# Stake

ALEX staking involves "locking up" your ALEX tokens on the platform for an amount of time, measured in cycles, in exchange for protocol rewards.

You can think of $ALEX staking as depositing money into an interest-earning account: the longer you keep the money in the account, the more interest you earn. Similarly, the longer you stake $ALEX, the more rewards you earn. The protocol rewards are provided in the form of more $ALEX and APower tokens.

{% hint style="info" %}
**What is APower?** APower is the lottery ticket that allows you to take part in any future IDO rounds on our Launchpad. It is a non-transferrable and non-tradable token that is earned by staking. Learn more on the [FAQs](https://docs.alexlab.co/what-can-you-do/faqs#what-is-apower) page.
{% endhint %}

ALEX provides two different forms of staking to suit every user's need.

* [**Manual Staking**](https://docs.alexlab.co/what-can-you-do/key-concepts#manual-staking): Stake $ALEX directly on the [ALEX Lab Platform](https://app.alexlab.co/stake).
* [**Liquid Staking**](https://docs.alexlab.co/what-can-you-do/key-concepts#liquid-staking): Stake $ALEX via LiALEX, powered by [LISA Protocol](https://www.lisalab.io/).

## Explore

{% content-ref url="staking/key-concepts" %}
[key-concepts](https://docs.alexlab.co/what-can-you-do/staking/key-concepts)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="staking/how-to-stake" %}
[how-to-stake](https://docs.alexlab.co/what-can-you-do/staking/how-to-stake)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="staking/how-to-harvest" %}
[how-to-harvest](https://docs.alexlab.co/what-can-you-do/staking/how-to-harvest)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="staking/how-to-liquid-stake" %}
[how-to-liquid-stake](https://docs.alexlab.co/what-can-you-do/staking/how-to-liquid-stake)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="staking/faqs" %}
[faqs](https://docs.alexlab.co/what-can-you-do/staking/faqs)
{% endcontent-ref %}

## Support

For assistance, please reach out to our Community Managers on [Discord](https://discord.com/invite/alexlab) and [Telegram Channel](https://t.me/AlexCommunity). You can also email us at <contact@alexgo.io>.