SOL Staking Product Puts Marinade, Solana’s Major Protocol, at the Forefront of Growth

Marinade Finance, the leading protocol on Solana, is introducing a groundbreaking service called “Marinade Native.” This new feature will allow users to stake SOL tokens directly to validators, alongside their existing mechanism for issuing mSOL, the liquid staking token (LST).

SOL Staking Product Puts Marinade, Solana’s Major Protocol, at the Forefront of Growth

The primary advantage of Marinade Native is that it eliminates the smart contract risk associated with swapping SOL for mSOL, while still offering an attractive yield of around 7%.

Unlike traditional staking methods where users receive a yield-infused depository receipt, Marinade Native allows users to maintain custody of their SOL tokens, providing them with more control and security over their assets. This development is expected to further increase the adoption of Marinade Finance, which already holds a substantial $167 million in crypto assets, accounting for over half of Solana’s total value locked (TVL).

Marinade Native is basically targeting the 50-times bigger market and hoping to see more decentralization within staking on Solana.

Michael Repetny

Although Marinade’s liquid staking solution has been successful, its growth has seemingly reached a plateau at 2% of the network’s SOL. To address this, the protocol aims to appeal to institutional investors who may be hesitant to deal with LSTs. Staking SOL directly to a diversified index of top validators, known as automated staking, is a new feature that sets Marinade apart. This approach allows investors to capture the benefits of Solana’s proof-of-stake blockchain, earning interest by supporting the validators powering the network.

With its innovative features, including both automated staking and the issuance of mSOL, Marinade Finance is positioning itself as an attractive platform for staking and generating yields on the Solana blockchain.

While Solana has made significant strides in adopting liquid staking, it still lags behind Ethereum, the leading blockchain for DeFi and staking protocols. The disparity in adoption rates can be attributed to the technological distinctions between the two chains and their respective approaches to unlock periods.

Additionally, approximately 60 million SOL tokens are currently locked in vesting contracts, which cannot be utilized with liquid staking solutions. Despite this limitation, Marinade Native offers a unique opportunity for these locked tokens to earn yield. By using Marinade Native, SOL holders with locked tokens can still benefit from the protocol’s attractive yield offerings, even if they cannot participate in liquid staking due to their vesting agreements.