Analysis of Major Participants in the Solana Stake Field

With the cryptocurrency market recovering, Solana (SOL) has risen to become the sixth largest digital asset by market capitalization, with its staking assets ranking second among all Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchains, only behind Ethereum. However, the total locked value (TVL) of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications in the Solana ecosystem is only $1.137 billion, which is still far from its historical peak.

In the composition of Solana's TVL, liquid staking projects occupy an important position and are key factors in driving the recovery of TVL. Among them, Marinade and Jito stand out as leaders in this field with the highest TVL. This article will delve into the important participants in the liquid staking field of Solana and conduct a comparative analysis of their strategies and market performance.

Solana Stake Market Overview

As of December 12, the market value of SOL is $30.53 billion, with a staked market value of $27.62 billion, a staking ratio of 69.18%, and a staked amount of 391 million SOL. The inflation rate is 6.75%, and the reward rate is 6.87%. The staked market value of SOL ranks second among PoS public chains, second only to ETH; the staking ratio is also relatively high among major PoS public chains.

The Solana network has a total of 1986 validators, with the top-ranked validators offering close to 8% APY and no commission.

To enhance network security and resistance to censorship, the Solana Foundation has launched the "Stake Pool Program". Users can deposit SOL into the stake pool to receive SPL tokens representing their shares, namely the liquid staking token (LST). Data shows that the stake pool has locked 16.82 million SOL, accounting for approximately 4.3% of the total staked amount, with an average APY of 6.68%.

Analysis of Major Liquidity Staking Projects

Marinade Finance

Marinade is the earliest liquid staking protocol in the Solana ecosystem, launched on the mainnet in August 2021. Users can stake SOL to receive mSOL, with staking rewards directly accumulating in mSOL. Marinade also offers native staking services, allowing users to earn staking rewards without using smart contracts.

• Stake Amount: 7.058 million SOL
• TVL: $777 million (highest in Solana ecosystem)
• Stake yield: 6.543%
• 30-day stake volume growth: 31.22%

The governance token MNDE has a circulating market cap of 85.99 million USD and a total market cap of 356 million USD.

Jito

Jito launched a liquid staking platform at the end of 2022. Users can stake SOL to receive JitoSOL, and the earnings are directly accumulated in JitoSOL. Jito also developed MEV infrastructure for the Solana network, with a portion of MEV earnings distributed to JitoSOL holders, thus providing relatively high staking rewards.

• Stake Amount: 6.38 million SOL
• TVL: $455 million
• Stake Yield: 6.892%
• 30-day stake volume growth: 17.77%

The circulating market value of the governance token JTO is $342 million, with a total market value of $2.973 billion.

BlazeStake

BlazeStake was launched in May 2022 and has rapidly developed recently due to the overall rise of the Solana ecosystem. Users can stake SOL to earn bSOL. BlazeStake mainly uses the official staking pool smart contract from Solana Labs, which has the largest set of validators and allows users to stake liquidity to specific validators.

• Stake Amount: 1.52 million SOL
• TVL: 108 million USD
• Stake yield: 6.232%
• 30-day stake volume growth: 177%

The governance token BLZE has a total market value of 38.84 million dollars.

Lido

Lido launched its liquid staking service on Solana in September 2021. Although it dominates in ETH liquid staking, it has not performed well on other chains. Lido announced in October that it would stop accepting new stakes on Solana. Users staking SOL can receive stSOL.

• Stake amount: 887,000 SOL
• TVL: 63.4 million USD
• Stake yield: 6.717%
• 30-day stake volume change: -41.43%

The governance token LDO has a circulating market cap of 2.095 billion USD and a total market cap of 2.356 billion USD.

The Application of LST in DeFi

Various LSTs are widely supported in the Solana DeFi ecosystem. The main lending protocols marginfi and Solend support mSOL, JitoSOL, and bSOL as collateral, but have delisted stSOL.

In the DEX Orca, the liquidity of the mSOL/SOL and bSOL/SOL trading pairs exceeds ten million dollars, and there are also direct trading pairs between mSOL and bSOL. The liquidity of Jito/SOL and stSOL/SOL is relatively low.

The increase in staking volume and DEX liquidity may be related to project incentives. Blaze offers the highest incentives, with a 15.37% APR subsidy in BLZE for Solend deposits. Marinade provides a 1.98% APR subsidy in MNDE. Jito has not launched an incentive program yet, and Lido has exited the market due to the nearly complete distribution of its tokens.

Summary

There are various representative liquid staking solutions in the Solana ecosystem, all supported by DeFi projects. Marinade, as a pioneer, provides native staking services; Jito offers higher returns through MEV infrastructure; BlazeStake allows staking to specific validators; Lido represents multi-chain liquid staking services.

However, the total amount of liquid staking is still relatively small, accounting for only 4.3% of all staked SOL. The diversification of solutions has also led to dispersed liquidity, and more competitive solutions may emerge in the future.

Incentive measures are crucial for the growth of staking volume and DEX liquidity. Although Blaze has the smallest reputation, it has achieved rapid growth in staking volume through substantial subsidies. In contrast, Lido has chosen to exit the Solana market due to its inability to continue subsidizing.