Hedera (HBAR)
Hedera on Ledger Enterprise: activating an Account before first use, tokens, and how HBAR staking differs from other networks.
How Hedera differs
Hedera is not a blockchain. It runs on a hashgraph, and a fixed group of member organizations, the Hedera Council, governs the network and sets its rates.
Two consequences appear in this product:
An Account must be created on the network before it can hold anything. Every other network here gives you an address you can use straight away.
Fees are priced in US dollars, then converted to HBAR. A fee is therefore steady in dollar terms and variable in HBAR.
For the protocol itself, see the Hedera documentation.
Token coverage
Ledger Enterprise supports HBAR, Hedera Token Service (HTS) tokens, and ERC-20 tokens on Hedera's EVM layer.
A token Account can exist only for a token in Ledger's asset catalog. See Networks and tokens in your Workspace.
An HTS token can carry its own additional fees, set by whoever issued it. Those are the issuer's, not Hedera's and not Ledger's.
Activation before first use
Hedera requires an Account to exist on the network before it can hold or move assets. So a new Hedera Account needs an activation step before you can use it. No other network works this way.
An Administrator does this once, when the Account is created. After that the Account behaves normally and nobody needs to repeat it.
The steps are:
On the Account page, select Activate. The page shows the Account's public key address.
Send funds to that public key address. Send them from an external wallet, or from an activated Hedera Account in your Workspace.
Wait for that transaction to clear. The network then creates the Account address.
Find your transaction on HashScan, the Hedera explorer linked on the page. Copy the Account address it created.
Paste the address into the field on the page.
Select Activate.
The Generic and Hashpack toggle changes the format of the public key address.
Until the Account is active, it cannot send and has no Staking tab.
Important: Copy the address from the explorer record of your own transaction. Do not take it from anywhere else.
How tokens are held
Hedera tokens sit in token Accounts attached to a parent Hedera Account. The parent pays their network fees. This is the standard parent and token Account model described in Finding Accounts and balances.
If a token transfer fails because of fees, add funds to the parent Account.
Some assets need a token activation step before the Account can hold them. This has its own Rule. See Creating and editing Accounts.
Staking
HBAR staking differs from the shared flow in Staking.
Your HBAR never moves
Staking HBAR does not transfer it anywhere. Your balance stays in your Account. Staking only points your Account at a node, which is why several things other networks worry about do not apply here:
Lock-up period
None
Bonding period
None
Time to unstake
Instant
Risk of losing stake to a penalty
None
Because the HBAR never leaves the Account, you keep it available throughout.
Hedera has no slashing. This is from the Hedera documentation on the staking program, checked on 9 October 2026.
You stake the whole balance
You cannot stake part of an Account. Staking applies to the entire balance, and unstaking releases all of it.
Any HBAR that arrives later joins the staking position automatically. You do not have to stake it again.
There is no amount to choose, and nothing to top up.
Changing node
In the interface, you cannot switch node in one step. Once a position exists, Start staking is hidden, and the only action on the position is Unstake. To change node:
Select Unstake on the position.
Wait for that Request to complete.
Select Start staking.
Select the new node.
Through the API, one stake Request to a new node performs the switch directly. See the API documentation.
Unstaking pays out the reward accumulated up to that point. A direct switch through the API does the same.
How rewards are paid
The Hedera Council sets the reward rate.
Rewards do not arrive on a fixed schedule. Hedera pays the accumulated reward into the Account when one of these happens:
You unstake, or switch to a different node through the API.
The staked Account's balance changes.
The Account auto-renews.
The Total rewards tooltip gives the same rule in short: Hedera credits rewards whenever the Account transacts, and at least every 3 months.
If more than 365 days pass without a payment, only the latest 365 days of rewards can be collected. This rule is from the Hedera documentation on staking, checked on 7 October 2026.
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