01 · BasicsHow SOL staking actually works
Solana is secured by validators who stake SOL. When you stake, you lend your SOL’s weight to a validator, and in return you share in the rewards that validator earns.
Staking rewards on Solana come from three places. The largest has historically been protocol inflation: new SOL issued each epoch and distributed to stakers. Solana’s inflation schedule began at 8% and declines by 15% each year toward a long-term floor of 1.5%. On top of that, validators earn MEV tips, which some clients and staking programs, notably Jito, pass through to stakers, and a share of transaction fees, since priority fees go entirely to the block-producing validator.
Validators charge a commission on the rewards they earn for you. Two validators with the same performance can pay noticeably different yields simply because their commission differs. Performance matters too: a validator that is often offline or slow earns less, and so do its delegators.
The calculator above lets you test how much SOL you would accumulate at a given APY over several years, with or without compounding. Its starting APY is only a placeholder: enter the current rate your wallet or LST issuer shows, because Solana staking yields change with inflation, network fees and MEV activity.
02 · How-toNative staking, step by step
Native staking is the most direct route. Your SOL never leaves your control in the sense that it sits in a stake account your wallet owns; you simply delegate its voting weight.
Get SOL into a self-custody wallet
Buy SOL on a regulated exchange and withdraw it on the Solana network to a wallet such as Solflare, Phantom or Backpack. Keep a small amount unstaked for transaction fees.
Open the staking section
Most Solana wallets have a staking tab. Solflare, for example, lets you stake natively to any validator.
Choose a validator
Look at commission, uptime, and how much stake the validator already has. Spreading stake to smaller, well-run validators helps decentralization; avoid ones with sudden commission jumps.
Delegate and confirm
Enter an amount and sign. The wallet creates a stake account and delegates it. The stake becomes active from the next epoch.
Monitor and, eventually, unstake
Rewards are added to the stake account each epoch, so they compound automatically. To exit, deactivate the stake; it unlocks at the next epoch boundary, and then you withdraw the SOL back to your main balance.
The trade-off is liquidity. Staked SOL cannot be swapped, lent or deposited into a pool while it is delegated, and getting out takes until the end of an epoch. For long-term holders who never touch DeFi, that is often fine.
03 · Liquid stakingWhat liquid staking tokens change
A liquid staking token wraps staked SOL into a transferable token. You keep earning staking rewards and can still trade, lend or provide liquidity with your position.
When you deposit SOL into a liquid staking protocol, it stakes that SOL across one or more validators and mints you an LST. Rather than paying rewards as new tokens, nearly all Solana LSTs let rewards accumulate in the exchange rate. If one LST is worth 1.08 SOL today, it might be worth slightly more next epoch. Your token count stays fixed; its SOL value rises.
Exit instantly
Sell the LST on a DEX in seconds instead of waiting for an epoch, usually at a small discount to its redemption value.
Use it in DeFi
Deposit LSTs as collateral, or pair them with SOL in pools where they keep earning staking yield underneath.
Many validators
Many LST protocols spread stake across several validators, reducing reliance on any single operator.
The cost is an extra layer of smart-contract risk and a protocol fee taken from rewards. Each LST issuer has its own fee structure and validator selection rules, so the effective yield differs slightly between them.
04 · CompareComparing the main Solana LSTs
The LST market on Solana is crowded. A handful of tokens dominate liquidity and DeFi support, and those are the ones you are most likely to see in Meteora pools.
| Token | Issuer | What sets it apart | TVL |
|---|---|---|---|
| JitoSOL | Jito | Passes MEV tips to holders | ~$1B |
| mSOL | Marinade | Also runs a native staking product | ~$0.2B liquid |
| JupSOL | Jupiter | Sanctum-powered LST | ~$0.5B |
| INF | Sanctum Infinity | Multi-LST pool, adds swap fees | ~$0.2B |
| BNSOL | Binance | Exchange-issued LST | ~$1B |
Marinade’s native staking product holds more TVL than its liquid mSOL, and Sanctum’s validator LSTs collectively hold well over a billion dollars. TVL is a measure of adoption, not safety, but deep TVL usually goes hand in hand with deeper DEX liquidity, which matters when you want to exit quickly.
INF works differently from the others. It is backed by a pool of several LSTs and earns both their staking yield and the fees from swaps between them, so its return depends partly on LST trading activity.
05 · MeteoraHow LSTs are used in Meteora pools
Pairing an LST with SOL is one of the most natural liquidity positions on Solana. The two assets move almost in lockstep, so the main source of LP pain, divergent prices, is largely absent.
A JitoSOL–SOL or mSOL–SOL pool lets you earn swap fees on top of the staking yield already embedded in the LST half of your position. Traders use these pools to move between SOL and LSTs, and arbitrageurs keep the pool price close to each LST’s redemption value.
Where you will find them
- DAMM v1 stable pools. Meteora’s legacy Dynamic AMM includes a stable-curve family designed for tightly correlated assets, including SOL–LST pools that are depeg-aware. Stable pools charge 0.01% per swap and pass 100% of it to LPs. DAMM v1 is now listed as a legacy product, so new pools are created elsewhere, but existing ones still operate.
- DLMM pools with a small bin step. Because the price ratio barely moves, a narrow bin step concentrates your liquidity around the true exchange rate. One nuance: the LST’s price against SOL creeps upward every epoch, so a very tight range slowly drifts out of position over weeks or months.
Fees in these pools are modest by design: low volatility means low fee tiers. The appeal is a stable, layered return of staking yield plus swap fees rather than a dramatic APR. For how pool fees are earned and estimated, see our guide to earning fees as a Meteora LP.
06 · RisksRisks to understand before you stake
Staking is lower risk than most DeFi, not risk-free. Each layer you add, from native stake to an LST to a pool, adds its own failure modes.
| Risk | Native stake | Holding an LST | SOL–LST pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOL price falls | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Validator underperforms | Yes | Diluted | Diluted |
| LST protocol bug | No | Yes | Yes |
| De-peg on DEXs | No | If you sell | Yes |
| Pool contract risk | No | No | Yes |
A de-peg is the scenario to think hardest about. If an LST suddenly trades well below the SOL it can redeem for, sellers dump it into SOL–LST pools, and LPs end up holding more of the discounted token. The discount may close once redemptions catch up, or it may not, if something is genuinely wrong with the issuer.
07 · How-toFrom SOL to an LST position on Meteora
If you want staking yield plus swap fees, here is the full path in order. Take it slowly the first time.
Acquire an LST
Either stake SOL directly through the issuer’s site, or swap SOL for the LST on a DEX. A direct mint usually gets you the exact redemption rate; a swap may be faster and can be slightly better or worse.
Verify the mint
Compare the token’s mint address in your wallet with the issuer’s official documentation.
Find a SOL–LST pool on meteora.ag
Search for the LST and look for pools paired with SOL. Compare TVL, volume and fee tier between options.
Set a range that respects the drift
In DLMM, cover the current exchange rate with enough headroom above it to allow for the LST’s slow appreciation. A full-range or stable pool avoids the issue entirely.
Deposit, then check periodically
Low-volatility positions need little attention, but check monthly that you are in range and that the LST still trades close to its redemption value.
- Kept enough unstaked SOL for fees and position rent.
- Chosen an LST with deep liquidity in case you need to exit.
- Understood that LP fees and staking yield both fluctuate.
- Recorded your entry exchange rate to measure results later.
