Earn rewards - User guide
Everything you need to know to earn rewards with Merkl
Before your start
Make sure you understand:
The difference between an opportunity and a campaign
Key terms: daily rewards, APR, and TVL
How the Merkl App is structured
All yield opportunities from protocols and chains distributing rewards through Merkl are available on the Merkl App.
How to get started
1. Explore opportunities
Visit the Merkl App and browse the available opportunities to find the one that suits you best. You can filter by chain, protocol, category, status, and more for an easy overview.
2. Check campaign details
Select an opportunity and review campaign details such as APR, TVL, daily rewards, end date, and distribution strategy.
Make sure to check the eligibility rules (e.g., blacklist, health factor) to confirm you qualify for rewards.
3. Interact with the protocol
Use the CTA button on the opportunity page to interact directly with the incentivized protocol (e.g., supply, lend, borrow).
Always do your own research (DYOR) before investing and ensure you trust the protocol you’re interacting with.
Merkl is non-custodial. No funds are held in Merkl smart contracts. You interact directly with the protocols, while Merkl tracks your onchain activity and distributes rewards accordingly.
The main risks when using Merkl come from the underlying protocols, which may have smart contract vulnerabilities or operational issues that could put your funds at risk.
Merkl is not responsible for any issues arising from incentivized protocols running campaigns on the platform.
4. Start earning rewards
Once you’ve interacted with the protocol, you’ll start earning rewards automatically. No staking or additional onchain actions are required.
5. Claim your rewards
Visit your Merkl dashboard to track and claim your rewards. Ensure you are connected with the same wallet used to interact with the protocol. Make sure to claim all your rewards within a year of receiving them!
Rewards usually show up in your dashboard around 8 hours after you interact with the protocol, giving Merkl time to calculate and distribute them. Check the Status page for details on reward distribution per chain.
Advanced features
Rewards on Merkl do not increase block by block, but can be claimed at a frequency which depends on the chain. You can check the claim frequency on the Status page.
Note that, by default, rewards can only be claimed by the address that earned them. You can however approve an operator to claim on your behalf by calling the function toggleOperator on the distributor smart contract. However, rewards will still be sent to the original address that earned them.
So to sum up, assuming Alice earned the rewards:
by default only Alice can claim and rewards are sent to Alice.
by calling
toggleOperator, Alice can allow Bob to claim on her behalf. Then, Bob can claim for Alice by sending Alice's proof to the contract, and rewards are then sent to Alice.
If you can't call toggleOperator and are stuck, please open a tech ticket in our Discord , the team may be able to call it on your behalf.
Claiming from a multisig
When claiming rewards from a multisig address, we recommend delegating the claim process to an operator. This is because Merkl reward proofs are only valid for on average four hours (varies depending on the chain). If you fail to gather the necessary signatures and execute the claim transaction before a Merkle root is updated, your claim transaction will fail.
Claiming as an operator
Currently, when you're connected to the Merkl frontend with an operator address, you only see rewards earned by that operator address—not by the addresses that have appointed it.
To claim rewards on behalf of another address using an operator, you'll need to bypass the frontend and use the Merkl API directly. For example, you can retrieve the Merkle proof for a specific user and chain by calling: https://api.merkl.xyz/v4/users/0xA9DdD91249DFdd450E81E1c56Ab60E1A62651701/rewards?chainId=1
This response will include the Merkle proof data needed to submit a claim. You can then use this information to call the claim function on the Merkl Distributor contract via a block explorer or directly onchain.
To structure the claim:
users: Provide the address(es) you're claiming on behalf of. If claiming for multiple tokens, repeat the user address for each token.tokens: List the token addresses you're claiming.amounts: Use the amount field from the Merkl API response for each token.proofs: Include the Merkle proof array for each token, also retrieved from the API.
Address Remapping
If a smart contract you use can’t claim rewards, ask the Merkl team to remap those rewards to a claimable wallet by reaching out on Discord with the campaign ID, source address, and destination address. The full walkthrough lives in the Reward Forwarding guide.
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