What is APY?
APY estimates annual return from rewards and fees. For bond providers, APY is most useful when paired with operator fee leakage, source freshness, and node risk.
Network Average vs. Your Node
- Network Average: A fallback context line, not a guarantee for your node.
- Top Nodes: Useful for comparison only after accounting for fees, churn, and slash risk.
- Your Node: The return path that matters most for action decisions.
How to Benchmark
- Open Rewards and start with the net outcome.
- Inspect fee leakage before comparing headline APY.
- Use Node Explorer only after risk and source checks look acceptable.
Factors Affecting APY
- Uptime: Nodes with stronger operational performance tend to earn more consistently.
- Operator Fees: Higher fees reduce provider return even when node-level APY looks strong.
- Bond Size: Larger bonds can change reward share and capacity dynamics.