Stader (SD): What It Is, Uses and Risks

Stader (SD) is the governance token of Stader, a non-custodial liquid staking platform. Stader's public description says it lets people stake assets on proof-of-stake networks such as Ethereum, Polygon and BNB Chain while receiving liquid tokens they can keep using in other DeFi applications. The company says it serves retail users as well as exchanges, custodians and institutions. SD is separate from the staked-asset tokens Stader issues. It is the token holders use to take part in decisions about the protocol. Stader's own description calls SD an ERC-20 token. Some third-party coverage also describes the project as multi-chain, which fits the list of networks where SD is issued. Readers should treat the project's own claims as marketing until they check them against independent documentation and audits.

According to the project description, SD has several roles. Holders can vote on Stader protocol upgrades, reward policies, validator selection criteria and protocol expansion. The description also mentions an SD Utility Pool, which is meant to reward SD holders for delegating to support Ethereum decentralization. Liquidity mining is another stated use, where SD liquidity provided across decentralized exchanges can earn SD incentives if governance approves them. Finally, the description says that anyone running a permissionless node with ETHx must bond at least 0.4 ETH worth of SD per validator. This bond is a requirement tied to node operation rather than a general payment token. Because these uses come from the project's own material, their scope and current status can change through governance votes, so readers should check the latest protocol documentation before relying on any of them.

The data for 2026-11-05 lists a price of about $0.108 per SD at the time of writing, with a market capitalization of about $8.3 million and a fully diluted valuation of about $13.0 million. The 24-hour trading volume was about $520,622. The 7-day change was about minus 5.5 percent, and the 1-year change was about minus 71 percent. The all-time high was about $30.17 on 2022-03-15, and the all-time low was about $0.091415 on 2026-08-18. Supply figures in the data are inconsistent. The circulating supply is about 76.6 million, and the total supply is listed as 120 million. The maximum supply is shown as 150 million in one field and 120 million in the project description. Readers should confirm the cap from the contract and official sources before drawing conclusions from it.

The data lists SD as issued on Ethereum, Polygon, BNB Chain, Solana and Fantom. These are the networks where the token exists in those forms, which can be useful to know because a token on one network is not automatically the same asset on another. Bridged or wrapped versions can carry different contract addresses and different risks. The project description also names networks such as Hedera in the context of the staking services Stader offers, but that is a different point from where SD is issued, so it should not be read as a list of SD chains. The data does not name a native chain for SD, and it does not give a launch date or consensus mechanism for the token. Anyone looking at SD should confirm the contract address on each network they use.

Holding a governance token carries risks that are different from holding a payment coin. Token prices can fall sharply, and the data shows a large drop over the past year and an all-time low set in August 2026. Smart contract bugs, failures in the staking or liquid staking mechanisms, and reliance on a small set of developers or governance participants can all affect value. Governance decisions can change incentives, supply or the rules for node operators. Fake tokens and scam listings are common, so readers should verify contract addresses from the project's official channels. The price and market data here is only a snapshot. For storage, many people use a self-custody wallet that supports the networks where SD exists. Seed phrases should be kept offline and never shared. This page is not investment advice, and readers should do their own research.