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This page is for delegators who want to tokenize staked ATOM or protect their account from tokenization, for liquid staking providers integrating with the Hub, and for operators who need to understand the gaia.liquid.v1beta1 messages they see in blocks. It assumes gaiad is configured for the Hub (Delegator CLI guide). Parameter values are from mainnet on 2026-10-15.

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What the module does

The x/liquid module lets a delegator convert a delegation into tokenized shares. A tokenized share is a bank denom of the form <validator address>/<record id> that represents a claim on that delegation. The shares are transferable, including over Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC). Whoever holds them can redeem them back into a normal delegation. The underlying ATOM stays bonded and slashable the whole time. The Hub issues the shares itself, so they depend on no party other than the Hub. Liquid staking providers accept these shares and issue their own liquid tokens against them. That is how already staked ATOM moves into liquid staking without a 21 day unbonding. Shares from different validators (and different records) are different denoms, so they are not fungible with each other. Source and full specification: x/liquid README.

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Parameters

Two caps limit how much of the network can be tokenized. Both are set by governance. Global cap: 25 percent of bonded ATOM.
The output shows global_liquid_staking_cap: "0.250000000000000000". Tokenization fails once total tokenized shares would exceed this fraction of all bonded stake. Validator cap: 100 percent. The same output shows validator_liquid_staking_cap: "1.000000000000000000". This is the fraction of a single validator’s shares that may be tokenized. At 1.0 there is no per validator limit on the Hub. Current use against the caps:
The first query returns 93816159624 uatom tokenized against a bonded pool of about 338 million ATOM. The liquid-validators query lists liquid_shares per validator. The last record id was 122253.

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Tokenize and redeem

Tokenize part of a delegation. The last argument is who will own the shares, usually your own address:
The transaction creates a tokenize share record and mints shares to the owner. Find them:
The record shows id, owner, module_account, and validator. The balance shows a denom like cosmosvaloper1.../122254. Rewards on tokenized shares accrue to the record. Withdraw them with gaiad tx liquid withdraw-tokenize-share-rewards <record-id> or withdraw-all-tokenize-share-rewards. Redeem shares back into a delegation under your own address:
The delegation reappears in gaiad q staking delegations. A record’s ownership, and with it the reward stream, can be transferred with gaiad tx liquid transfer-tokenize-share-record <record-id> <new-owner>.

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Lock an account against tokenization

Without liquid staking, staked ATOM behind a stolen key cannot move for 21 days. Tokenization removes that delay, so an account that does not use liquid staking should lock itself:
The query returns status: TOKENIZE_SHARE_LOCK_STATUS_LOCKED. Unlocking is deliberately slow:
After this the status is LOCK_EXPIRING, with an expiration_time 21 days out. Only then does it become UNLOCKED. A thief who re-enables tokenization still has to wait the unbonding period. That delay is the point.

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Changes from the SDK liquid staking module

Until gaia v24 the Hub ran liquid staking inside a forked x/staking and x/distribution, the “SDK LSM” (liquid staking module). Gaia v24 moved it into x/liquid. Gaia v28.3.1 has no trace of the fork. Integrators updating from that era need to know:
  • Protobuf types moved from cosmos.staking.v1beta1 and cosmos.distribution.v1beta1 to gaia.liquid.v1beta1.*. REST paths moved to /gaia/liquid/v1beta1/. CLI commands moved to gaiad tx liquid and gaiad q liquid.
  • The messages MsgValidatorBond and MsgUnbondValidator were removed, together with the validator bond requirement and its APIs. The min_self_delegation field on validators is back to its upstream meaning. A validator created while the field was deprecated may show self delegation 0 against min_self_delegation: 1. A minimal self delegation fixes any edit-validator or unjail error that causes.
  • The global and validator caps are now enforced only on tokenized shares through x/liquid. Delegations through interchain accounts no longer count toward them.
  • The liquid_shares field on Validator in staking queries is no longer maintained. Use gaiad q liquid liquid-validator <valoper> instead.
  • Existing records, share denoms, and rewards were migrated unchanged, so share denoms issued before v24 remain valid.

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Verify

The first returns the total value of outstanding shares in uatom. The second resolves a share denom to its record and validator. That lookup is how an explorer or a wallet tells a genuine Hub share from a look-alike denom.

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