The LJT staking vault, and where its yield comes from
LJT vault returns depend on game results, pool shares and fees. Understand what backs payouts, why returns vary, and how withdrawals work.
The LJT vault gives token holders a position in the pool behind Lemon Jet's game. Its assets fund winning payouts, while losing stakes remain in the pool. A depositor's return depends on those results, the shares outstanding and the contract's fees and allocations.
Understanding that source of return is the starting point for understanding the vault.
The vault is the counterparty
When you place a prediction, something has to be on the other side of it. That something is the vault. Bets enter it, winning rounds are paid out of it, and losing stakes remain in it. The house edge describes the nominal expected gaming margin over many rounds, before other allocations and costs.
Depositing LJT gives you shares in that pool. Deposits add assets and issue shares; withdrawals remove assets and consume shares. Neither operation automatically creates profit. Your position changes in value as the pool's assets and the number of outstanding shares change.
What that implies
The yield is variable and can be negative. The edge is a statement about a large number of rounds. Over a short window with few rounds and a lucky player, the vault can pay out more than it takes in, and depositors carry that. Anyone quoting a fixed APR on a mechanism like this is quoting a hope, not a rate.
Activity and capital affect different things. More betting activity can produce more expected gaming margin, but actual results remain variable. More deposits add capital and shares. They can support greater capacity without increasing the return per share.
Deposit size affects capacity. A vault has to be able to pay the largest possible win. That constraint is why maximum bet sizes exist and why they relate to vault depth rather than being an arbitrary product decision.
Allocations also affect the pool
Every accepted bet issues reserve shares using 0.2% of the stake as the calculation basis. A bet with a recorded referrer also issues referral shares using 0.3% of the stake. These are shares in the existing pool, so they affect the number of shares outstanding.
The nominal 1% house edge is therefore not a fixed 1% payment to depositors. The referral guide explains how those referral shares are issued and redeemed.
Withdrawing a vault position
The current contract applies a 2% exit-fee parameter. The fee formula depends on whether an operation specifies the LJT amount to withdraw or the shares to redeem. It reduces the value available from an exit.
Funds reserved for outstanding game payouts also limit available withdrawals. Owning shares does not mean every underlying token is immediately available to leave the pool. The standard wallet flow requires ETH on Base for gas.
The whitepaper describes the fee formulas and liquidity limits. You can inspect the implementation and current state in the verified game and vault contract.
The uncomfortable part
Holding a token whose yield derives from a game's margin means your return is correlated with people losing money on that game. That is what the mechanism is. It is not hidden in the contract and it should not be hidden in the marketing either.
If that trade is not one you want, the vault is not for you, and that is a perfectly reasonable conclusion to reach. What we can promise is that the mechanism is legible: no part of it depends on trusting a number we told you.