How to Track Staking Rewards

This guide is part of the “Guide to Staking Crypto” series.

Staking was once a niche activity for blockchain enthusiasts but has grown to become one of the most common ways investors earn passive income in crypto. There are so many staking cryptocurrencies available now – Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, or even newer DeFi protocols like Tonstakers and Quicksilver. 

The mass appeal is obvious, proof-of-stake rewards keep stacking up while you kick back and relax. But wait, there’s a catch. Most people don’t realize how messy tracking their income becomes until tax season rolls around or when they try to accurately calculate their real returns.

This article gives you a rundown on how you can record your crypto staking activity. We will show you why you need to do it, explain the best methods of keeping records, and give you a variety of useful tools to help with this process. From manual spreadsheets to fully automated programs, we’ll cover the best methods and tools to help you track your portfolio and calculate real staking ROIs.

Crucial reasons to monitor your staking rewards

Tracking staking rewards is not just for your curiosity, it’s actually necessary. Without accurate data, you risk underestimating your income, misreporting taxes, and misunderstanding your real performance. Let’s break down how you can apply information you record about your staking activity.

For accurate performance and ROI calculation

Seeing your wallet balance grow is satisfying, but without tracking, you can’t calculate staking returns in terms of returns on your investment (ROI). If your staking rewards are paid in volatile tokens, their value may swing 20% in a day, then how do you know how much you made in the end? That means your staking ROI is not simply how many coins you earned, but what those coins were worth at the time you received them.

APR vs APY are terms that often confuse newcomers. APR reflects a simple yearly calculation rate without factoring in compounding, while APY shows your true return if you continuously re-stake. Understanding this difference of re-staking is crucial for comparing opportunities across protocols. Without detailed records, you risk making decisions based only on token counts instead of real, dollar-based returns.

For tax compliance and reporting

From an accounting perspective, paying taxes on staking income is unavoidable. In most countries, staking rewards are a taxable event as soon as you gain “dominion and control” over them. That means that whatever the fair market value of those tokens at the time of receipt is your cost basis. Later, when you sell or trade, you’ll calculate capital gains or losses against that original cost basis.

Without accurate accounting records, you won’t be able to prove when and how much income you received. Staking accounting is less about your number of coins and more about tracking the real dollar values to keep regulators satisfied.

For informed investment decisions

Monitoring staking income is also about improving your own strategy. With detailed records, you can compare which assets or validators actually deliver the best return over time. You’ll be able to see if yield opportunities outperform centralized exchanges, or whether inflation and validator fees are eating into your yield. 

This also helps you recognize when it makes sense to sell rewards, re-stake them elsewhere, or rotate into another protocol with better economics. In short, tracking your staking allows you to treat staking like a business, not a hobby.

Three core methods for tracking staking rewards

There’s no single best way to record staking results. The right method depends on how many assets you hold, how complex your portfolio is, and how much time you want to spend. Here are three approaches, ranging from the most primitive to the most advanced.

Method 1: The manual approach (spreadsheets)

The manual approach is best suited for beginners or those staking only one or two assets. It forces you to build discipline around record keeping and gives you a deeper understanding of staking accounting basics.

To get started, all you need to do is set up a spreadsheet in Excel or Google Sheets with these essential columns: date and time of reward, crypto ticker, amount received, fair market value at receipt, cumulative rewards, and notes such as which validator or wallet was used. 

You can pull prices manually from an exchange or automate them with APIs like CoinGecko. This way, you record staking directly into your accounting records in a format that is easy to read later.

Example of Crypto Staking Tracker

DateTime (UTC)	Chain	Wallet / Account	Protocol / Validator	Transaction	hash / ID	Ticker	Amount received	FMV USD at receipt
2025-09-01 12:00:00	Ethereum	0xYourETH…	Lido (stETH)	Reward	0xabc123…	ETH	0,012345	2550
2025-09-02 09:30:00	Solana	YourSOLpubKey…	Marinade	Reward	4rT…xyz	SOL	0,85	145,2
2025-09-03 18:45:00	Ethereum	0xYourETH…	Lido (stETH)	Claim	0xdef456…	ETH	0,01	2575,5

Fig 1. – Staking Rewards Tracker for Excel/Google Sheets

The advantages here are few: it’s free, simple, and gives you full control. The downsides are obvious: it’s time-consuming, prone to human error, and does not scale well once you’re dealing with multiple wallets or frequent staking transactions.

Method 2: The semi-automated approach (blockchain explorers)

If you want more accuracy without subscribing to a paid service, blockchain explorers are the natural next step. An explorer is essentially a search engine for blockchain data. Tools like Etherscan (Ethereum), Solscan (Solana), and Cardanoscan (Cardano) give you direct access to every transaction linked to your wallet. Instead of trusting a wallet app’s interface, you’re seeing the raw, verifiable record on-chain. Many even let you export CSV files that can then be imported into your spreadsheet.

You can filter results to focus specifically on staking transactions, such as validator rewards, claims, or re-staking events. Most explorers let you dive into each transaction hash, that will show you the amount received, the block confirmation, and any fees. 

Many now also include an export to CSV function, which lets you download a history of transactions and then import it into your spreadsheet. This takes away some of the pain of manually typing every detail.

The main advantage is reliability. Because you’re pulling data directly from the chain, it gives you stronger accounting records and credibility if you ever need to justify your accounting to tax authorities. It also helps when comparing numbers between what your wallet app shows and what was actually credited to you on-chain. From an accounting perspective, it’s hard to beat having the official ledger as your source of truth.

But there are downsides as well. While explorers save time on transaction lookup, they don’t do the full job of classifying staking transactions, assigning fiat values, or calculating cost basis for you. You’ll still need to cross-check token prices at the time of receipt and input those numbers manually into your spreadsheet. If you’re juggling multiple wallets or operating across different chains, you may still find yourself overwhelmed.

Method 3: The automated approach (portfolio trackers and tax software)

For anyone managing a serious portfolio, automation is the clear winner. A crypto portfolio tracker or tax software can connect to your wallets and exchanges using read-only API keys or public addresses. These powerful tools automatically recognize staking transactions, assign fair market values, and in many cases prepare reports tailored for your country.

The big advantage is accuracy and efficiency. When you have automated workflows you massively reduce errors, save yourself time, and can scale up along with your portfolio. They also simplify the process of preparing for tax filings since the cost basis crypto calculations and staking income reports are all automatically done for you. 

However, automation comes with a cost. Most professional tax and tracking tools run on a subscription model, meaning you’ll likely pay annually rather than as a one-time purchase. Occasionally, these tools may also misclassify complex yield rewards and require some manual adjustments.

The best tools for tracking staking rewards

Now that we’ve covered the methods, let’s look at specific tools. The best option depends on whether you need visualization, tax reports, ecosystem-specific insights, or privacy.

For all-in-one DeFi and portfolio tracking

Zapper and Zerion are leading options here. They combine your DeFi activity across multiple blockchains, visualize staked assets, LP tokens, and balances in a clean dashboard. They help you see the bigger picture. If your main goal is to monitor multiple wallets and positions in real time, these are excellent choices.

For dedicated tax and accounting

Koinly, CoinTracker, and CoinLedger are designed with accounting implications in mind. They recognize staking rewards as they occur, record cost basis crypto values, and generate accounting records that can be plugged directly into your tax filings. This makes them the most effective way to account for staking from a compliance perspective, especially when you need to file staking tax reports like the IRS Form 8949.

For ecosystem-specific tracking

Some ecosystems, like Cosmos and Polkadot, offer validator dashboards or community tools that show you exact validator uptime, slashing penalties, and staking rewards. These provide deep insight into one chain, making it easier to record staking accurately. However, they don’t solve cross-chain accounting implications if you have a more diverse portfolio.

For privacy-conscious investors

Rotki is a free open-source solution. Unlike cloud-based trackers, it processes your data on your own machine. This is ideal if you want to maintain detailed records without exposing your transaction history to a third party. While it may lack some polish compared to paid software, it is highly valued by investors who prioritize control and security.

Common challenges and best practices

Even with the right tools, life sometimes presents challenges. Being aware of these challenges in advance helps you avoid some costly mistakes:

Handling DeFi and liquidity pool rewards

Liquidity pool rewards often involve multiple tokens, transaction fees, or rebasing assets. Unlike simple proof-of-stake rewards, these require more advanced yield tracking methods. If you rely only on basic spreadsheets, you may miscalculate your real yield. Dedicated DeFi trackers are better equipped to handle these complex situations.

The importance of regular check-ins

Waiting until the end of the year to write down your staking transactions is a recipe for disaster. Prices change quickly, CSV files can be incomplete, and validators may not retain their data forever. We recommend a weekly spreadsheet update or maybe a monthly review because it makes it much easier to catch missing entries and ensure your accounting records are clean.

Building reliable accounting records

From an accounting perspective, your records are your safety net. Keep screenshots, CSV exports, and copies of your spreadsheets. If tax authorities ever question your staking transactions, you’ll want to show detailed records to prove you reported income correctly. Reliable staking accounting is the foundation of both compliance and peace of mind.

Security note

When connecting wallets to third-party tools, never provide your private keys. There are read-only API keys and public addresses available, so use them to preserve security. If you manage multiple wallets, make sure each connection is strictly limited to “view only” permissions. This way, you benefit from automated workflows without exposing yourself to theft.

Don’t let your rewards become your regret

Staking rewards often do feel like free money, but from a legal point of view, they come with tax obligations. Every token you earn is a taxable event, and every reinvestment transfer (re-staking) has to be documented.

Whether you prefer keeping a basic spreadsheet by hand, using blockchain explorers, or a sophisticated portfolio tracker with automated workflows, the key here is consistency. Record your staking diligently, and over time, you will see how the process becomes routine and easy to repeat.

If you approach staking with the discipline of an accountant, you’ll avoid so many tax headaches, you’ll be able to accurately calculate your returns, and ultimately, you will make better long-term investment decisions. The bottom line is tracking is the only way to ensure your passive crypto strategy stays profitable, compliant, and sustainable.