For treasuries

    Pay your team's AI costs with treasury staking rewards

    A DAO, fund or protocol that holds ADA can delegate it from its own treasury wallet to the Gatewayz stake pool and receive the staking rewards as a discount on AI inference instead of ADA. The ADA never leaves the treasury, the discount pays 99% of each request on one Gatewayz account used by people and agents, and launch limits cap each account per day.

    Updated · 5 min read

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    A DAO, fund or protocol that holds ADA can use its staking rewards to pay AI costs by delegating from its own treasury wallet to the Gatewayz stake pool. The ADA stays in the treasury; the rewards it would have earned come back as an inference discount balance on one Gatewayz account, which pays 99% of each request your people and agents make while it lasts. Launch limits cap each account's daily discount, so large treasuries should talk to us first.

    Pre-launch. The program is built and switched off on mainnet. A working demo runs on Cardano's preprod testnet with test ADA, by invitation. Not available to US or Canadian persons. Every participant must confirm they are not a US or Canadian person before linking a wallet.

    Why does non-custodial matter to treasury governance?

    Because it keeps the treasury's control model intact. Cardano delegation assigns stake to a pool without transferring ADA: the funds stay at the treasury's addresses, can be spent at any time and have no lock-up. Gatewayz never holds, signs for or can move treasury funds, and there is no Gatewayz smart contract in the path. That means a delegation decision does not create a new custodian, a new counterparty for the principal or a new set of keys. It is closer to choosing a pool than to making an investment. Non-custodial vs custodial staking sets out the difference.

    How does a treasury wallet delegate?

    The same way any Cardano wallet does: with one transaction carrying a delegation certificate for the treasury's stake address. Whoever controls that stake key signs the transaction through the treasury's usual approval process, and it costs only the normal transaction fee. If the stake address was never registered, there is also a one-time 2 ADA deposit, refunded on deregistration.

    Linking is a second, off-chain step: the stake key signs a CIP-8 message proving control of the address, with no transaction and no fee. Today linking accepts key-hash stake addresses only. A treasury whose stake credential is a script (stake17...) can still delegate, but cannot link to an account yet; tell us if that is your setup. The full sequence is on How it works.

    How do people and agents share one balance?

    The discount sits on the Gatewayz account, and anything signed with that account's API key draws on it. A team can use it from chat tools, internal apps and AI agents alike. Each request pays 1% of its list price from normal credits and 99% from the balance. Treat the key like a password: anyone holding it can spend the balance. For unattended agents, keep the normal credit balance small so it acts as a ceiling; spend ceilings for unattended agents explains the pattern.

    How large can the discount get?

    Not very large at launch, by design. The calculator shows the estimate for your amount with the cap applied.

    Stays in your wallet
    ADA

    Type any amount, or drag.

    $

    Default CoinGecko simple price, 2026-10-27. Use today's price.

    Estimated discount per month

    $32.91 – $34.45

    Per epoch (5 days)
    about $5.48
    Covers at list price
    up to $34.79
    Launch limit used$34.45 of $150/month

    You pay the remaining 1% of each request from your normal credits.

    A range from your own amount, not a rate. The range uses network-wide rewards for an established pool. A new or small pool mints blocks less often, so its rewards vary more from epoch to epoch, and an epoch with no blocks has nothing to share. Inputs and sources

    Launch limits: at most $5 of discount per account per day, and at most $50 per day across the whole program. Limits may change.

    At the calculator's default inputs, the per-account cap of $150 a month is reached at roughly 435,000 to 456,000 ADA. A treasury holding much more will see its discount stop growing at that point. We would rather say so plainly: if your treasury is large, write to us before delegating so we can discuss what makes sense once limits change.

    What should a governance proposal say?

    State what moves, what comes back, what can go wrong and how to exit. An outline a DAO can adapt:

    • What is delegated: the amount of ADA, the treasury stake address, and the Gatewayz pool id (published by the live /delegation/status endpoint).
    • What does not change: custody, signers and spending authority. Delegation is a certificate; ADA stays at treasury addresses with no lock-up.
    • What is received: a USD discount balance on one named Gatewayz account, equal to 95% of the treasury stake's share of the pool's fees each epoch, used to pay 99% of inference requests.
    • What is given up: ordinary ADA staking rewards while delegated. The discount cannot be withdrawn, transferred or converted back to ADA.
    • Who controls the account: the API key holders, any spending limits on normal credits, and who holds each key.
    • Risks: pool performance, the ADA price at recording time, program changes or pause, and account key security (see below).
    • Timing: the first discount arrives about two to three weeks after delegating.
    • Exit: redelegate or deregister at any time; leaving is never blocked and credited discount stays on the account.
    • Reporting: a periodic check of the credited discount against public chain data.
    Your ADA
    Delegation never moves your ADA. There is no Gatewayz contract holding it and no lock-up. Your ADA's market price still moves, as it would in your wallet anyway.
    Rewards you give up
    The pool takes nearly all of its rewards as its fee (99% margin plus Cardano's minimum fixed cost), so you do not receive ADA staking rewards while delegated. You receive an inference discount instead.
    Pool performance
    Rewards depend on the blocks the pool mints. A new or small pool mints blocks less often, so its rewards vary more from epoch to epoch, and an epoch with no blocks has nothing to share.
    ADA price
    Rewards are converted to USD when they are recorded, so the size of your discount moves with ADA.
    Program changes
    The reward share, the discount, the limits and the program itself can change or be paused. The program also pauses automatically if discounts granted ever exceed 95% of rewards received.
    Smart contracts
    None for ADA: delegation is a native Cardano certificate, not a smart contract. Future assets that use contracts or lending protocols will list their contract risk on their own page.
    Your Gatewayz account
    The discount balance lives on your Gatewayz account. Anyone with your API key can spend it, so treat the key like a password.

    What goes in a treasury report?

    The stake delegated, the epochs covered, the discount credited per epoch and how much of it was used. The credited figures can be checked independently: the verify script reads the pool's fees and the treasury's stake from Koios and applies the same formula Gatewayz uses.

    Recompute your discount from public chain data (Node 18+)
    Shell
    curl -sO https://www.gatewayz.ai/yield/verify.mjs && node verify.mjs stake1u...
    • Reads Koios. The pool's fees per epoch and your stake in it, from a public API.
    • Same formula. 95% of the pool's fees times your share of its stake.
    • No keys. It needs only your stake address. Read the script before you run it.

    Compare its output with the account history from /delegation/rewards. Verify your discount explains each field.

    Frequently asked questions

    Does delegating treasury ADA give Gatewayz any control over it?

    No. Delegation only tells the network which pool the stake supports. The ADA stays at the treasury's addresses under its own keys and approval process, and Gatewayz cannot move it.

    Can a multisig treasury link its wallet?

    It can delegate, but linking today requires a key-hash stake address starting stake1u. Script stake addresses, starting stake17, return a script_stake_address_unsupported error. Contact us if your treasury uses one.

    Can the discount be booked as treasury income?

    It is a non-transferable discount on inference, not cash or ADA, and it cannot be withdrawn. How to account for it is a question for your accountant and tax advisor.

    What happens if the program changes?

    The reward share, discount, limits and program can change or be paused, and the program pauses automatically if discounts ever exceed 95% of rewards received. Discount already credited stays on the account, and the treasury can redelegate at any time.

    Can a large treasury get a higher limit?

    Not at launch: the limit is $5 of discount per account per day, and $50 per day across the program. Limits may change, so write to us if your treasury is large.

    Apply for the demo

    We are walking a small group of treasuries through the live testnet demo before launch.

    We use your details only to arrange the demo. Applying doesn't commit you to anything, and we never ask for a seed phrase or private key.

    Discounts are a share of staking rewards Gatewayz actually received, can change at any time, and are not a guaranteed return. Not available to US or Canadian persons. Every participant must confirm they are not a US or Canadian person before linking a wallet. Not investment, legal or tax advice. Figures as of 2026-10-27. Program disclosures