Hipo and hTON: liquid staking for beginners on TON

Hipo is the third-largest TON liquid staking pool after Tonstakers and bemo. By TVL it is much smaller than the leader ($2.5M vs $209M for Tonstakers as of May 2026), but the protocol attracts users who care about validator decentralisation and open source. This piece covers how Hipo is built, what hTON is, what the real yield looks like, and where this LST is used.

What Hipo is

Hipo is a non-custodial TON liquid staking pool launched in 2023 by an independent dev team. Project notes:

• Fully open source. Every smart contract is on GitHub under MIT.
• Validator onboarding via DAO. Validators are added and removed by hTON-holder votes (not by a centralised team decision).
• Minimal protocol fee. Hipo retains around 5% of validator rewards — close to the industry floor.
• CertiK audit. Standard procedure, public report.

In short: Hipo positions itself as honest middleware between retail users and TON validators, without extra fees or hidden centralisation.

hTON: the receipt token

hTON is a standard jetton you receive in exchange for staked TON. The principle:

• At first stake the rate was 1 hTON = 1 TON.
• Over time the rate grows as validator rewards accrue.
• As of May 2026, 1 hTON is worth roughly 1.06–1.08 TON depending on when it was minted.

Unlike a classic “rewards arrive in your wallet” model, Hipo capitalises yield in the token rate itself. Convenient — no manual restaking; less convenient — no clear “moment of income” for tax purposes, you measure it by the rate delta on entry vs exit.

Steps: staking on Hipo

1. Install Tonkeeper or MyTonWallet, send TON to your address.
2. Open hipo.finance in the browser.
3. Connect Wallet via TON Connect, pick a wallet, confirm.
4. Pick Stake on the home screen, enter the TON amount. Minimum — 1 TON.
5. Verify the current hTON/TON rate and the projected APY.
6. Hit Stake, confirm in the wallet (gas ~0.1 TON).
7. In 10–15 seconds hTON appears in the wallet. From then on it grows in rate.

Unstake is the same. Open the Unstake section, enter the hTON amount, confirm. With a liquidity buffer in place, exit is instant; otherwise you wait until the end of the current validator round (24–36 hours).

Yield and fees

Decomposing the Hipo APY.

• TON validator rewards — 4.5–5.5% per year depending on network activity.
• Hipo protocol fee — 5–10%.
• Effective hTON APY — 4–5% after fees.

Numbers are close to Tonstakers and bemo. Over the long run differences between protocols are basis points — choice is driven by other criteria: decentralisation, size, integrations, pool depth.

Where hTON is supported

An LST is only useful if DeFi accepts it. The current state of hTON integrations:

• STON.fi — there is an hTON-TON pool, modest liquidity; for large swaps DeDust is better.
• DeDust — stable hTON-TON pool with 0.04% fee. The best channel for large entries and exits to native TON.
• EVAA Protocol — hTON is accepted as collateral. You can borrow USDT against hTON for leveraged strategies.
• Tonkeeper Swap — built-in swap supports hTON, routes through the same DEX pools.

Main limitation — total hTON liquidity in DeFi is noticeably smaller than tsTON or stTON. For $5K+ swaps this starts to bite — slippage of 1–2% vs 0.1–0.5% on the bigger LSTs.

When to pick Hipo over Tonstakers

Honest take. Hipo makes sense if:

• Validator decentralisation matters to you. Hipo votes in validators via DAO; Tonstakers keeps the decision with the team.
• You want fully open source. Hipo contracts are entirely on GitHub under MIT.
• You do not need integration in every mini-app. If the strategy is “stake and hold”, hTON integration breadth is irrelevant.
• You want to support the “indie” segment of TON DeFi against concentration in one large pool.

Tonstakers is the better pick if:

• You need maximum LST liquidity (large swap volume).
• You need proven integrations across most DeFi protocols.
• You use leveraged strategies in EVAA (better collateral parameters available).

Detailed three-protocol comparison — see the bemo and stTON piece.

Hipo risks: what to watch

• Smaller protocol size. $2.5M TVL means in a mass exit the buffer can drain quickly. Unstake can take 24–36 hours instead of “instant”.
• Lower DEX liquidity depth. If you want an emergency exit via hTON to TON swap, $10K+ slippage can hurt.
• Standard smart contract risk. Audit covers most cases but does not rule out a new bug.
• Validator slashing risk. Hipo onboards validators via DAO; in theory several can slash at once — then hTON/TON rate drops proportionally.

Common breakages

• Stake hangs, transaction fails. Most often — out of gas. Keep at least 0.5 TON free for operations.
• Bought hTON on a DEX, not via the site. That is fine, but a 0.1–0.3% premium over the internal rate is possible. For large amounts stake via hipo.finance.
• Confused hTON with another LST. Wallets show tsTON, stTON, hTON with similar icons. Always verify the contract address before using one in DeFi.
• Expected 10%+. TON’s fundamental staking rate is 4–5%. No “liquid staking” doubles it on its own. Extra yield comes from risky strategies (LP, leverage, farming).

Next

If Hipo fits as a base staking channel, move on to LST yield strategies via EVAA Protocol, where hTON is accepted as collateral.

Sources

• hipo.finance — official site.
• docs.hipo.finance — technical docs.
• DeFiLlama: Hipo — TVL history.
• GitHub Hipo Finance — open contract code.