Stake TRX to Reduce Gas Fees

When you send transactions on the TRON network—whether moving native TRX or TRC-20 tokens (e.g., USDT)—gas fees are always paid in TRX and are always borne by the sender. In high-volume use cases, such as consolidations, frequent transfers, and payouts, these fees (which often range from $3 to $4 per transaction) can accumulate quickly.

TRON’s native staking product allows you to reduce or eliminate these fees by using Energy instead of spending TRX. Layer1 simplifies this process by managing staking, energy allocation, and monitoring on your behalf.

Overview

By staking TRX, you unlock Energy, a resource that TRON automatically applies toward transaction fees (or gas). With Layer1’s built-in staking product, you no longer need to monitor Energy balances or make manual adjustments. Stake once, and the system applies Energy on your behalf to reduce or eliminate TRX-based fees.

How Staking on TRON Works

Freeze (Stake) TRX to Receive Energy

When you “freeze” (stake) TRX on TRON, you receive an allotment of Energy. More TRX staked means more Energy obtained. The exact Energy yield fluctuates based on overall network conditions (for example, total TRX staked by all users).
Energy is consumed automatically by your transactions.
Continuously, your staked TRX regenerates Energy. As long as Energy remains available, your transactions use Energy instead of TRX for gas.
A small amount of TRX (0.345 TRX per transaction) is still required for Bandwidth. If Energy covers the gas portion, you’ll only pay this minimal Bandwidth fee in TRX.
If your Energy balance is depleted, TRX will be spent for gas as usual to ensure no transaction fails for lack of fees.

Unstaking and lockup period

When you unstake (unfreeze) TRX, those tokens enter a mandatory 14-day lockup.
During the 14-day period, you cannot transfer or re-stake the unstaked TRX.
After the lockup expires, the TRX funds are fully released back into your wallet.

Why use Layer1 for TRON staking?

Layer1 abstracts away all staking complexity so your engineering team can focus on core product logic:

Once you stake through Layer1, Energy is applied automatically to all eligible transactions, without any manual intervention. You never need to check or refill Energy.
Layer1’s dashboard and webhooks provide real-time updates on:
- Staked amounts
- Unstaked amounts in the lock up period
- Delegated staked amounts for consolidation benefit
After staking, payouts, consolidations, and other regular transactions automatically draw on Energy; no extra configuration is necessary.
Layer1 handles all TRON staking mechanics. You only need to specify how much TRX to stake via a simple API call.

Stake TRX

Below is the typical sequence you’ll see in Layer1 when staking TRX. All actions occur in your TRON master wallet, and Layer1 reflects changes in your asset balances.

Asset	Transaction Type	Description
TRX	–	Your TRX balance in the master wallet before staking.
S-TRX	STAKE	TRX has been staked. Your “S-TRX” asset balance on the master wallet increases by the staked amount.

To stake a specified amount of TRX via the Layer1 API, ensure your API key has the crypto:operator role and send the POST /digital/v1/staking-requests request with the body parameters:

{
  "assetPoolId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "asset": "TRX",
  "network": "TRON",
  "type": "STAKE",
  "reference": "myUniqueRef333",
  "address": "TNx5eZNjpmKw8s1a3GB1VBH246uf9V6pfe",
  "amount": 1000,
  "metadata": {
  	"resourceType": "ENERGY"
  }
}

Key points:

Set "asset": "TRX" and "type": "STAKE".
address should be your TRON master wallet address.
amount is the TRX quantity you wish to stake.

Layer1 sends a TRON transaction to freeze the TRX balance in the master wallet. Once the transaction is confirmed on-chain (Layer1 returns a successful API response or a webhook notification), your wallet’s S-TRX balance reflects the newly staked TRX. You start earning Energy automatically; no further steps needed.

Unstake TRX

When you decide to unstake, Layer1 manages the transitions between asset types and the lockup timeline:

Asset	Transaction Type	Description
S-TRX	STAKE	Represents your currently staked TRX in the master wallet.
U-TRX	UNSTAKE	When you request to unstake, TRX moves from S-TRX to U-TRX, indicating it is now in the 14-day lockup period.
TRX	RELEASE	After the lockup expires, U-TRX automatically converts back to spendable TRX in your master wallet.

To unstake a specified amount of TRX via the Layer1 API, ensure your API key has the crypto:operatorrole and send the POST /digital/v1/staking-requests request with the body parameters:

{
  "assetPoolId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "asset": "S-TRX",
  "network": "TRON",
  "type": "UNSTAKE",
  "reference": "myUniqueRef333",
  "address": "TNx5eZNjpmKw8s1a3GB1VBH246uf9V6pfe",
  "amount": 1000,
  "metadata": {
  	"resourceType": "ENERGY"
  }
}

Important details:

Use "asset": "S-TRX" and "type": "UNSTAKE" to indicate you are freeing previously staked TRX.

After a successful request, a U-TRX asset balance is created in your wallet and locked for exactly 14 days.

Once the lockup period passes, U-TRX converts to normal TRX, which you can then transfer or re-stake. Layer1 UI and webhooks will notify you when your U-TRX becomes available.

Consolidations

Staking TRX not only benefits payouts from your master wallet, it also helps reduce gas fees for consolidation transactions: moving funds from source wallets back into your master wallet.

This is enabled by temporarily delegating staked TRX from the master wallet to the source wallet when a deposit arrives:

Asset	Transaction Type	Description
S-TRX	STAKE	Staked TRX resides on the master wallet.
D-TRX	DELEGATE	When a non-master (source) wallet receives a deposit, Layer1 temporarily delegates staked TRX from the master to the source wallet. Consolidation transaction triggers immediately, drawing on delegated Energy.
D-TRX	UNDELEGATE	Once the consolidation is complete, Layer1 automatically undelegates Energy back to the master wallet for future use.

This process is entirely automated:

Staked TRX is delegated only for the duration of the transaction.
Afterwards, it's automatically undelegated.
No additional configuration or manual setup is required.

All you need to do now is watch your TRON gas fees drop 📉 - Simple!