A new blockchain shows up, there are dozens of yield options listed, and you have no idea where to start. That's exactly where most people land when they first look at Starknet.
Starknet is a Layer 2 network built on top of Ethereum — meaning it processes transactions faster and cheaper, then settles them on Ethereum for security. Like most active blockchains, it has its own ecosystem of staking (locking up tokens to earn rewards) and DeFi (decentralized finance) pools, each showing different numbers. Two matter most: APY and TVL.
What APY and TVL Are Actually Telling You
APY (Annual Percentage Yield) is the estimated yearly return on what you deposit, including compounding. It sounds simple, but it rarely is. A high APY often means the protocol is paying you in its own reward tokens — tokens whose value can fall quickly, erasing gains that look good on paper.
TVL (Total Value Locked) is the total amount of money sitting in a pool or protocol. It's a rough measure of size and how battle-tested a protocol might be. Bigger pools have usually faced more scrutiny. But bigger does not mean safe — it just means more people have used it.
On Starknet right now, one of the largest pools by TVL is STRK staked through the Endur protocol: roughly $3.99 million locked, earning around 6.8% APY. That's a relatively modest, readable number — not triple-digit promises, just a mid-single-digit rate on the chain's native token. It's a useful anchor for calibrating everything else you see listed.
Why "Highest APY" Is the Wrong Starting Point
When you scan a list of pools, the eye goes straight to the biggest number. That instinct is understandable, but it's backwards. A pool offering 200% APY on a tiny, new protocol is telling you something: the risk is enormous, liquidity is thin, and those rewards probably won't last.
A more useful question is: what explains this yield? Is it sustainable fee revenue, or is it token emissions — rewards printed to attract deposits that may stop or lose value?
Before staking anything on Starknet, browse the comparison table to see pools side by side. Sort by TVL first to spot the larger, more established options, then look at APY in that context. That order of operations — size before rate — is one of the simplest ways to avoid chasing a number that disappears.