> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.wisetoken.net/wise-token/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.wisetoken.net/wise-token/wise-ethereum/wise-contract-functionality/circulation-epoch/staking/closing-stakes.md).

# Closing Stakes

A user may close a stake at any time. Depending on the stake's status (where the stake is in its lifecycle), different things will happen:

* Closing a **Pending** stake - the stake shares are destroyed.  The entire stake principal is minted back to the user, without interest or penalty.
* Closing an **Active** (premature) stake - the stake shares are destroyed.  The stake principal is penalized (see below) and minted back to the user along with all interest accumulated thus far.
* Closing a **Mature** stake - the stake shares are destroyed.  The entire stake principal and all interest accumulated is minted back to the user.  There are never any penalties for closing a Mature stake, no matter how late.

The penalty deducted from the principal (staked WISE) when closing an Active stake is as follows:

```
If the stake is one day long:
  penaltyAmount = stakedWise × 0.1
        
If the stake is two or more days long:
  penaltyAmount = stakedWise × (.1 + .8 × ((daysLeft - 1) / (stakedDays - 1)))
```

Thus, if you close an Active stake that was 100 days long on its final day before maturity, you get a 10% penalty applied to the principal.  If you close the same stake on the first day of it being Active, you get a 90% penalty.  The penalty scales linearly between those two extremes.

Any such WISE penalized from a stake's return is earmarked for distribution to all active stake shares that day.  These penalty distributions are only realized by those stakes' shares when each of those stakes end.


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