Liquid Staking

Liquid staking lets you stake SOL to help secure the network and earn staking rewards, while receiving a liquid token (an LST) that represents your staked position. Unlike native staking, which locks your SOL for an unbonding period when you want it back, an LST can be traded, used as collateral, or deployed elsewhere in DeFi while your underlying SOL keeps earning staking rewards in the background.

Protocols like Jito, Marinade, Sanctum, and BlazeStake each issue their own LST (jitoSOL, mSOL, and others) and handle delegating the underlying SOL to validators on your behalf, distributing rewards, and managing validator selection and slashing risk.

How to evaluate a liquid staking protocol

• Validator set and decentralization. How the protocol selects and distributes stake across validators affects both your yield and the network’s overall decentralization. Concentrated stake is a systemic risk, not just a protocol-level one.
• LST liquidity. An LST is only as useful as the markets that will accept it. Deep liquidity on major DEXs and acceptance as collateral in lending markets both matter if you want to actually use the token, not just hold it.
• Peg mechanism and history. LSTs are designed to trade near their underlying SOL value (adjusted for accrued rewards), but they can and do trade at a discount during stress. Understand whether the peg is enforced by redemption rights, arbitrage, or both.
• Fees. Protocols take a cut of staking rewards; this varies by protocol and changes over time — check current rates directly.

The main risk: depeg

An LST trading below its fair value relative to SOL — a depeg — can happen during periods of high redemption demand, validator issues, or general market stress. It’s usually temporary and self-correcting through arbitrage, but if you need liquidity at the wrong moment, it’s a real cost. Our LST depeg risk guide covers the mechanics in more detail.

New to this entirely? Start with our complete guide to Solana liquid staking or the practical walkthrough of staking SOL via Jito.