Creating Your First Stake Account: A Walkthrough
This guide walks through stake account creation in Phantom and Solflare. Interface labels change between wallet versions; the on-chain steps remain the same. Always verify you are on mainnet before transferring real SOL.
Before you start
- Keep at least 0.05 SOL unstaked for transaction fees.
- Have a validator vote address ready, or plan to choose one after account creation.
- Understand warm-up: rewards will not start immediately. See our warm-up guide.
Phantom: create and fund
Open Phantom → navigate to the staking section → select "Create stake account." Enter the amount to stake (minimum varies; check current rent-exemption requirements). Confirm the transaction. Phantom creates a new stake account address separate from your primary wallet address.
After funding, choose "Delegate" and paste or search for your validator's vote address. Double-check the address against the validator's official website or explorer listing — delegating to a typo address is difficult to reverse.
Solflare: create and fund
Solflare separates stake accounts in the portfolio view. Click "Stake SOL," enter amount, and confirm. Solflare may suggest validators; you can accept a suggestion or enter a custom vote address. We recommend researching validators independently rather than relying on default sort order.
Verify on an explorer
Copy your stake account address into Solscan or a similar explorer. Confirm the stake shows as "activating" or "active," the delegated vote account matches your intended validator, and the balance matches what you transferred minus fees.
When something looks wrong
If stake shows as inactive after one epoch, check whether delegation was confirmed in a separate transaction from account creation. Some users fund the account but forget the delegate step. Our workshop covers both transactions live with test amounts first.