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What is HEX, and how does a stake work?
HEX is a token whose contract lets holders lock it for a time they choose and pays them in newly made HEX for waiting. The contract cannot be changed, and it runs on both Ethereum and PulseChain as two separate assets.
4 min readUpdated Oct 12, 2026
In short
- A stake locks HEX for 1 to 5,555 days and is paid when it ends.
- Ending early forfeits part of it. So does leaving it too long.
- HEX on PulseChain and eHEX on Ethereum are two assets.
What it is
HEX is a contract that went live on Ethereum in December 2019. It does one thing: it lets a holder lock HEX away for a set number of days, and pays them in new HEX for doing it.
HEX calls the contract finished and immutable, and says it has had three independent audits. Nobody can change its rules, pause it or take what is staked in it.
One word to know: HEX’s own site now calls this mining, and the people who do it miners. The contract calls it a stake, and so does this site. They are the same thing.
How a stake works
- You choose the length
- From 1 day to 5,555 days, about fifteen years. It is fixed when the stake starts.
- The stake becomes shares
- Your HEX is turned into shares. A longer stake and a larger one each get more shares for the same HEX.
- Each day pays the shares
- Every day the contract makes new HEX and divides it among all the shares that are staked.
- You are paid at the end
- What a stake has earned is handed over when it is ended, together with what was staked. Not before.
What ending a stake can cost
I can end a stake whenever I like, at no cost
You can end it, but ending before the last day forfeits part of it. The earlier you end, the more is lost, and a stake ended very early can lose some of what was put in.
A finished stake can wait as long as I like
It can wait two weeks. After that it loses 1% for every week it is left unended, until after about two years nothing of it remains.
The interest is mine as it accrues
It is counted every day and paid only when the stake ends. Until then the penalty can take from it.
Where the new HEX comes from
The contract makes new HEX every day, at a rate HEX says is capped at 3.69% a year. All of it goes to stakers. Of what a penalty takes from one stake, half is shared among the others and half goes to an address the contract calls the origin.
So HEX that is not staked is diluted, and HEX that is staked is paid for it.
HEX and eHEX
Ethereum
PulseChainWhere it came from
HEX was started by Richard Heart. In its first year, new HEX was given out daily to people who sent ether to the contract.
The SEC later alleged that this was an unregistered securities offering. A court dismissed the case in 2025 without ruling on the question.
The record, by dateSources
- HEX: stakes of 1 to 5,555 days, inflation capped at 3.69%, an immutable contract
- HEX, its own questions and answers: two weeks’ grace after a stake ends, then 1% a week
- PulseScan: the HEX contract’s verified source, which sets the stake lengths and splits a penalty
- SEC press release 2023-143: the offerings it alleged, and their dates
Questions people ask
They are the same contract on two chains. HEX is the one on PulseChain and eHEX the one on Ethereum. Each has its own price, and a stake on one chain is not on the other.
You forfeit part of it. The penalty is larger the earlier the stake is ended, and it is taken first from what the stake has earned and then from what was staked.
From 1 day to 5,555 days, which is a little over fifteen years. Longer stakes get more shares for the same amount of HEX.
HEX describes it as finished and immutable. It has run with the same rules since December 2019, on Ethereum and, since the fork, on PulseChain.
No court has ruled on that. The SEC alleged an unregistered securities offering, and the case was dismissed without a ruling on it. This site endorses no asset, and nothing here is financial advice.
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