Voting incentives
Voting incentives reward voters who support a specific market, directing AQUA emissions toward it — funded by projects or by the protocol itself.
A voting incentive is a reward attached to a specific Stellar market on aqua.network/vote to incentivize voters. Voters on markets with voting incentives receive daily payouts for as long as the market stays incentivized.
There are two types of voting incentives:
Protocol voting incentives — funded automatically from AMM trading fees, paid to voters on high-volume markets.
External voting incentives — submitted by anyone to boost votes for a specific pair.
External voting incentives
Primarily project owners who want AQUA holders to vote for markets related to their token — but any user can create a voting incentive to influence markets in their interest. Markets with voting incentives consistently attract more votes, since voters earn passive income for supporting them.
Voting incentives can be assigned to any Stellar market.
Since June 2026, AQUA emissions are limited to assets whitelisted in the Asset Registry. Creating voting incentives for non-whitelisted markets remains possible, but won't lead to any AQUA rewards for that market.
A market can carry voting incentives in multiple assets at once, though AQUA is the most commonly used token.
Markets with voting incentives are marked in the UI and collected under the With Voting Incentives tab on the voting page.
How voting incentives work
Creation. A claimable balance is created with a marker for the market with voting incentives and the reward tokens used to pay voters.
Collection. New voting incentives can be created until 18:00 UTC on Sundays for the following week. At 19:00 UTC on Sundays, Aquarius collects and validates all voting incentives for the coming week.
Distribution. Approved voting incentives are distributed linearly from Monday to Sunday. Snapshots and payouts happen at random times each day to keep things fair — keep your votes on the market with voting incentives around the clock, since adjusting them can mean missing a snapshot.
Requirements and validity
Minimum voting incentive size: 100,000 AQUA per week (no maximum).
On collection, Aquarius performs a validity check by purchasing 100,000 AQUA from the offered tokens via a path payment — this ensures voting incentive tokens hold real value. The purchased AQUA plus the remaining reward tokens are distributed to voters.
Example: a voting incentive of 1,000 USDC with AQUA at $0.003 — at collection, 300 USDC converts into 100,000 AQUA, and voters on the market receive the 100,000 AQUA plus the remaining 700 USDC.
Rejected voting incentives are refunded to the sender.
Using voting incentives
Voting incentives level the playing field: any Stellar market can be incentivized, with no infrastructure on your side.
No coding — voting incentives are created directly from the Aquarius interface; vote tracking and distribution are handled by the protocol.
Open participation — the process is permissionless for projects and individuals alike.
Guaranteed payouts — distribution is automatic; voters who lock their AQUA receive the promised rewards.
Transparency — all voting incentives are visible on vote.aqua.network, with payout details and schedules.
Flexibility — voting incentives can be paid in any Stellar asset, including your own token, and a single market can carry several voting incentive assets at once.
To create a voting incentive, follow the walkthrough: Creating voting incentives.
To earn voting rewards as a voter, see Voting for Markets.
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