Marinade: How liquid staking works on Solana

Have you ever stopped to think about what happens to your SOL when you stake it? In most cases, your money gets “locked” while you wait for rewards. Marinade changes that game.

The problem Marinade solves

Traditional staking = your SOL goes to validators and sits there earning rewards, but you can’t use it anywhere. Frustrating, right? The solution is liquid staking.

Understanding mSOL: Marinade’s trick

When you deposit 100 SOL in Marinade, you get mSOL tokens in return. It’s like a receipt. While your SOL is staked with network validators, you hold mSOL in your wallet.

The best part? You can use mSOL in any Solana DeFi protocol:

• Use as collateral for loans
• Swap on DEXs
• Provide liquidity
• All while accumulating staking rewards

With every Solana epoch (~2.5 days), the value of mSOL increases automatically. Your reward is built right into the token.

How is governance handled?

The MNDE token runs Marinade. If you have locked MNDE, you can:

• Vote on important proposals (fees, protocol direction)
• Approve how validators are chosen
• Take part in treasury decisions

At launch (November 7, 2021), it was a fair launch—no ICO. Lucio Tato, an Argentinian ex-Solana developer, was one of the founders.

The numbers right now

• MNDE price: ~US$0.30 (at the time of writing)
• Market cap: US$75.30 million
• Circulating supply: 255.38 million MNDE
• Total supply: 1 billion MNDE
• Distribution: 7.5% to founders (until January 2024), the rest in the DAO treasury

How the flow works in practice

Entry: SOL → mSOL (automatic via smart contract) While holding: mSOL increases in value (staking rewards) Exit: mSOL → SOL (instant with a small fee OR wait 1-2 epochs for free)

You can also convert your existing stakes to mSOL, making locked assets liquid.

Why use it?

1. Liquidity – your asset isn’t locked up
2. Compounding – mSOL grows on its own
3. Utility – use it throughout the Solana ecosystem
4. Non-custodial – you control your keys
5. Governance – the community decides the direction

Marinade basically unlocks your SOL. Instead of choosing between “stake and earn” OR “use in DeFi,” you get to do both.