# What is Marinade Finance? Solana Liquid Staking Explained

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**Publisher:** Decentralized Finance Publication (https://decentralized-finance.io)
**Author:** Kaiser Khan
**Category:** Top DeFi Protocols
**Updated:** June 2026
**Trust:** Independent, ad-free editorial research. No display advertisements, no paid protocol coverage, no affiliate-driven rankings.

## Summary

Marinade Finance lets you stake SOL without running a validator and receive mSOL — a liquid staking token usable in lending, DEXes, and DeFi on Solana. Marinade delegates across a decentralised validator set and charges a ~6% fee on staking rewards. mSOL is widely accepted on Kamino, Jupiter, and Raydium. The MNDE token governs validator selection and incentives.

Marinade Finance is the dominant liquid staking protocol on Solana. Users deposit SOL and receive mSOL, which represents staked SOL plus accrued rewards. mSOL can be used throughout Solana DeFi — as collateral on Kamino, in liquidity pools, or swapped back to SOL via Jupiter.

Marinade uses a decentralised delegation strategy across hundreds of validators to improve network decentralisation versus single-validator staking.

## mSOL in DeFi

- Lending collateral on Kamino and other Solana lenders
- LP pairs on Raydium and Orca (mSOL/SOL)
- Instant unstake via Marinade liquidity pool (fee applies) or delayed native unstake
- MNDE incentives for staking and governance participation

## Frequently Asked Questions

- What is mSOL? mSOL is Marinade's liquid staking token — exchange rate vs SOL increases as staking rewards accrue.
- Marinade vs Jito? Marinade focuses on mSOL liquid staking; Jito adds MEV tips to staked SOL via JitoSOL.
- How do I stake SOL with Marinade? Deposit SOL at marinade.finance and receive mSOL immediately.
- Is Marinade safe? Marinade has operated since 2021; risks include smart contract bugs, validator slashing, and mSOL liquidity risk.

## Sources

- [Marinade](https://marinade.finance): Official Marinade staking interface
- [Marinade Docs](https://docs.marinade.finance): Technical documentation
- [Marinade on DeFiLlama](https://defillama.com/protocol/marinade-finance): TVL analytics

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