For Bitcoiner believers, stacking is foundational. There’s no doubt that buying Bitcoin is an effective way to do that, but it isn’t the only way to accumulate BTC. For long-term stackers, direct purchases are just one part of a broader strategy.
Bitcoin mining
Proof-of-Work (PoW) is the mechanism behind Bitcoin issuance. By hashing candidate blocks trillions of times a second, miners secure the network. In return, they receive freshly minted Bitcoin as block rewards, as well as transaction fees.
There are some long-standing misconceptions about mining, and the most pertinent here is the cost. With the leading mining firms filling warehouses to the rafters with specialised rigs, you could be forgiven for thinking that mining is unachievable for the average person. It isn’t.
Specialised mining units (ASICs) can be bought for as low as $100-$200. Although it is tricky to make solo mining cost-effective at the entry level, there are a few paths. You could join a mining pool and combine forces with other miners, earning a share of the rewards. Or, you could go it alone and hope to win a block solo, netting 3.125 BTC if you do, plus the block’s transaction fees. And, although it’s unlikely, there have been at least 3 solo blocks mined this year.
What it costs: hardware ($100–200 to start), electricity, and some setup time.
What it pays: a trickle of satoshis in a pool, or a 3.125 BTC lottery ticket on a full block.
A USD Savings account that pays interest in Bitcoin
There are many reasons to keep cash or stablecoins on hand. Whether it’s for an emergency fund or simply timing the market, it’s important to make that capital work for you in the meantime.
If the funds are in fiat, they’re likely in a traditional savings account earning more of the depreciating asset you deposited. If the funds are in stablecoins on an exchange or staking platform, it’s much the same situation with some additional risks. However, at Xapo there is a USD Savings account that pays daily interest in Bitcoin. Stablecoins auto-convert to USD upon deposit, and fiat balances are protected up to the USD equivalent of £120,000.
At 4.6% APY (variable) for new members in the first 90 days and up to 4.1% thereafter, Bitcoiners can put their idle capital to work to grow their stack.
Unlike many traditional savings accounts, there is no lock-up, and unlike high-risk DeFi protocols, the yield is generated from high-quality liquid assets, including short-dated US Treasuries and money market funds.
With $10,000 in Xapo’s USD Savings account, you’re stacking roughly an extra $410 in BTC per year* at the current base rate while keeping the cash readily available.
What it costs: Available to existing members. USDC deposits convert 1:1 to USD on Ethereum with no additional Xapo fees. USDC on Solana, USDT (Ethereum, Tron), and fiat currencies carry small, transparent spreads.
What it pays: a daily deposit of BTC at a stated rate, with instant access.
Lightning network routing nodes
The Lightning network is a Bitcoin layer-2 payment protocol. While the main Bitcoin network can only manage a handful of transactions per second (roughly 3–7), Lightning is designed to accommodate millions of near-instant transactions at low cost.
However, like the Bitcoin network itself, it requires participation. Lightning runs on routing nodes, which are computers that run software connecting to both the Bitcoin blockchain and other Lightning nodes.
A node opens up direct payment channels with other nodes to pass payments back and forth, and each node acts as a digital toll booth. If you run a node, you earn a small base fee on every payment you forward, plus a proportional fee on the amount. These are, of course, in satoshis.
What it costs: $200–900 for hardware and electricity, roughly 1,000–7,000 sats every time you open or close a channel, and 0.05–0.1 BTC allocated in channels before the node routes anything meaningful.
What it pays: routing fees in sats; typically low single-digit returns with an entry-level setup.
Stacking sats, strategically
As a Bitcoiner, you may never be satisfied with your stack, but you ought to be satisfied with the strategy. Buying Bitcoin, whether it’s a dip or a DCA, will likely remain your primary vehicle for accumulation, but it doesn’t need to be the only vehicle.
*Interest is converted to Bitcoin at the time of each daily payout. The later value of that Bitcoin will rise or fall with the market.
