If you've read my last article, you'll know that I'm in the process of moving some of my staking activity (custodial) to Trust wallet (non-custodial). Just this week I tried staking BNB in Trust for the first time and hit a couple of snags. Here's what I learned and how you can avoid making the same mistakes I did.
1. Make sure you've got the 'right' BNB
BNB exists as both a BEP2 token (on BINANCE Chain, AKA BNB Beacon Chain) and a BEP20 token (on Binance Smart Chain). You can use Trust to store either or both of these, but the staking option is only available for the BEP2 token
You can tell which you've got by looking at your list of tokens in Trust: the BEP2 token is listed as simply 'BNB' (white icon on yellow background), whereas the BEP20 token is listed as 'Smart Chain' (yellow icon on black background). Note as well that the tokens will have different addresses.
When you withdraw your BNB tokens from Binance, you'll be given a choice of networks to use. If you want to take advantage of staking in Trust, then choose 'BNB Beacon Chain (BEP2)':
However if you're withdrawing funds from a different source, you may not be given a choice of network to use. For example, FireFaucet (which is a good way to accumulate some BNB) only allows BEP20 withdrawals:
In that case, you'll need to first withdraw your tokens to Trust, and then swap them from BEP20 to BEP2 in Trust itself using the wallet's 'cross-chain swap' functionality. This process is simple but carries a fee (payable in BNB).
Here's how you do it in Trust. Click on 'Smart Chain' in your list of tokens, then click 'Swap', followed by 'Swap to Binance Chain'. Select the amount (or percentage) of BNB you want to swap, then select 'Preview Swap' for an estimate of the network fee.
When I did this myself, the network fee was estimated at 0.005 BNB (as you can see in the screengrab above) but actually came in at 0.002 BNB. Slightly oddly, not all my BNB ended up getting swapped even though I chose 100% - I think the difference between the estimated and actual fee remained in my wallet as BEP20.
2. Make sure you've got enough BNB
So you've made sure you have the BEP2 flavour of BNB rather than BEP20 - great! Here's something else that might catch you out: the minimum amount you can stake in Trust is 1 BNB, which at current prices is around $280. That's not a trivial amount of BNB.
What is frustrating is that this information isn't given up front in Trust wallet's 'Discover' section (which lists the tokens you can stake), or indeed on the Trust website staking information page. It's only when you go to stake your tokens in Trust that you see this:
Also, some of the other tokens you can stake in Trust, such as TRX, have very small minimum amounts - so BNB can come as a particular shock if you are already used to staking those.
So, to recap: you'll need BEP2 BNB, and you'll need at least 1 BNB. If you can meet those requirements, you'll be able to stake your BNB in Trust rather than a centralised exchange such as Binance. You can do it - best of luck!
