How to bypass Sceptre for Partisia’s cooldown period
- Joel Monteiro
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
The 14.5-day cooldown period on Sceptre for Flare has understandably never been a community favorite, as users obviously prefer instant access to their funds. However, as we explored in a previous article, there are several ways to bypass this wait time, with pros and cons.
The situation is similar on Sceptre for Partisia: a cooldown period is in place, but you can get around it. In this new article, we will break down why this cooldown period exists, how it compares to other networks, and how to bypass it.
Why is there a 14 days cooldown period in place?
Cooldown periods (or unstaking wait times) are standard practice on Proof-of-Stake blockchains. Because staking secures the network, preventing sudden, massive withdrawals is crucial for maintaining overall stability. While waiting can sometimes be frustrating, these responsible withdrawal limits are actually a strong indicator of a healthy, secure ecosystem.
Unstaking times vary across blockchains, ranging from a few minutes to several weeks. During this time, most protocols stop paying out yield. However, Sceptre for Partisia is a notable exception: your rewards keep rolling in, even during the cooldown phase.
So, why is the wait time 14 days? Because Sceptre isn’t a standalone blockchain, we delegate your MPC to validators on the Partisia Network, which pays out rewards every Wednesday. Partisia’s standard unstaking wait time is inherently 7 days. However, due to the way the network processes pending acceptances, it can sometimes take up to 14 days to fully clear. To keep things simple and predictable for you, we’ve standardized Sceptre’s official cooldown period at 14 days.
How does Flare’s cooldown period compare to other networks?
Cooldown periods vary wildly across networks, as you can see in this table that collects some of the largest proof of stake blockchains:
Network | Cooldown / Unstaking wait period (days) |
Mina (MINA) | Immediately (source) |
Cardano (ADA) | Immediately (source) |
Sui (SUI) | Immediately (source) |
Casper (CSPR) | ~14 hours (source) |
Solana (SOL) | Up to 3 days (source) |
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) | Up to 3 days (source) |
Polygon (POL) | 3-4 days (source) |
Binance (BNB) | 7 days (source) |
Kusama (KSM) | 7 days (source) |
Partisia (MPC) | 7 days minimum |
Tezos (XTZ) | 10 days (source) |
MultiversX (EGLD) | 10 days (source) |
Ethereum (ETH) | ~13 days (source) |
Sonic (S) | 14 days (source) |
Avalanche (AVAX) | 14 days (source) |
Osmo (OSMO) | 14 days (source) |
Flare (FLR) | 14 days (source) |
Cosmos (ATOM) | 21 days (source) |
Injective (INJ) | 21 days (source) |
Sei (SEI) | 21 days (source) |
Kava (KAVA | 21 days (source) |
Celestia (TIA) | 21 days (source) |
Dymension (DYM) | 21 days (source) |
Akash Network (AKT) | 21 days (source) |
Zeta Chain (ZETA) | 21 days (source) |
Fetch.ai (FET) | 21 days (source) |
Cronos (CRO) | 28 days (source) |
Polkadot (DOT) | 28 days (source) |
Aptos (APT) | Up to 30 days (source) |
dYdX (DYDX) | 30 days (source) |
How to circumvent Sceptre for Partisia’s 14 days cooldown period
If you can’t wait the 14 days unstaking period required on Sceptre, you can always swap your sMPC for a token of your choice on Partisia’s zkCross Exchange. The exchange currently allows you to swap your sMPC for MPC, ETH, POL, BNB, CFR and the stable coins USDT and USDC.
What are the downsides of circumventing the 14 days cooldown period?
As expected, the ability to circumvent the cooldown period comes with a couple of downsides, otherwise we would be able to offer the ability to immediately unstake on Sceptre:
You may lose some rewards - rewards on Partisia are distributed every Wednesday and added to the Sceptre pool, thus increasing the sMPC:MPC exchange rate. By swapping your sMPC before a Wednesday, you’ll be missing out on the rewards that increase the exchange rate despite having contributed to it while staked.
The protocols’ exchange rate - another potential downside of swapping is the exchange rate, which may differ from the one you’ll get by untaking on Sceptre. On Sceptre, the exchange rate is predictable and not subject to market volatility: it goes up every Wednesday, when the latest rewards are added to the pool. On an exchange, you are subject to the forces of the market and may get a lower or a higher exchange rate than the one on Sceptre, which results in less or more MPC than what you could get by unstaking.
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