# How to Stake SOL with Marinade (2026)

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**Publisher:** Decentralized Finance Publication
**Difficulty:** Beginner · **Read time:** 8 min read

## Summary

To stake with Marinade: visit marinade.finance, connect a Solana wallet, deposit SOL, and receive mSOL immediately. mSOL accrues staking rewards (exchange rate vs SOL increases). Unstake via instant unstake (fee applies) or delayed native unstake (~2–3 epochs).

## Why liquid staking

Native SOL staking locks your tokens. mSOL lets you earn staking yield while using the token as collateral on Kamino or in LP pools on Raydium.

## Step-by-step

### Step 1: Deposit SOL

Connect wallet at marinade.finance. Enter SOL amount and confirm. mSOL arrives instantly.

### Step 2: Use mSOL in DeFi

Supply mSOL on Kamino, add mSOL/SOL liquidity on Raydium, or hold for passive yield accrual.

### Step 3: Unstake when ready

Choose instant unstake (small fee, immediate SOL) or native unstake (no fee, ~2–3 epoch delay).
## FAQ

**Q: mSOL vs JitoSOL?**

mSOL earns standard staking rewards; JitoSOL adds MEV tips — often higher yield. See our Marinade vs Jito comparison.

**Q: Is mSOL safe?**

Marinade has operated since 2021; risks include smart contract bugs, validator slashing, and DeFi composability risk.

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