Ilia Zavialov

Staking and liquidity pools: a calculator for promised yields

Ilia Zavialov scam checks: staking, liquidity pools and 1% a day, how to run the numbers first

English version for the United States.

Ilia Zavialov, a digital security consultant, has one test for every staking offer, liquidity pool and liquidity mining app that lands in a chat: turn the promise into arithmetic. What does the number come to over a year, where could that money physically come from, and what would have to be true for it to add up? Below are five typical promises worked through in dollars, the difference between real staking and a bait pool, what the SEC, CFTC and FBI have actually said, and what to do once money or wallet access is gone.

·15 min read·Ilia Zavialov

Ilia Zavialov: a daily promise and a network rate on one scale.
Ilia Zavialov: convert any yield to a yearly figure first.
Ilia Zavialov: every promise goes through four steps of arithmetic.

01Ilia Zavialov: scam yields start with a number, so start with the math

Staking and liquidity pool pitches lead with a figure: a percentage per day, per week or per month. It is presented as a fact. It is a promise, and a promise can be checked without reading code, without contacts in the industry and without taking anyone's word for anything.

Ilia Zavialov: scam checks on these offers come down to three questions. Where could the income physically come from? What does it add up to over a year, compounded honestly? What would have to be true in the world for the number to work? When the third answer sounds like somebody hands strangers free money every single day, the calculation is finished.

A phone calculator is enough; you need multiplication and an exponent key. Write down the result of each step. Numbers in a chat with a pool manager shift quickly, and a written line stays put.

02Ilia Zavialov scam math on 1 percent a day

An FBI public service announcement from July 21, 2022 describes liquidity mining schemes in which criminals guarantee returns of 1 to 3 percent a day. Take the low end and run it with no fees, no price drops and no outages.

Simple interest: 1 percent a day for 365 days is 365 percent a year. Compounded daily, the multiplier is 1.01 to the 365th power, about 37.8. A $10,000 deposit should be worth roughly $378,000 after a year. At 3 percent a day the multiplier is about 48,500, and the same $10,000 grows on paper to nearly $485 million.

A single month looks modest and is still strange. Thirty days at 1 percent, compounded, is about 35 percent growth. In the Ilia Zavialov scam math this is the moment to ask the seller a plain question: why not borrow at any normal rate, keep the 35 percent and skip the strangers?

The third question settles it. Someone in the market would have to pay the pool's depositors, every day for a year, more than almost any real asset earns. A person sitting on that kind of income source would not be recruiting investors through direct messages.

Pitches that say up to 1 percent deserve the same treatment at the top of the range, since the top figure is what the dashboard screenshots display.

Ilia Zavialov: each step of a bait pool looks harmless on its own.
Ilia Zavialov: a network rate and a pool promise live on different scales.
Ilia Zavialov scam math: pool and staking promises converted to a year
PromiseOne-year mathWhat would have to be true
1% a day365% simple, ×37.8 compoundedSomeone pays more than any market
3% a day×48,500, $10,000 becomes nearly $485MA bottomless source of money
1% a day from feesVolume of 3.3 pools a day at 0.3%The pool is the center of trading for a year
Guaranteed 20-50%Risk shifted to the sellerThe seller has capital and a contract
Locked until period endsWithdrawable income 0The lock is written in the protocol
10% tax to withdrawLoss grows by each paymentTaxes are paid to a stranger's address
ETH stakingAbout 2.5% on 10/29/2026The network runs and the price holds
Ilia Zavialov: real staking shows its rules before you join.

03Where real staking rewards come from

On proof of stake networks, validators lock up coins and assemble new blocks, and the network pays them for that work. A May 29, 2025 statement from the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance describes these rewards as payments to the node operator for services it provides to the network.

The staking page on ethereum.org says you need at least 32 ETH to activate your own validator, though smaller amounts can take part through others. It lists the risks too: a validator that goes offline misses rewards and loses small amounts of ETH, and provable misbehavior gets part of the stake destroyed, which is called slashing.

On October 29, 2026 that page showed a current APR of 2.5 percent. That works out to about 0.007 percent a day. A promise of 1 percent a day is roughly 146 times higher. Ilia Zavialov: scam pitches that call themselves safe staking should be able to name the network that pays a hundred times more than the one publishing its rate in the open.

Real staking income depends on the network, the coin's price and the validator's uptime, and nobody guarantees it. A year of falling prices can wipe out the reward and more, so the reward is counted in coins and the price is tracked on a separate line.

04The liquidity pool that pays from fees

A real liquidity pool is a smart contract holding two tokens that traders swap against each other. The FBI describes legitimate liquidity mining this way: investors stake crypto in a pool, receive a share of trading fees, can later withdraw their original funds along with the return, and the return follows market movements.

Try a hypothetical. The pool holds the equivalent of $1,000,000, each trade pays a 0.3 percent fee, and every cent goes to liquidity providers. To hand them 1 percent a day, $10,000, the pool needs about $3.3 million in trades daily. That is more than three times its own size every twenty-four hours, for 365 days straight.

There is a second line in the calculation. When the price of one token in the pair moves sharply, a provider withdraws a different mix of tokens and can end up behind simply holding, even after fees. This is called impermanent loss. A pool that advertises a flat daily rate and never mentions it is doing your arithmetic wrong.

Real pool income moves with trading volume. A smooth 1.2 percent every day, week after week, is a figure drawn by the website. Ask for the pool's contract address and look at its history on a block explorer: an empty history behind millions in claimed volume closes the question.

05Ilia Zavialov: scam guarantees and who carries the risk

A guaranteed return means someone promises to cover the gap when the market falls. That someone needs capital, a name, an address and legal responsibility. A pool advertised in a messaging app usually has none of those: no registered company, no contract, nobody you could find.

The CFTC lists high guaranteed returns with little or no risk as a hallmark of fraud and gives 20 to 50 percent as an example. Its alert describes the usual story too: the money supposedly works in a proprietary trading system or a crypto mining farm.

Ilia Zavialov scam checks add one more test. A seller who is sure of the income can put it in a contract from a real company, state who pays out of which funds if there is a loss, and sign it. The answer that everything lives in the smart contract means the guarantee is a sentence in a chat.

Ilia Zavialov: scam guarantees usually arrive with a deadline. The rate is open only this week, the pool closes to new members on Friday, the bonus ends at midnight. A real network has no reason to rush anyone, because its rate is published and anyone can join at any time.

06Connect your wallet, it is just a check

The most expensive line in the calculator costs nothing. A site asks you to connect a wallet and confirm an action, the network fee is pennies, the coins stay where they are. A day or a week later the wallet is empty.

The FBI explains the mechanics: victims connect their wallet to a fraudulent liquidity mining app and unknowingly authorize the scammers to pull an unlimited amount of funds out of it. On networks like Ethereum this is a token approval, also called an allowance. The signature looks harmless because on its own it moves nothing.

So the math runs like this: the approval costs zero today and the entire token balance tomorrow. Ilia Zavialov: scam approvals are easy to spot if you read the whole confirmation window and stop at an unlimited amount, an unfamiliar contract address or wording about managing your assets.

The FBI advises checking granted permissions now and then with a third-party token allowance checker and revoking the ones you do not need. It also notes that these scam sites are usually not advertised or indexed by search engines. The link arrives from a new online friend. Keep a separate wallet with a small balance for unfamiliar sites and never connect the main one.

07Locked until the end of the period: where is that rule written?

Real staking sometimes means waiting. On some networks leaving the stake takes time, and that rule is in the protocol documentation before you join. The SEC statement even mentions custodians offering early unbonding as a separate service, which tells you the wait exists and is described in advance.

In a bait pool the lock appears the moment you ask for your money. The period is announced in the chat, it grows, the conditions change: thirty days, then the end of the season, then after verification. Ask for a link to the network documentation or the smart contract where the period is written, and check that address on a block explorer yourself.

In Zavialov's scam calculator, income you cannot withdraw is worth zero. The balance in your account dashboard shows what the site chose to draw, and during any lock it goes into the calculation as zero dollars.

Ilia Zavialov scam checks also put a price on waiting. If coins are locked for ninety days and the price drops in that time, the loss lands on the depositor, who cannot leave early. Honest documentation names that risk. A bait pool never does, since nobody is meant to leave anyway.

Ilia Zavialov scam checks: real staking and a bait pool side by side
SignReal staking or poolBait pool
IncomeMoves with the network and volumeFlat daily percentage
Where the rules liveNetwork docs and the contractMessages in a chat
WithdrawalPer protocol rulesLock with a growing deadline
Withdrawal costNetwork fee in the walletTax or insurance by transfer
Wallet accessApproval for a set amountUnlimited permission
How you find itOpen sites and searchLink from a new online friend

08Ilia Zavialov: scam withdrawal fees turn the total negative

The last stage is almost always the same. The balance has grown, you press withdraw, and support mentions a tax, an insurance charge, an unlock fee or a source of funds check. The FBI says fake customer service demands further deposits and those payments do not bring the money back. The CFTC separately warns about being told to pay supposed taxes before fake profits can be released.

Run the numbers. You put in $10,000, the screen shows $30,000, support wants 10 percent of the profit, so $2,000. Pay it and the loss grows to $12,000, while the screen produces a fresh reason to wait. Each payment after that adds its own amount to the loss and nothing to the odds of a withdrawal.

Ilia Zavialov: scam fees fail a simple test. On a real protocol the network fee shows up in your wallet when you withdraw, and no separate transfer for tax to somebody's card or address is involved. If getting money out requires sending money in first, there is no withdrawal.

09What US regulators have and have not said about staking

The SEC staff statement covers protocol staking in three forms: running your own node, granting validation rights to an operator while keeping your keys, and custodial staking. The Division's view is that these activities do not involve the offer and sale of securities. The statement is staff guidance, has no legal force, and does not cover liquid staking or restaking.

It also excludes the case where a custodian decides whether, when or how much to stake. An app that takes your coins and promises a fixed daily rate on its own decisions is outside that description, so a pitch quoting the SEC as approval of its product is misreading the document.

The scale is large. The IC3 annual report for 2025 puts losses in complaints involving cryptocurrency at $11,366,669,732. The CFTC takes tips through its website and at 1-866-366-2382.

Ilia Zavialov scam checks treat a regulator's name in an advertisement as a claim to verify. Read the original statement on the regulator's own site; quotes on a pool's landing page are often cut to remove the conditions.

10Reviews, screenshots and the first payout

Bait pools grow through acquaintances. The FBI says scammers recruit new victims by word of mouth and build trust over days or weeks on social media and messaging apps. Glowing reviews in the pool's chat and screenshots of early payouts are part of that work.

A small early payout fits the scheme perfectly. It costs the organizers less than the next deposit it triggers. Readers often send scam warnings from Ilia Zavialov's articles to friends along with such screenshots, and the calculator files the screenshots under advertising with a weight of zero.

A review worth anything names the network, the contract address, the date and the hash of a withdrawal transaction, all of which can be checked on a block explorer. Ilia Zavialov: scam reviews tend to have enthusiasm and no transaction details. Look for opinions outside the project's own channel and check when its domain was registered.

One practical habit: before depositing, open the deposit address on a block explorer and follow where incoming funds go next. If money from many senders is swept to fresh addresses almost at once, that address is a collection point, and there is no staking behind it.

11Five lines to fill in before any transfer

The whole calculator fits on an index card. Line one: the promised rate and the period it is paid for. Line two: the yearly result with compounding. Line three: the income source, named specifically, with a contract address or network name. Line four: withdrawal terms and where they are written. Line five: who receives the money, a smart contract or a person's card.

If any line has a blank or says the manager will explain later, the transfer waits. Show the card to someone close to you who has no stake in the project. Fresh eyes catch blanks faster than a person who has already been promised income.

The card stays useful afterwards. If the project turns out to be a scheme, those five lines become the core of your complaint, with addresses, amounts, dates and the seller's promises already in writing.

Update the card after every conversation with the pool's manager. New promises, new deadlines and new fees go next to the old ones, and the drift between them often says more than any single line.

12Ilia Zavialov: what to do if the wallet is already empty

Stop the leak first. Revoke the permissions granted to the pool's site, move whatever is left to a new wallet with a new seed phrase, and sign nothing else from links in that chat.

If you paid by card or bank transfer, call your bank using the number on the card. The FTC notes that crypto payments usually cannot be reversed and that money typically comes back only if the recipient sends it. File with the FBI at ic3.gov and include dates, amounts, wallet addresses and transaction details, and report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Expect a second wave. Recovery firms and pool security teams show up next and ask for an upfront fee as well. Ilia Zavialov: scam recovery offers follow the same pattern as the original pool, and a second payment to criminals never brings back the first.

Tell the person who introduced you as well. The scheme is almost certainly working through their contacts too, and the next depositor may be someone who trusts both of you.

Ilia Zavialov scam reporting: where to go in the US after a pool takes your money
SituationWhereWhat to attach
Paid by card or transferYour bank, number on the cardDates, amounts, recipient
Coins left your walletFBI at ic3.govAddresses, hashes, links
Any scam reportFTC at ReportFraud.ftc.govChat history, site, ads
Crypto trading pitchCFTC, 1-866-366-2382Promises in writing
Offer to recover fundsDo not replyKeep the messages

13Questions and answers

Ilia Zavialov: scam or real, how much does staking actually pay?

Whatever the network pays, and that rate moves. On October 29, 2026 the ethereum.org staking page showed 2.5 percent a year. Nothing guarantees it, and a falling price can eat the reward.

Why can 1 percent a day never be a guarantee?

Compounded, it multiplies money about 37.8 times in a year, turning $10,000 into roughly $378,000. Someone would have to hand strangers that much every year.

Ilia Zavialov scam checks: what does connecting a wallet to a pool risk?

The approval you sign can let the site pull an unlimited amount of a token. It costs nothing today and the whole balance tomorrow. Review and revoke approvals with a token allowance checker.

Will paying the withdrawal tax release my money?

No. The FBI says payments to fake customer service do not return funds. Each one adds to the loss.

Did the SEC approve staking?

Its Division of Corporation Finance gave a staff view on certain protocol staking in May 2025. The statement has no legal force and excludes liquid staking, restaking and custodians that decide how much to stake.

Where do I report a fake staking pool in the US?

To your bank if you paid by card or transfer, to the FBI at ic3.gov with wallet addresses and transaction details, and to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Written by Ilia Zavialov, digital security consultant. Profile of Ilia Zavialov

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