What Is Marinade Finance? mSOL, Native Staking and How Unstaking Works

Marinade sends stake to validators through its Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM). Each epoch, validators state the highest yield they will deliver to stakers. That yield includes their commission and any extra bid they pay. Marinade ranks them and hands out stake from the top until the stake runs out. Everyone is paid the lowest winning yield (a "last-price" auction) ⁵.

To take part, a validator must lock a bond in SOL. Marinade charges bids and penalties against that bond, which covers stakers if a validator underpays. No single validator can receive more than 15% of Marinade's stake ⁵. Rewards still vary with Solana inflation, MEV and validator performance. The current rate is shown in the Marinade app, not fixed by the protocol.

When you stake into Marinade Liquid, you receive mSOL. Your mSOL balance stays the same. Its value against SOL rises every epoch as rewards come in: the mSOL price equals the total SOL staked divided by mSOL supply ³. You can hold mSOL, use it as collateral, or provide liquidity with it on Solana DeFi apps.

Unstaking mSOL works one of two ways:

• Delayed unstake. You burn mSOL, pay a 0.2% fee, and get a claim ticket. The minimum is 1.0043 SOL. SOL becomes claimable at the start of the next epoch. If you start within the last two hours of an epoch, it arrives one epoch later. You then return to the app and claim ³.
• Instant unstake. You swap mSOL for SOL at once. The docs describe a swap routed through Jupiter with no Marinade fee, though you pay the route's spread and price impact ³. The fee page also lists a Marinade liquidity-pool route charging 0.03% to 1.5%. That fee rises as the pool is drawn down ².

Marinade Native skips the token. Your SOL sits in standard Solana stake accounts. You keep the withdraw authority, and Marinade holds only the stake authority, so it can redelegate but cannot withdraw ⁴. Rewards land in your stake accounts each epoch.

You can start with 1.0046 SOL. Marinade does not create stake accounts under 1 SOL, so small deposits go to fewer validators. The docs suggest 100 SOL or more for full spread ⁴. A delayed unstake costs a flat 0.003 SOL, and your funds unlock after one epoch. An instant unstake sells the position to a market maker. You get a quote before you accept, and the discount is typically 0.10% to 0.40% ²⁴.

• Marinade Select: an invite-only set of vetted validators. They pass business checks (KYB) and post a larger bond. Marinade aims it at regulated entities and large stakers ⁶. As of October 23, 2026, new Select deposits are paused in the app. Existing positions keep earning ⁶.
• Marinade Recipes: stake SOL but receive rewards in another token, such as a stablecoin or BTC. Your principal stays in SOL ⁷.
• Marinade Borrow: borrow against staked SOL. The collateral is always mSOL, and loans are placed on Kamino or Jupiter Lend ⁸. This adds lending-protocol and liquidation risk.
• USDC Earn Vault: a stablecoin vault with a 5% performance fee on net interest ².

Source: Marinade fees page, accessed October 23, 2026 ². Solana network fees and any DEX or wallet charges are extra.

Marinade lists audits by Kudelski Security, Ackee Blockchain and Neodyme in 2021. Neodyme and Sec3 audited the November 2023 upgrade. Neodyme also reviewed the validator bond program in 2024 and further changes in May 2026 ⁹. Audits lower risk but do not remove it. Main risks for users:

• Smart-contract risk in the stake pool, bond and proxy programs.
• mSOL price risk. mSOL can trade below its redemption value on DEXs, especially in a rush to exit.
• Validator performance. Marinade's design shifts most of this to bonds, but the auction rules can have bugs (see below).
• Timing. Delayed unstaking takes at least one epoch.
• Add-on risk. Marinade Borrow and DeFi uses of mSOL add liquidation and third-party protocol risk.

Marinade's terms say its products "may not be available to users in certain jurisdictions" but do not list them ¹¹.

MNDE launched in 2021 with no ICO. The DAO later burned 300 million of the original 1 billion tokens, and no new MNDE can be minted ¹⁰. Holders lock MNDE on Realms to vote, with power based on a lock of up to 30 days. Under proposal MIP-22, 10% of protocol revenue buys MNDE on the market. Those tokens go to holders who have locked MNDE and voted in the past year ¹⁰.