Marinade

Staking

Marinade is a decentralized staking platform native to Solana, allowing anyone to earn yield on their SOL by delegating their tokens to a network of blockchain validators

Risk Rating
Average
Protocol Code Quality
Protocol Maturity
Protocol Design
Summary
What we like
Marinade abstracts away the challenges and risks around maintaining staking infrastructure by allowing users to delegate their SOL to professional node operators.
What we like less
Staking with Marinade assumes greater security risks as the underlying smart contracts may be exploited.
What it means for you
Marinade's leading liquid staking platform allows you to stake your SOL and earn rewards for securing the Solana network while remaining liquid. It is also the most widely accepted across DeFi apps.
Information
Exploit/Hacks
None
Info
  • Website
  • Token: MNDE
  • Tags: Staking
Key Metrics
  • TVL: $878.9M (Rank #26)
  • TVL Ranking by Staking: #0
  • Blockchain: Solana
  • Chain TVL
    • Solana: $878.88M
Risk Assessment
Average
Protocol Code Quality
  • Code reviewed by several experienced auditors including Kudelski, Neodyme, and Sec3
  • Public team promotes accountability
  • No documented protocol hacks since launch
Protocol Maturity
  • Latest protocol version launched in 2023; maturity less than six months increases technical risk as smart contracts are less battle-tested
  • Top 1% by total value locked reduces risk
  • Multisig wallet controls protocol upgrades
  • Multisig consists of at least 4 signers, which means the protocol is less susceptible to centralization risks
  • No timelock exists or no information documented, which mean a malicious actor could approve upgrades without any delay
  • Low voting power concentration reduces risk
Protocol Design
  • No death spiral concerns
  • This protocol is susceptible to risks related to staking a token to secure a network, such as slashing events
Things to know about Marinade

How Marinade works

Marinade allows users to earn staking rewards without locking assets or maintaining staking infrastructure. Users deposit their SOL into Benqi's smart contracts and receive mSOL in return that represent an active balance of the user's staked SOL along with any staking rewards accrued or penalties inflicted on validators. Users can withdraw or redeem their mSOL back for their original SOL at any time, but must wait the unbonding period (1-2 epochs) before claiming..

How Marinade makes money

Marinade generates revenue by charging a 6% fee on the staking rewards earned by depositors. This fee includes the delegator fee paid to the underlying validators. As such, the protocol's revenue is driven by the fee charged, the amount of assets staked, and the yield earned by validators. Marinade also offers an instant unstaking feature that charges a fee that varies between 0.3% and 3%, depending on the total liquidity available in the Marinande pool and the amount to unstake.

How you make money on Marinade

Passive SOL holders can generate additional yield by participating in the PoS validation mechanism to earn block rewards. The unlocked liquidity with mSOL can also be used on a number of popular DeFi protocols to generate additional yield.