Frequently Asked Questions

Hipo lets you stake GRAM on TON and still keep your money flexible.

When you stake GRAM with Hipo, you receive hGRAM in return. hGRAM represents your staked GRAM, but you can still use it, hold it, or trade it while your GRAM continues earning staking rewards.

Normally, when you stake crypto, your tokens are locked and harder to use.

Liquid staking solves this by giving you a new token while your GRAM is staked. Hipo gives you hGRAM. Over time, hGRAM becomes more valuable and you can redeem it for your GRAM plus rewards. So when you unstake, you may receive more GRAM than you originally staked.

When you stake GRAM with Hipo, Hipo gives you hGRAM in return.

Think of hGRAM as a receipt for your staked GRAM. While your GRAM is earning staking rewards, you can hold it, use it, or trade it.

Over time, hGRAM is designed to become redeemable for more GRAM as rewards are added.

Behind the scenes, Hipo combines users’ staked GRAM and delegates it to TON validators. These validators help secure the network and generate staking rewards, which are reflected in the value of hGRAM over time.

Hipo lets you earn staking rewards on your GRAM while still keeping your funds flexible.

When you stake GRAM, you receive hGRAM. You can hold it, use, or trade hGRAM while your staked GRAM continues earning rewards.

Key benefits:

• Earn staking rewards without fully locking your GRAM.
• Keep flexibility through hGRAM.
• Unstake when you want to get GRAM back.
• Use a transparent, on-chain staking system.
• Hipo is built with open-source smart contracts and security-focused infrastructure.

Behind the scenes, Hipo uses a permissionless validator marketplace. Validators can participate openly and the system helps direct stake toward competitive validators.

This helps avoid relying on one centralized validator and supports decentralization in the TON ecosystem.

Yes. Hipo works through smart contracts on-chain. You connect your own wallet, stake GRAM through Hipo, and receive hGRAM in return. Staking and unstaking are handled transparently by smart contracts.

Connect your wallet, enter how much GRAM you want to stake, and confirm the transaction. After staking, you will receive hGRAM in your wallet.

Usually within moments of your transaction being confirmed.

At times the protocol mints hGRAM at the end of the current validation round instead of immediately. When that happens, your deposit is held until the round is committed and the app shows how long is left. Your GRAM is never at risk while it waits.

Hipo does not enforce a large minimum. You can stake as little as 1 GRAM.

You only need enough GRAM to cover the amount you want to stake plus a small TON network transaction fee.

Not instantly. Your rewards start after your staked GRAM becomes active in a validation round. After that, rewards are automatically reflected in the value of your hGRAM.

Rewards arrive round by round rather than continuously. A TON validation round lasts roughly 18 hours, and stakes stay frozen for about 9 more hours afterwards so any complaints can be resolved. The exchange rate updates once a round has finished and its rewards have been recovered.

APY means the estimated yearly reward rate.

Hipo’s APY can change over time depending on staking rewards and TON network conditions. You can always see the current APY inside the Hipo app or Hipo’s website.

No. APY is not fixed. Staking rewards can go up or down depending on the TON network and validator performance.

You do not receive separate reward payments. Instead, rewards are automatically included in the value of hGRAM. Over time, your hGRAM is designed to become redeemable for more GRAM.

The amount of hGRAM in your wallet never changes on its own. What changes is how much GRAM each hGRAM is worth, so there is no balance to watch grow and nothing to claim.

When a validation round is settled, its rewards are split in this order:

1. The borrowing validator receives the share agreed when it won the loan.
2. The protocol share, if any, is taken.
3. Everything left returns to Hipo's treasury, which raises the hGRAM exchange rate for every holder.

No. There is nothing to claim manually. Rewards are automatically reflected in the value of hGRAM. Over time, your hGRAM is designed to become redeemable for more GRAM.

Yes. You can stake more GRAM at any time. When you add more GRAM, you receive more hGRAM in return.

Yes. Connect a supported TON wallet, choose how much GRAM you want to stake, and confirm the transaction in your wallet. After the transaction is complete, you receive hGRAM back in your wallet.

Yes. Wallets that can’t sign dapp transactions, such as multisig wallets, can stake with a plain transfer: send the amount of GRAM you want to stake, plus 0.1 GRAM for fees, to the Hipo treasury contract with the text comment “d”. Unused fees are refunded, and hGRAM is sent back to the same address.

To unstake, send 0.1 GRAM to the treasury with the text comment “w”. This unstakes your entire hGRAM balance. When you connect a multisig wallet in the Hipo app, it shows these instructions with the treasury address ready to copy.

hGRAM is the token you receive when you stake GRAM with Hipo. Think of hGRAM as a receipt for your staked GRAM. It shows how much of the staking pool belongs to you.

You receive hGRAM so your staked GRAM can stay useful. While your GRAM is earning staking rewards, you can still hold, send, or use hGRAM in supported TON apps.

Yes, but you do not receive separate reward payments. Instead, staking rewards are reflected in the value of hGRAM. Over time, hGRAM is designed to become redeemable for more GRAM as rewards are added.

Yes. You can send hGRAM to another wallet. You may also be able to trade it in supported TON apps, depending on where hGRAM is available.

Yes, where supported. Some TON DeFi apps may allow you to use hGRAM for things like trading or liquidity. Availability depends on each app, so always check whether hGRAM is supported before using it.

hGRAM has a value compared to GRAM. As staking rewards are added, 1 hGRAM is designed to become redeemable for more GRAM over time.

No. At the beginning, hGRAM may be close to 1 GRAM. Over time, as staking rewards are earned, 1 hGRAM can become redeemable for more than 1 GRAM.

Yes, if hGRAM is supported by an exchange, swap app, or liquidity pool. You can also unstake hGRAM through Hipo to receive GRAM back.

To unstake, open Hipo and choose how much hGRAM you want to redeem. You then pick how you want it processed — Full or Instant — and confirm the transaction in your wallet. When the unstake completes, you receive GRAM back in your wallet.

They are the two ways Hipo can process an unstake, and you choose between them before confirming.

• Full waits until the current validation round ends. Because your GRAM keeps earning until then, this gives you the better exchange rate — the maximum rewards available on your hGRAM. It always goes through.
• Instant is processed straight away, at a slightly lower rate. It only succeeds if Hipo is holding enough free GRAM at that moment to cover it.

Full is the default. Choose Instant when getting your GRAM now matters more than the last slice of rewards.

That depends on which of the two options you pick.

Instant is what its name says: if it succeeds, your GRAM arrives within about a minute. If Hipo is not holding enough free GRAM at that moment, the option is unavailable and you use Full instead.

Full is settled after the current validation round ends, so there is a wait. The app shows you how long is left before your GRAM arrives.

That wait comes from TON's validation cycle rather than from a fixed Hipo lock-up: a round runs for roughly 18 hours, and stakes stay frozen for about 9 more hours afterwards before they can be recovered. Hipo spreads its stake across consecutive rounds, so a recovery window opens roughly every 18 hours.

A Full unstake lands somewhere in that cycle, so a typical wait is around 9 hours and a single-round wait tops out near 18. In some cases you may have to wait up to 36 hours, if all of Hipo’s smart contract funds are locked during the staking rewards process — that is the worst case, where a request just misses one window and has to wait for the one after it.

Yes. Instant is one of the two options you can choose when you unstake, and it is handled by Hipo itself — you do not need a DEX or any third party to get GRAM quickly.

It is processed right away rather than at the end of the round, at a slightly lower exchange rate than Full, and it succeeds as long as Hipo is holding enough free GRAM to cover your request.

Instant unstaking pays you out of the GRAM Hipo is holding free at that moment, so it is limited by how much of it there is. Most of the staked GRAM is committed to validation rounds and cannot be released early.

The app shows the largest amount you can unstake instantly right now, and warns you if you enter more than that. During periods of high demand the limit can be low, or Instant may be unavailable altogether — in which case you can unstake a smaller amount instantly, or use Full for the whole balance.

With Full, yes. Your GRAM keeps earning until the round it is committed to ends, which is why Full returns more GRAM than Instant for the same hGRAM.

With Instant there is no waiting period to earn through — you are paid out at once, at the rate that applies then.

Either way, once your GRAM is back in your wallet it is no longer earning staking rewards through Hipo.

Hipo does not charge a fee for unstaking. You pay a small TON network gas fee, which the app shows before you confirm.

Part of that gas is a prepayment: whatever is left over is returned together with your final GRAM payout, not at the moment you request the unstake.

Hipo is built to be transparent and security-focused. Staking and unstaking happen through on-chain smart contracts, so the whole process can be verified on the TON blockchain.

Yes. Hipo's smart contracts have been audited by Quantstamp in April 2025 and by ProgramCrafter in March 2024. Every report is published in full at github.com/HipoFinance/audits, along with any later reviews.

DeFi is not risk-free. Possible risks include smart contract bugs, validator performance issues, limited liquidity for instant unstaking, changes in staking rewards, and broader TON network issues.

Hipo is designed with security in mind, but no DeFi or staking protocol is completely risk-free. Possible risks include smart contract bugs, TON network issues, validator performance problems, or limited liquidity for instant unstaking.

You can verify Hipo transactions on any TON blockchain explorer, such as tonviewer.com. Staking, unstaking, and every other on-chain action can be checked publicly.

The Hipo app links straight to the treasury contract on an explorer, so you can inspect the contract holding the staked GRAM without having to look up its address.

Validators are TON network participants that help secure the network and generate staking rewards.

Behind the scenes, Hipo uses an on-chain validator marketplace. Eligible validators can compete to receive staked GRAM by offering competitive reward terms.

This helps make validator selection more transparent and less dependent on a manually chosen validator list.

Yes, if they meet Hipo’s protocol requirements.

Eligible validators can participate through Hipo’s smart contracts without needing manual approval from a centralized team.

Some staking systems rely on a fixed set of validators chosen by the protocol team.

Hipo uses a permissionless validator marketplace instead. This means validator selection happens more transparently on-chain, and validators can compete for stake allocation.

This can help support decentralization in the TON ecosystem.

Validators can apply to receive staked GRAM through Hipo’s on-chain system.

They compete by offering reward terms and providing collateral. Hipo then automatically directs stake toward competitive validators during each staking round.

This helps make validator selection more transparent and less dependent on manual decisions.

Because validators compete to receive stake.

When validators compete, Hipo can direct stake toward validators offering strong reward terms while still requiring them to provide collateral.

This helps create a more open and market-based staking system.

Collateral is extra value that validators commit when they participate.

It helps protect stakers if a validator performs poorly or fails to meet expected performance.

If a validator underperforms, their collateral may be used according to Hipo’s protocol rules.

A validator borrowing GRAM from Hipo has to put up the potential penalty and that round's reward before it can take part. The intent is that a slashing penalty is paid out of the validator's own collateral rather than out of staked GRAM.

This helps protect stakers and encourages validators to operate reliably.

HPO is the governance and revenue-sharing token of the Hipo ecosystem.

HPO holders can participate in governance, receive ecosystem incentives, and earn protocol revenue through Hipo Club.

Yes. Hipo protocol revenue is distributed to HPO holders through Hipo Club according to the protocol's tokenomics and governance rules.

Hipo Club is Hipo's community rewards program that distributes HPO and protocol-generated revenue to long-term ecosystem participants and HPO holders.

Protocol revenue is generated from Hipo's staking operations and ecosystem services. A portion of this revenue is distributed to HPO holders through Hipo Club.

HPO aligns the interests of users, stakers, validators, and the broader Hipo ecosystem by combining governance rights with participation in protocol growth.

GRAM staking means using your GRAM to help support the TON network and earn staking rewards.

Behind the scenes, staked GRAM is used by validators, which are network participants that help keep TON running securely.

With regular staking, your tokens may be locked while they earn rewards.

With liquid staking, you receive another token while your GRAM is staked. In Hipo, that token is hGRAM.

You can hold, send, or use hGRAM in supported TON apps while your staked GRAM continues earning rewards.

A liquid staking token is a token you receive after staking.

In Hipo, hGRAM represents your staked GRAM. It also reflects the staking rewards earned over time.

Yes, where supported.

Liquid staking lets your GRAM keep earning staking rewards while you use hGRAM in supported TON DeFi apps.

Using hGRAM in DeFi may involve extra risks, so always check how each app works before using it.

APY means the estimated yearly reward rate.

Staking APY can change over time. It may depend on TON network rewards, validator performance, how much GRAM is being staked, and Hipo’s protocol rules.

As network conditions and staking participation change, staking rewards naturally fluctuate.

Liquid staking provides additional flexibility by allowing users to maintain liquidity while earning rewards.

Yes. Both individual users and institutions can use Hipo to access liquid staking on TON.

Hipo uses a permissionless validator marketplace where validators compete for stake allocation. This competitive mechanism helps secure attractive reward rates for stakers while supporting decentralization and efficient validator participation.

Hipo does not take a cut of the GRAM you stake. You receive hGRAM for the full amount.

What you do pay is a small TON network gas fee, attached on top of your deposit rather than deducted from it. Any unused gas is returned to your wallet shortly afterwards. The app shows the exact amount before you confirm.

No. Hipo charges no management or subscription fee, and nothing is skimmed from your rewards as they accrue.

The protocol does have a governance fee that Hipo's governance can set on validation rewards. It is currently 0%, so validation rewards pass through to hGRAM holders in full. Any change would go through governance and is visible on-chain.

The Hipo app shows the exact gas fee for each action before you confirm it, so you always see the current figure rather than an estimate published here.

Gas fees are set by the TON network and move with it. They are typically a fraction of a GRAM for staking and unstaking.

Hipo connects through TON Connect, so any TON wallet that supports it will work. The connect dialog lists the wallets available to you.

You can also stake from the Hipo Telegram Mini App if you prefer to stay inside Telegram.

Wait for network confirmation and check the transaction status through your wallet or a TON explorer.

The quickest route is Hipo Chat on Telegram, where community members and moderators answer questions.

For announcements, follow the Hipo channel on Telegram or @hipofinance on X.

Hipo will never ask for your seed phrase or private keys. Nobody from the team ever needs them.

The Hipo documentation covers the protocol in depth, and stats.hipo.finance tracks live protocol numbers.

The contracts are open source at github.com/HipoFinance.