Liquid staking
afSUI. Your validator, your choice.
afSUI is liquid staked SUI. You choose the validator — not an algorithm, and not Aftermath's own — and hold one fungible token whose exchange rate against SUI rises each epoch. Aftermath authored SIP-6, the Sui framework change that made a fully decentralized liquid staking token possible.
- Token
- afSUI
- Validator choice
- Any active validator
- Value accrual
- Exchange rate, not rebasing
- Delayed unstake fee
- 5% of rewards earned
- Unbonding
- One epoch (~24 hours)
- Instant unstake fee
- 0.1%–1%
- Validator fee
- Default 0, max 0.1%
- Audit
- OtterSec (LSD report)
The differentiator
You pick the validator
Most liquid staking tokens delegate on your behalf, to a set the protocol controls. afSUI does not: the staker names the validator, and Aftermath's own validator has no privileged position in the process.
The docs state it directly: Aftermath does not rely upon an algorithm to choose validators to delegate to, nor does it delegate to its own validator. Every active validator on Sui is selectable at stake time, so the delegation decision — and the decentralization consequences of it — stays with you.
Choosing a validator does not fragment the token. Every afSUI is fungible with every other afSUI and earns the same blended rate across the whole vault, so a staker who picks a smaller validator is not penalized for it in their yield.
Aftermath's Sui validatorAny active Sui validator is selectable.
Aftermath has run one since the network launched.
Optional, set per validator, capped at 0.1%.
SIP-6
Aftermath wrote the standard afSUI runs on
Delegating to an arbitrary validator while issuing one fungible token was not expressible in the Sui framework as shipped. Aftermath authored SIP-6, the framework change that made a fully decentralized liquid staking token possible — then built afSUI on top of it.
Value accrual
The rate moves, not your balance
afSUI is value-accruing, not rebasing. Your balance is fixed at the number of tokens you minted; what changes is how much SUI one of them redeems for.
Staking rewards land at each Sui epoch, roughly every 24 hours, and raise the afSUI-to-SUI exchange rate for everyone at once. Nothing is airdropped into your wallet and no balance is rewritten, which is what keeps afSUI usable as collateral and as a pool asset — integrations only have to track one price, not a supply that moves underneath them.
Worked example
- Stake. At a rate of 1 afSUI = 1.0500 SUI, staking 105 SUI mints 100 afSUI.
- Wait. Epochs pass and rewards accrue. Your wallet still shows 100 afSUI.
- Redeem. At a rate of 1 afSUI = 1.0800 SUI, those same 100 afSUI redeem for 108 SUI.
Rates above are illustrative. The live exchange rate is read from the staking contracts.
Redemption
Three ways back to SUI
Three exits, priced differently. Pick the one that matches how much you care about the next 24 hours.
| Path | Cost | Settles in |
|---|---|---|
| Delayed unstake | 5% of the staking rewards earned | One Sui epoch (~24 hours) |
| Instant unstake | 0.1%–1%, by reserve level | Same transaction |
| Swap afSUI to SUI via the router | No protocol fee on the route | Same transaction |
The delayed fee is charged on rewards, not principal
A delayed unstake takes 5% of the staking rewards the position earned. Stake 100 SUI, earn 4 SUI in rewards, and the fee is 0.2 SUI — 5% of the 4 SUI of rewards — leaving 103.8 SUI after one epoch of unbonding. Your principal is never touched.
The instant fee tracks the vault's reserves
An instant unstake is filled from the vault's SUI reserves in the same transaction. The fee is max_fee − (max_fee − min_fee) × reserves / reserves_target, with a 1% maximum, a 0.1% minimum, and a reserves target of 10,000 SUI. Fuller reserves mean a cheaper exit.
| Vault reserves | Instant fee |
|---|---|
| 0 SUI | 1.000% |
| 2,500 SUI | 0.775% |
| 5,000 SUI | 0.550% |
| 7,500 SUI | 0.325% |
| 10,000 SUI or more | 0.100% |
Lifecycle
How staking works
Four steps from SUI to afSUI and back, with the validator decision left where it belongs.
Pick a validator
Every active validator on Sui is selectable. Aftermath does not run an algorithm that picks for you, and does not route your delegation to its own validator by default.
Receive afSUI at the current rate
Your SUI is delegated to that validator and you receive afSUI at the current exchange rate. The afSUI you hold is fungible with everyone else's and earns the same blended rate.
The exchange rate rises each epoch
Sui epochs are roughly 24 hours. At each one the staking rewards land in the vault and the afSUI-to-SUI exchange rate rises. Your balance never changes; what one afSUI is worth does.
Hold it, use it, or redeem it
Use afSUI anywhere on Sui while it is staked, or redeem it: delayed for one epoch, instantly against the vault's reserves, or by swapping through the Smart-Order Router.
Audited
OtterSec reviewed the LSD contracts
The liquid staking contracts have their own published OtterSec report, separate from the pools audit. Every object below is live on Sui mainnet and readable by anyone.
| Object | Mainnet ID |
|---|---|
| LSD package & events | 0x7f6ce7ad…aef0c6 |
| afSUI coin | 0x1575034d…3ad836 |
| Staked SUI vault | 0x2f8f6d5d…88994d |
| Validator configs table | 0x8536350c…9ebad9 |
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Stake, and stay liquid.
Stake SUI to the validator you choose and hold afSUI — liquid, fungible, and accruing through the exchange rate at every epoch.