When you first look at a list of staking options on a blockchain like Starknet, the instinct is natural: find the highest number and click it. But that number — the APY, or Annual Percentage Yield — is the beginning of the question, not the answer.
What the Biggest Pool Is Actually Telling You
Right now, the largest Starknet pool by TVL (Total Value Locked — the total amount of crypto deposited in a protocol) is STRK staked through Endur, sitting at around 6.8% APY and roughly $3.88 million in TVL. That's a relatively modest pool size in DeFi terms, which matters.
A larger TVL generally means more people have scrutinised the protocol, and more money is on the line if something goes wrong — which tends to attract more security attention. That said, TVL is not a safety certificate. A protocol can hold millions of dollars and still carry smart-contract risk (the chance that a bug in the code leads to lost funds).
The 6.8% APY here comes from staking STRK, which is Starknet's native token. Staking means locking up your tokens to help support the network, in exchange for rewards. The key thing to understand: if the price of STRK falls while your tokens are locked, the APY figure won't protect you. Yield is earned in tokens, not in dollars.
Why Comparing Across Options Matters More Than Picking One
Starknet has multiple pools and protocols listed, each with different assets, yield sources, and risk profiles. Some will show higher APYs than 6.8% — and that's worth pausing over. Triple-digit APYs on small pools often reflect short-term reward-token emissions designed to attract early liquidity, not durable income. They tend to compress quickly as more money flows in.
The more useful habit is comparing: look at APY alongside TVL, understand what asset you're holding, and ask where the yield is actually coming from. The comparison table lets you sort and filter across Starknet pools so you can see the full picture side by side, rather than evaluating any single option in isolation.
Before committing funds anywhere, the honest question to sit with is: do I understand this protocol well enough to know what could go wrong? That's not pessimism — it's just how careful comparison works.