Staking and liquid staking
How staking rewards work on Solana, why LSTs grow in value instead of paying out, and how to choose between them.
Validators secure Solana by staking SOL. Anyone can delegate SOL to a validator and earn a share of the rewards without running anything. It's the closest thing Solana has to a base interest rate.
Where the yield comes from
Staking rewards come from three sources:
- Inflation. New SOL issued to stakers. Inflation was 3.82% in mid-2026 and falls 15% a year toward a 1.5% floor. SIMD-0550, passed in August 2026, doubles that pace from early 2027.
- Priority fees and block rewards that validators earn and share.
- MEV tips, which some validators pass on to stakers.
Because only part of SOL is staked, stakers earn more than the inflation rate. Today, liquid staking yields sit around 4.5% to 5.7% depending on the token.
ToolStaking & SOL supplyGrow SOL with compounding, and see the new inflation schedule.Native staking
You create a stake account, delegate it to a validator, and rewards land every epoch (about a day since slots got faster). Unstaking takes until the end of the current epoch. Your SOL never leaves a stake account you control, so there's no smart contract risk beyond Solana itself. The trade-off: staked SOL is locked and can't be used elsewhere.
Liquid staking tokens
A liquid staking token (LST) wraps staked SOL into a token. Deposit SOL into a stake pool, receive an LST, and the pool stakes across many validators for you.
Here's the key idea: LSTs don't rebase. Your balance stays the same; each token becomes worth more SOL over time.
That makes LSTs easy to use anywhere: lend them on Kamino, pair them in a pool, post them as collateral, or swap back to SOL instantly through Sanctum's router.
Choosing an LST
JitoJitoSOL: staking yield plus MEV
SanctumThe home of Solana LSTs
MarinademSOL and native staking across many validators
JupSOLJupiter's liquid staking token
| LST | What's different |
|---|---|
| JitoSOL | Staking plus MEV tips; the most widely accepted collateral. 4% of rewards as fee. |
| INF (Sanctum) | A basket of LSTs that also earns swap fees from Sanctum's LST pool. |
| mSOL (Marinade) | Spread across a large validator set; no deposit or performance fee. |
| JupSOL | Jupiter's validator; deeply integrated in Jupiter Lend. |
Small differences in yield matter less than liquidity (can you exit at fair value?) and integrations (can you use it where you want?). Sanctum's router lets you swap between most LSTs at their fair onchain value, which removes a lot of the lock-in.
Risks
- Smart contract risk in the stake pool program.
- Depeg in stress. In a panic, an LST can trade below its SOL value on DEXs for a while, even though it can still be redeemed at full value over an epoch.
- Leverage on top. LSTs are often looped for higher yield. That's a different risk profile, covered in Leverage and looping.
Key takeaways
- Staking delegates SOL to a validator and earns about 5% a year, paid every epoch.
- A liquid staking token (LST) represents staked SOL and grows in value against SOL.
- LSTs stay usable: swap them, lend them or use them as collateral.
- Differences between LSTs come down to fees, MEV share, validator set and liquidity.
Check yourself
3 questions. Get them all right to mark this lesson complete.
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Facts checked Oct 19, 2026. Educational content, not financial advice.
