Solana’s upcoming Alpenglow upgrade could mark a turning point for the network’s staking economy. (CoinDesk)Summary
As the Solana ecosystem is preparing for the upgrade to come at the end of this year or in early 2026, Repetny shares how he thinks this shift could expand validator participation and improve decentralization, even as higher hardware demands loom.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Solana’s upcoming Alpenglow upgrade could mark a turning point for the network’s staking economy. CoinDesk sat down with Michael Repetny, CEO of Marinade Labs, the firm that supports Solana’s liquid staking protocol Marinade, to discuss how the update aims to change the economics of running a validator on Solana, significantly lowering the barrier to entry.
As the Solana ecosystem prepares for an upgrade at the end of this year or in early 2026, Repetny shares his thoughts on how this shift could expand validator participation and improve decentralization, even as higher hardware demands loom.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
CoinDesk: Talk to me about the state of Solana staking – what are the most pressing issues right now in this area, in your opinion?
Michael Repetny: So when we started Marinade, there were 700 validators on Solana, with 11 of them big enough to potentially halt the network.
Then we launched Marinade during the first few years, the number of validators grew to 2000 so it looked great. Right now we are below 1000 validators again active on Solana.
I think there are other signals [on the health of Solana staking]. Another way of looking at it is if you look at the concentration of the stake, which is, if you get one-third of that stake to shut down, Solana stops working.
It takes right now around 20 of the biggest violators to do that, or also it takes two countries and it takes two data centers right now. Those are like different ways to look at it. So, it is not ideal.
We would rather see hundreds of bad quality validators than thousands of them with people just running potatoes.
And with the ETFs and with institutional interest, I think that centralization is becoming a greater risk.
At Marinade, we’re trying to make sure that we have a viable option for validators to stake in a responsible way.
Solana has a major upgrade coming called Alpenglow. How will it affect the staking ecosystem?
We are hopeful, and it should impact the staking and validator economics. There is a proposed change to just cut down the vote fees for validators (vote fees are incurred by validators when they vote on processing SOL on the blockchain). So this is a huge one, because right now, if you want to run a validator, just to get it started, you need to pay about $5,000 a month.
Of those $5,000, about $4,000 is spent on just the voting fees. So as you can see, 80% of the cost today to spin up your validator is vote fees. Alpenglow aims to turn the vote fees to be much less. This is super exciting, and should make it much more accessible to start their own validator because the cost will go down
Will there be any changes to Solana validator rewards?
One way to look at it is to cut the cost of running a validator. Alpenglow is really about increasing the bandwidth and reducing latency.
We hope to see more saturated blocks when we pack them better, which should also improve the economics of the validators by packing the blocks.
Another benefit to that would be that if you increase the bandwidth and reduce the latency, then there is a shorter time for arbitrage and malicious maximum extractable value (MEV). This means if there's less time to manipulate the ordering of the transactions, there's going to be less toxic and malicious MEV happening, which is great for users.
Are there any tradeoffs for validators with Alpenglow?
Maybe eventually the hardware cost might go up. There may be a higher requirement on the end validators to make sure that they still keep up with the network, as there will be more transactions coming in. Maybe with the more requirements on them, there could be a trade-off. Other than that, I don't know. There will be problems, but we have to see once we are there.
How does Alpenglow tie back to Marinade’s mission?
It makes it more accessible to spin up just more validators. The threshold for being break-even is way lower.
So Alpenglow is coming at the end of the year or maybe early next year – is this going to be a really big transformation or just another upgrade? And where does Solana head after that?
It's one of the pieces that need to be sorted out for Solana to be and stay competitive with things like Hyperliquid or decentralized exchanges.
Solana is working on fixing the protocol with Alpenglow, fixing the infrastructure with new projects like DoubleZero, fixing the software clients and optimizing Firedancer. All those things, hopefully now, are all coming together.
A six-month timeframe might not be enough for the results to show, but once it's out there, it's hopefully going to unlock use cases that wouldn't be available on Solana at present.
Hopefully, there will be more economic activity, which should translate to more revenue, and hopefully that pie grows.
Read more: Solana Set for Major Overhaul After 98% Votes to Approve Historic 'Alpenglow' Upgrade
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Bloomberg ETF analysts confirm Fidelity Solana ETF (FSOL) and Canary Marinade Solana ETF (SOLC) to launch on Tuesday. With the launch, the crypto industry will have five spot Solana ETFs to trade, but SOL price keeps dipping despite inflows in SOL exchange-traded funds.
Fidelity Solana ETF (FSOL) Waives Fees for 6 Months According to an SEC filing on November 18, Fidelity Solana ETF has waived 0.25% for a period of six months. In addition, the issuer will also bear the staking fee on all staking rewards generated from the first $1 billion assets.
The ETF becomes auto-effective with an 8-A filing and gains approval from NYSE Arca to list shares under the ticker symbol FSOL, according to US SEC filings.
Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said the Fidelity Solana ETF is slated to launch on November 18. The trust has set a management fee of o.25%.
“Easily the biggest asset manager in this category with BlackRock sitting out,” he added. BlackRock has denied interest in launching any ETF beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs currently. Bloomberg analyst Balchunas quoted the launch amid continuous inflows as “Game on” as Bitwise’s BSOL has almost $450 million in assets under management.
ETF Prime host Nate Geraci revealed that the world’s third-largest asset manager Fidelity now has both direct SOL access and spot ETFs.
Fidelity recently rolled out *direct* spot solana trading…
Tomorrow they’ll launch spot sol ETF.
So both direct sol access & spot ETFs.
World’s *third* largest asset manager.
Welcome to the future.
Still surprised BlackRock sitting this one out. pic.twitter.com/h4JqUHMYB2
— Nate Geraci (@NateGeraci) November 18, 2025
Canary Marinade Solana ETF (SOLC) Launches Today In addition to the Fidelity Solana ETF, the Canary Marinade Solana ETF also gains approval from the Nasdaq to list shares under the ticker symbol SOLC, as per a CERT filing with the US SEC.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart claims that Canary Capital, in partnership with Marinade Finance, to launch the SOLC on Tuesday. Marinade is the SOL staking partner. It has a management fee of 0.50%, with no waiver announced yet.
SOL Price Rebounds SOL price has tumbled by more than 20% in a week despite continued inflows into Solana ETFs. With nearly $400 million in total inflows in Solana ETFs, VanEck Solana ETF (VSOL) launched on Monday to join others.
Solana tumbled 9% today, with the price currently trading at $134.35. The 24-hour low and high are $129.02 and $142.47, respectively.
However, it recorded more than 3% rebound from the 24-hour low. Trading volume has increased by 60% in the last 24 hours, indicating a rise in interest among traders in response to the Fidelity Solana ETF launch.
CoinGlass data showed buying sentiment in the derivatives market in the past few hours. At the time of writing, the total SOL futures open interest jumped 0.61% to $7.43 billion in the last 24 hours. The 4-hour SOL futures open interest climbed nearly 2%.
TLDR VanEck Solana ETF (VSOL) launched Monday with waived 0.3% fees until February 17 or $1 billion in assets Fidelity Solana ETF (FSOL) and Canary Marinade Solana ETF (SOLC) both launched Tuesday Grayscale Dogecoin ETF expected to launch November 24 pending SEC response Combined Solana ETFs have attracted over $380 million in inflows despite SOL price dropping 20% weekly SEC’s September listing standard changes enabled faster crypto ETF approvals without individual assessments The cryptocurrency market witnessed a wave of new exchange-traded fund launches this week. VanEck’s Solana ETF began trading Monday while Fidelity and Canary Capital followed with their own Solana funds on Tuesday.
VanEck’s VSOL joined existing Solana ETFs from Bitwise and Grayscale that debuted in late October. These three funds have collectively attracted over $380 million in investor capital.
The new VanEck fund offers staking yields similar to its competitors. Investors’ Solana tokens are locked on the blockchain to earn rewards through the staking process.
VanEck has waived its 0.3% management fee until February 17 or until the fund reaches $1 billion in assets. This temporary fee waiver aims to compete with existing funds charging 0.25%.
Fidelity Enters the Market Fidelity’s Solana ETF launched Tuesday on NYSE Arca under the ticker FSOL. The fund charges a 0.25% management fee matching most competitors in the space.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noted Fidelity is the largest asset manager in this category. BlackRock has chosen to sit out and has expressed no interest in launching ETFs beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Canary Capital partnered with Marinade Finance to launch their Solana ETF on the same day. The SOLC fund trades on Nasdaq with a 0.50% management fee.
Marinade Finance serves as the staking partner for Canary’s fund. The company has not announced any fee waivers at this time.
The Securities and Exchange Commission changed its listing standards in September. These new rules allow for faster approvals without requiring individual assessment of each fund.
Dogecoin ETFs on the Horizon Grayscale’s Dogecoin ETF could launch as early as November 24. The fund triggered a 20-day launch window after filing amendments earlier this month.
The Grayscale Dogecoin Trust would convert from its existing fund structure. It plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker DOGE.
This would be the first US Dogecoin ETF able to directly hold the memecoin. REX Shares and Osprey Funds launched a DOGE ETF in September but it holds cryptocurrency through an offshore subsidiary.
Bitwise filed for its own spot Dogecoin ETF on November 6. The filing triggered another 20-day launch timer that could see the fund go live late next week.
Solana’s price has fallen despite strong ETF inflows. The token dropped 20% over the past week and 9% in 24 hours before rebounding slightly.
Solana Price on CoinGecko SOL currently trades at $134.35 after touching a 24-hour low of $129.02. Trading volume increased 60% in the last 24 hours.
Bitwise’s BSOL fund has accumulated almost $450 million in assets under management. The combined inflows demonstrate investor appetite for cryptocurrency exposure through regulated products.
Derivatives data from CoinGlass showed buying sentiment returning in recent hours. Total SOL futures open interest rose 0.61% to $7.43 billion in the past 24 hours.
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According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has fallen below $60,000, with a 4.3% drop in the past 24 hours.
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US Treasury Secretary: AI boom may boost productivity and help curb inflation.
US Treasury Secretary Bessent told CNBC in an interview that he hopes the Federal Reserve will remain "open-minded" about the inflation pattern after the reversal of Iran-related energy price hikes. Bessent noted that the U.S. could enter an economic environment marked by high GDP growth without a corresponding rise in traditional inflation. He cited that in the 1990s, Alan Greenspan foresaw that office modernization and the internet could drive non-inflationary growth, and allowed the economy to keep expanding. Bessent believes the U.S. has a strong chance of seeing a similar scenario again. When asked whether the Fed still needs to worry about potential inflation and whether interest rate cuts are possible this year or next, Bessent declined to comment. However, he argued that it is necessary to stay open-minded about the price or inflation impacts from the Iran conflict, and monitor inflation performance after those effects subside. Bessent also said an open mind is needed, as the AI boom could boost productivity and deliver disinflationary effects, helping inflation return to the Fed’s target level. He added that he believes Kevin Warsh will choose the optimal path that meets both the Fed’s inflation and growth mandates. Bessent also noted that Warsh previously took a hawkish stance on inflation.
6 hours ago
US stocks' intraday storage sector sees broad declines, with Western Digital and Seagate Technology both falling over 4%.
According to Bitget data, during U.S. stock trading hours, the storage sector saw broad declines: Western Digital (WDC) fell 4.47%, Seagate Technology (STX) dropped 4.17%, SanDisk (SNDK) declined 2.31%, and Micron Technology (MU) edged down 0.96%. Most optical communication concept stocks rose, with Corning (GLW) leading the gains at 9.75%, followed by Ciena (CIEN) up 3.24%, Coherent (COHR) rising 2.93%, Lumentum (LITE) gaining 2.61%, and Nokia (NOK) advancing 1.82%. Additionally, Marvell Technology (MRVL) fell 2.59% and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) declined 1.90%.
6 hours ago
During intraday trading in U.S. stocks, crypto-related concept stocks fell broadly, with MSTR dropping more than 7%.
According to Bitget market data, the three major U.S. stock indexes rose broadly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.94%, the S&P 500 increased 0.60%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.63%. Crypto-related stocks fell across the board, with declines as follows: Strategy (MSTR) down 7.33%; Circle (CRCL) down 4.35%; Bitmine (BMNR) down 3.97%; Coinbase (COIN) down 3.73%; Robinhood (HOOD) down 3.70%; Gemini (GEMI) down 3.27%; Bullish (BLSH) down 3.25%; Sharplink (SBET) down 3.19%.
Fidelity Investments and Canary Marinade have launched new spot exchange-traded funds tracking Solana, expanding regulated investor access to one of the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystems. Fidelity’s fund, listed under the ticker FSOL on NYSE Arca, introduces a low-cost entry point with a management fee of 0.25 percent. Canary Marinade’s offering, SOLC, debuts on Nasdaq with a 0.50 percent fee and a staking-enabled structure in partnership with Marinade Finance. The launches bring the total number of U.S. spot Solana ETFs to five, signalling escalating institutional interest in altcoin-focused investment products.
Both fund issuers enter the market at a time of heightened volatility for Solana. Despite increased inflows into existing Solana ETFs, the asset has experienced meaningful price pressure, reflecting shifting risk sentiment and a broader retracement across crypto markets. Even so, the introduction of additional regulated vehicles demonstrates accelerating demand for alternative digital-asset exposure beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Staking, fees and product structure Fidelity and Canary Marinade have taken distinct approaches in designing their Solana ETFs. Fidelity’s FSOL prioritises affordability and broad accessibility, underpinned by a straightforward spot-Solana structure. Its 0.25 percent management fee positions it competitively among crypto ETFs, aiming to attract long-term investors seeking cost efficiency.
In contrast, Canary Marinade’s SOLC distinguishes itself with a staking-enabled model that integrates with Marinade Finance’s established staking infrastructure. By converting Solana staking rewards into potential additional returns for fund participants, SOLC targets yield-oriented investors looking for enhanced exposure. The higher 0.50 percent fee reflects this expanded functionality.
These launches coincide with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s newly implemented generic listing standards for spot crypto ETFs. The revised framework streamlines the approval process and allows national exchanges to list such products through a standardised rule set rather than a bespoke filing process. This regulatory evolution has enabled faster time-to-market for alternative crypto ETFs, fuelling innovation across the sector.
Market outlook and investor considerations The arrival of two new Solana ETFs provides investors with diversified options for accessing the asset through regulated markets. Early inflow data suggests that institutional interest remains strong despite Solana’s recent price decline. Market participants appear to be positioning ahead of a potential recovery, drawn by Solana’s high throughput, low transaction costs and expanding ecosystem of consumer-facing applications.
Nonetheless, key risks remain. Solana’s volatility, the operational complexity of staking mechanisms and broader macroeconomic uncertainty may affect fund performance. For investors evaluating these new products, fee structure, staking risk and liquidity considerations will play a central role in portfolio construction.
The combined launch of FSOL and SOLC signals a maturing landscape for altcoin investment products. As regulated infrastructure expands, Solana’s presence within institutional portfolios may strengthen, offering a broader range of exposure pathways for both traditional and digital-native investors.
BitGo has recently partnered with Canary Capital for the roll-out of its Canary Marinade Solana ETF (SOLC), which is a spot ETF that incorporates Marinade’s staking protocol to provide investors with exposure to Solana (SOL) while participating in the network’s staking rewards.
This launch marks a key milestone, as BitGo’s infrastructure now offers the foundation that transforms Canary Capital’s and Marinade’s product into an accessible, regulated financial product.
Canary Capital has reportedly established itself as a force in the digital asset space, “bringing a collection of ETFs to market.”
BitGo has served as the operational foundation for these launches, highlighting the platform’s “security, scalability, and operational maturity.
As the Solana ecosystem continues to expand, the launch of SOLC confirms market demand and offers institutions and investors “a regulated pathway to engage with the network’s performance and activity.”
SOLC is built on the technical achievement of integrated regulated qualified custody with “the dynamic nature of a decentralized protocol.”
BitGo Trust Company, Inc. (BitGo Trust) provides the operational framework that safeguards the fund’s SOL while also “enabling its investors to earn staking rewards directly from regulated qualified custody.”
BitGo Trust’s multi-layer security and $250M in insurance in the event of loss, theft, or misuse of keys, combined “with Marinade’s decentralized staking model delivers confidence to investors.”
With Marinade’s model, staked assets are distributed “across a broad validator set and maintains liquidity for SOL within the Solana network.”
This allows the funds to participate in staking rewards while “preserving alignment with Solana’s design principles, maintaining liquidity and operational simplicity.”
The launch of SOLC builds on Canary Capital’s ETF updates, including the Canary Litecoin ETF (LTCC), Canary HBR ETF (HBR), and Canary XRP ETF (XRPC). Each product relies on BitGo’s infrastructure to meet “the security and scalability requirements of institutional-grade offerings.”
The partnership between BitGo, Canary Capital, and Marinade establishes how regulatory compliance can now be “achieved in the digital asset market and showcases a multi-faceted achievement bringing digital assets mainstream worldwide. ”
SOLC is a spot Solana ETF launched by Canary Capital. It provides exposure to SOL while participating in “staking rewards through Marinade’s staking protocol.”
As mentioned in the announcement, BitGo Trust Company, Inc. serves as Canary Capital’s qualified custodian, providing “regulated custody, multi-layer security, and support for staking-related operational workflows.”
As stated in the blog post, SOL is held in SOLC and staked via Marinade, which distributes stake “across validators and returns staking rewards to the ETF structure.” This allows the fund to “reflect network activity while maintaining liquidity and operational simplicity.”
As explained in a blog post by BitGo, Solana reportedly offers high throughput, low transaction costs, and “broad developer adoption across payments, DeFi, and onchain applications.”
SOLC is designed to align with these “network characteristics.”
As clarified in the update , SOLC does not use derivatives or synthetic exposure.
Rather, it is said to be “structured to hold spot SOL.”
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Solana’s staking ecosystem accelerated in 2025, driven by both retail users and institutions. Native staking remained the dominant pillar, supported by elevated yields during the 2024–2025 cycle. Marinade, as one of the pioneers in this field, grew in native staking. Its native staking product consistently delivered high performance, with peak APY reaching double digits (11.64%) during November 2024 and remaining competitive through 2025.
Liquid staking tokens also continued their upward trajectory in 2025, increasing from roughly 11% of all staked $SOL in early 2025 to over 14% by October. During this period, $JitoSOL, $dzSOL, and $bnSOL grew significantly, while $mSOL shifted to fifth place. This shift highlights intensifying competition among LSTs and signals a broader strategic recalibration for Marinade as market dynamics evolve.
Shift Toward Native Staking in 2025 Marinade’s overall staking footprint rebounded as $SOL’s market recovery gained momentum. By Q3 2025, its total staked $SOL surpassed 10M, but the more significant development was the clear shift toward Native staking, which overtook the protocol’s LST segment and established itself as the dominant component.
While LSTs continued to offer meaningful advantages, enhancements to delegation infrastructure, refined reward mechanisms, and the introduction of features such as instant unstake enabled the Native segment to demonstrate materially stronger and more sustained growth.
Speaking to SolanaFloor about this shift, Michael Repetný, co-founder of Marinade Finance, explained the dynamics behind this transition:
“Institutions and retail alike still prefer safety and security over liquid staking. Marinade launched with Bitgo integration and another native staking integrations to be announced soon, so we expect that trend to follow. While we do have an exciting product for mSOL too to be announced with an ecosystem partner. So we shall see what product wins in 2026.”
Institutions Enter the Staking Layer 2025 marked a turning point for institutional adoption. Asset managers and custodians are increasingly integrating staking into their products, beginning with ETPs and eventually expanding into treasury allocations. VanEck’s staking-enabled Solana ETP signaled the first wave of TradFi interest, addressing dilution concerns by incorporating staking yield directly into fund performance.
Rapid Institutional Growth of Marinade Select Marinade became a central infrastructure partner for institutions. Marinade Select, the protocol’s enterprise‑grade staking service, offered a curated validator set with audited performance, slashing protection, and strict operational standards. Partnerships with BitGo, Zodia, and Copper strengthened this positioning.
By mid‑2025, Marinade Select had become the designated staking backend for institutional products, including the Canary Solana ETF (SOLC). Corporate adoption accelerated, and by November 2025, Marinade Select’s TVL surpassed 3.1M $SOL (~ $436M), representing a threefold growth within the month. Notably, this expansion occurred in less than six months, underscoring the rapid pace at which institutions adopted Solana staking through Marinade’s infrastructure.
When asked about the current sentiment among institutional players toward Solana staking yields, associated risks, and the scale of allocations they are now prepared to deploy, Repetný offered his perspective:
“Everyone is cautious but def more open towards more risky products like LSTs and DeFi, which is a slight shift since the new administration. There's extreme margin compression in the institutional space, leaving validators with close to zero upside since the alternative for the institution is to spin up their own node themselves. What's going to be interesting is how the institutions adapt to a more versatile environment with multiple MEV engines like Harmonic, Paladin etc.”
Institutional Staking Becomes Marinade’s New Growth Engine Marinade’s core business historically centered on liquid staking through $mSOL, but the rapid rise of its institutional‑grade product signals a major market shift. With Marinade Select surpassing 3.1M $SOL in TVL by November 2025, the growth trajectory suggests this segment may soon become the primary pillar of the protocol’s business.
A key question arises: why do institutions continue to choose Marinade Select despite its comparatively lower APY? Repetný provided a more formal perspective on the institutional considerations driving this shift:
“Marinade Select is a KYC-only product built on top of known and reputable community validators, making it a superior choice to decentralize Solana in the best way possible, avoiding sybils and questionable validators, while staying competitive in yield. We expect Select APY to be on par with self-staking yield very soon, with more announcements to come.”
Outlook Solana’s staking ecosystem enters 2026 with growing indications that institutional staking may become the dominant trend of the next cycle. Native staking remains essential for network security, while liquid staking continues to support DeFi activity. However, institutional‑grade staking is rapidly emerging as a strategic pillar of the ecosystem. Marinade’s evolution from a liquid staking pioneer to a leading institutional partner through Marinade Select positions it as a major contributor to this shift. The protocol’s ability to offer vetted validators, operational assurances, and compatibility with custodial infrastructure underscores why institutions increasingly rely on it.
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Amidst undeniably choppy markets, Solana’s staking landscape continues to show strength and resilience.
Despite $SOL dropping 47% in the last 3 months, investors are steadily growing their stake in the network, with LST adoption hitting all-time highs and the chain’s staking rate reaching its highest point since January 2024.
Solana’s staking boom continues to benefit the network’s OG operators, like Marinade Finance, which has grown the TVL of its institutional staking product, Marinade Select, by 60% in six months.
Solana Staking Rate Hits 2-Year High As institutional interest circles the crypto industry, investors are adding $SOL to their staking accounts at record levels. According to Blockworks data, over 425.7M $SOL, the highest-ever $SOL-denominated figure, is now staked to the network.
This brings Solana’s Stake Rate to its highest point since January 2024 at just over 68.9%, dominating the staking rate of rival networks. Comparatively, competing Layer-1s chains like Ethereum and BNB Chain have far lower staking adoption rates of 30% and 18.4%, respectively.
Additionally, Solana’s liquid-staking rate is showing no signs of slowing down. Despite the influx of institutional capital flowing into Solana ETFs, liquid staking continues to gain ground, rising to new all-time highs of 15.64%.
Staking providers like Marinade, who offer optimized native and liquid staking services through its Stake Auction Marketplace, are ideally positioned to capture this flow. With staking adoption increasing across the network, Marinade’s specialized offerings are trending upwards.
Marinade Select TVL Up 60% In Six Months Aimed at institutional investors, Marinade Select offers a curated stake pool of KYC-verified, reputable, SOC-2 compliant validators. By offering a premium validator set, Marinade establishes itself as a trusted staking operator for institutional players seeking reliable yield on their $SOL holdings.
In the last six months, Marinade Select’s $ SOL-denominated TVL has increased by 87.13%, rising from 863k $SOL in July 2025 to over 1.6M $SOL in January 2026. This growth is supported by Solana ETF growth, with issuers like Canary Capital opting to stake their $SOL holdings through Marinade Finance.
Over $1.1M Committed to $MNDE Buybacks Since August In August 2025, Marinade Finance debuted its buyback program, promising to allocate 50% of protocol revenue towards repurchasing $MNDE and directly value flow to token holders. Since the launch of the mechanic, over $1.17M worth of $MNDE has been taken off the market and sent to the DAO treasury.
More recently, Marinade DAO has moved away from buybacks to grow $mSOL liquidity. Since passing MIP-17 in December, Marinade DAO has paused $MNDE buybacks, instead directing these funds to growing liquidity in $mSOL, the protocol’s LST.
Since the change, $mSOL supply has increased by around 22.3k tokens. This brings the total supply to to 2.54M $mSOL, valued at around $434M USD and capturing 5.18% of Solana’s LST market.
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For years, Marinade Finance has been one of Solana’s most reliable staking operators, enabling $SOL holders to earn optimized yield on their stake.
Today, Marinade Finance expands its offering to include $USDC rewards. Joining forces with RockawayX and Kamino, Marinade is launching its proprietary stablecoin savings product, enabling users to earn up to 6% APY on $USDC deposits.
The launch echoes a wider trend playing out across the DeFi economy, wherein crypto natives are storing their wealth onchain regardless of market dynamics.
Marinade’s $USDC Vault to Target 4-6% APY The Marinade USDC Vault is a stablecoin savings product that lets users earn yield on $USDC without leaving the Marinade ecosystem. The vault targets a variable 4-6% APY on deposited $USDC, with yield subject to prevailing market conditions.
Moving out of staked $SOL into cash can be a cumbersome affair. Offramping to fiat costs the average user around 2% in compounded fees, and can sometimes take several days.
Seeing that around 75% of its unstakers are seeking to exit to USD, Marinade Finance has designed a stablecoin vault that seeks to capture this value flow. In one click, users can shift capital directly from staked $SOL into a yield-bearing $USDC vault, with fiat off-ramping expected in future updates.
Upon deposit to the Marinade vault, users receive an SPL share token representing their position, which remains transferable and redeemable at any time.
"Instead of losing users through a painful off-ramp process, we're giving them a reason to stay. With Kamino powering the infrastructure and RockawayX managing the strategy, users get solid yield with the simplicity Marinade is known for." - Michael Repetny, Marinade Finance CEO
In times of market uncertainty, Marinade’s stablecoin vault becomes a powerful tool for DeFi users who want to limit their exposure to volatile assets, while continuing to earn yield onchain.
RockawayX to Manage Vault Strategy Marinade’s $USDC vault is built on a three-layer stack, collaborating with some of the names in Solana DeFi.
RockawayX, an investment firm with deep ties to the Solana ecosystem, will manage the vault’s yield strategy. Overseeing the vault’s day-to-day operation, RockawayX will allocate and actively rebalance capital to ensure consistent yield.
At press time, RockawayX has communicated its intention to run a conservative mixed-market strategy, allocating funds across Kamino’s lending markets, Maple’s institutional credit markets, and various similar RWA products.
While RockawayX handles strategy, Marinade owns and controls the vault outright, with its Council multisig (3 of 5) holding ultimate authority. Marinade can add or remove modules, replace the vault manager, adjust configuration, or initiate a wind-down at any time, and RockawayX is unable to withdraw funds to external wallets.
“Our job is to underwrite every allocation properly and rebalance when conditions move. We've run market-neutral strategies through every major stress event since 2022 with zero defaults. That's the standard we're applying here.” - Nassim Alexandre, RockawayX Head of Onchain Asset Management and Curation
Kamino Finance provides the underlying infrastructure through the Kamino Buildkit, and is built upon Kamino’s Lend product, including smart contracts, lending markets, NAV accounting, and the share token mechanics. Solana’s biggest DeFi lender, Kamino has successfully completed 18 independent audits and suffered zero bad debt since the platform launched in 2022.
Solana Stablecoin Supply At All-Time Highs The launch of Marinade Finance’s stablecoin vault coincides with the emergence of a new trend in onchain markets. Previously, the end of a crypto bull cycle would typically result in an exodus of capital, with market participants moving their funds offchain to store their wealth in fiat.
That appears to be changing in 2026. While asset prices continue to slide amidst languishing market conditions, traders and investors are choosing to keep their funds onchain, taking advantage of a wealth of yield bearing opportunities in the stablecoin economy.
In the collapse of the 2021 bull market, Solana’s stablecoin supply remained largely unchanged as $SOL plummeted from $250 to around $30, before capitulating entirely towards the end of the year. This time around, Solana’s stablecoin supply has expanded in the face of declining asset value, suggesting market participants prefer to store their wealth across Solana DeFi.
Marinade’s $USDC vault seeks to capture this value flow, enabling its users to continue to earn reliable yield on their assets, without needing to leave the Marinade ecosystem.
Anchorage Digital has integrated Marinade Finance into its platform, allowing institutional clients to stake Solana tokens through automated validator strategies while maintaining custody of their assets.
According to Thursday’s announcement, the integration gives clients direct access to Marinade’s staking strategies within Anchorage’s custody and wallet infrastructure, including its Porto self-custody wallet, without requiring external applications.
The setup separates staking delegation from withdrawal control, allowing institutions to participate in validator selection and yield generation while retaining asset control.
Clients can choose between two staking strategies: one that allocates across a curated set of roughly 30 KYC-verified validators for compliance-focused use cases, including regulated financial products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Another dynamically distributes stake across a broader validator set spanning hundreds of operators to optimize yield.
The integration is available through Anchorage Digital’s platform and its Porto wallet, where staking, custody and asset management functions are combined within a single interface.
Anchorage Digital is a San Francisco-based crypto custody provider that operates the first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States. In January, it was reported to be seeking between $200 million and $400 million in new funding as it considers a potential initial public offering next year.
Institutional yield strategies expand from staking to Bitcoin DeFiInstitutions are increasingly seeking yield on crypto holdings without moving assets out of custody, as staking gains traction among asset managers and product issuers.
In February, Ripple expanded its custody platform through integrations with Securosys and Figment, enabling banks and custodians to offer staking without running validators or managing keys, with support across on-premises and cloud environments and built-in compliance checks.
The following month, Anchorage Digital integrated with Puffer Finance to offer liquid restaking on Ethereum, allowing clients to stake Ether (ETH) and receive pufETH, a transferable token representing a restaked position that continues earning rewards.
While staking -- that is, earning rewards for securing a network -- was traditionally limited to proof-of-stake assets, similar yield strategies are emerging for Bitcoin (BTC) via decentralized finance (DeFi) integrations.
Lombard recently teamed with Bitwise Asset Management to enable institutions to earn yield and borrow against Bitcoin without moving assets out of custody, combining DeFi lending and tokenized real-world assets with infrastructure from Morpho.
Similarly, Fireblocks has integrated Stacks to provide institutional access to Bitcoin-based lending and yield, using faster block times while settling transactions on Bitcoin for finality.
Magazine: Adam Back says current demand is ‘almost’ enough to send Bitcoin to $1M
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Anchorage Digital has integrated Marinade Finance into its platform, allowing institutional clients to stake Solana tokens through automated validator strategies while maintaining custody of their assets.
According to Thursday’s announcement, the integration gives clients direct access to Marinade’s staking strategies within Anchorage’s custody and wallet infrastructure, including its Porto self-custody wallet, without requiring external applications.
The setup separates staking delegation from withdrawal control, allowing institutions to participate in validator selection and yield generation while retaining asset control.
Clients can choose between two staking strategies: one that allocates across a curated set of roughly 30 KYC-verified validators for compliance-focused use cases, including regulated financial products such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Another dynamically distributes stake across a broader validator set spanning hundreds of operators to optimize yield.
The integration is available through Anchorage Digital’s platform and its Porto wallet, where staking, custody and asset management functions are combined within a single interface.
Anchorage Digital is a San Francisco-based crypto custody provider that operates the first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States. In January, it was reported to be seeking between $200 million and $400 million in new funding as it considers a potential initial public offering next year.
Institutional yield strategies expand from staking to Bitcoin DeFiInstitutions are increasingly seeking yield on crypto holdings without moving assets out of custody, as staking gains traction among asset managers and product issuers.
In February, Ripple expanded its custody platform through integrations with Securosys and Figment, enabling banks and custodians to offer staking without running validators or managing keys, with support across on-premises and cloud environments and built-in compliance checks.
The following month, Anchorage Digital integrated with Puffer Finance to offer liquid restaking on Ethereum, allowing clients to stake Ether (ETH) and receive pufETH, a transferable token representing a restaked position that continues earning rewards.
While staking -- that is, earning rewards for securing a network -- was traditionally limited to proof-of-stake assets, similar yield strategies are emerging for Bitcoin (BTC) via decentralized finance (DeFi) integrations.
Lombard recently teamed with Bitwise Asset Management to enable institutions to earn yield and borrow against Bitcoin without moving assets out of custody, combining DeFi lending and tokenized real-world assets with infrastructure from Morpho.
Similarly, Fireblocks has integrated Stacks to provide institutional access to Bitcoin-based lending and yield, using faster block times while settling transactions on Bitcoin for finality.
Magazine: Adam Back says current demand is ‘almost’ enough to send Bitcoin to $1M
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.
Anchorage Digital has partnered with Marinade Finance to offer Solana staking to its institutional clients. The Polymarket contract for Solana reaching $150 during April 13-19 is priced at 100% YES.
Market reaction
The Solana price market for April 13-19 shows no recorded trading volume in the last 24 hours. The 100% YES odds reflect full trader confidence that the threshold has already been met or will be, but the absence of active trading suggests no one sees an edge at current pricing. The integration itself has not triggered any measurable shift in betting activity.
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Why it matters
Anchorage holds a federal bank charter, which makes it one of the few crypto custodians operating under a national banking framework. Adding Marinade Finance’s liquid staking to that infrastructure gives institutional allocators a regulated path into Solana staking. At 100% YES, the April 13-19 contract leaves no room for upside on the YES side. A contrarian NO position would pay out at long odds but carries obvious risk given current pricing.
What to watch
Track whether Anchorage discloses staking inflows or new institutional client activity tied to the Marinade integration. Any large on-chain staking deposits through Anchorage’s infrastructure would be the clearest signal that the partnership is generating real capital flows. Changes in Solana-related Polymarket volume would also indicate whether traders begin pricing in new institutional demand.
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Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
PANews reported on June 16 that, according to SoSoValue data, the SOL spot ETF saw a total net inflow of $2.8086 million yesterday (June 15, Eastern Time).
The SOL spot ETF with the largest net inflow yesterday was the Fidelity Solana Fund ETF (FSOL), with a single-day net inflow of $2.6587 million, bringing its total historical net inflow to $192 million.
The second largest net inflow was into the Canary Marinade Solana ETF (SOLC), which saw a net inflow of $149,900 in a single day, bringing its total historical net inflow to $1,360,700.
As of press time, the SOL spot ETF has a total net asset value of $861 million, an SOL net asset ratio of 1.98%, and a cumulative net inflow of $1.127 billion.
Yield farming has become one of the most reliable ways for investors to make crypto assets work for them 24/7 while they sleep or engage in other things. Metrics shared today by market analyst Satoshi Club examined the world of DeFi yield farming, highlighting outstanding farming pools, helping investors understand which pools deserve their investment. As per the data, yield farming has become a strong investment strategy, helping users earn passive income while supporting the decentralized network’s operations and security. This enables people to earn higher yields and unlock access to yield opportunities in DeFi.
Best DeFi Farming Yields Lista DAO Lista DAO, a DeFi protocol that integrates stablecoin minting, liquid staking, and token governance through its native LISTA token, is at the top of the list. According to the data, Lista DAO’s liquidity pool, sLISBNB, is currently the best-performing yield farming pool that offers the highest APY yield of 10.80%. slisBNB is a liquid staking service that allows investors to participate in various DeFi activities while at the same time earning staking rewards.
DeFi JUST Second on the list is DeFi Just, a decentralized lending protocol that allows users to earn through various financial services. As per the data, its liquidity pool, USDD, is currently the second-best performing yield farming pool that provides investors with an APY yield of 9.39%.
0xfluid Lite 0xfluid Lite, a vault that enables investors to stake any amount of ETH and provides them with an efficient and user-friendly staking experience, followed. The market analysis identified its liquidity pool, ETH, as the third-ranked yield farming pool, which currently offers a 7.67% APY yield to users.
Marinade Finance Marinade Finance, a Solana-based non-custodial staking platform that allows users to stake SOL tokens and earn yields, secured the fourth position. Its liquid staking product, mSOL, has been identified as another outstanding liquidity pool, currently providing investors with an APY yield of 7.33%.
Morpho V1 Fifth on the list is Morpho V1, a vault that enables users to automate earning yield in DeFi. The analysis recognized its liquidity pool, STEAKUSDC, as providing the fifth-best farming yield, currently offering an APY yield of 6.75% to investors.
Other Top Market Performers Other yield faming pools that also offer outstanding annual percentage yields (APYs) include Morpho V1 (SPARKUSDC), Maple Finance (USDC), Drift Protocol (dSOL), Jito SOL (JITOSOL), and Maple Finance (USDT), as further illustrated in the data.
AUTHOR
Nicholas Otieno is a fintech writer specializing in cryptocurrency markets. Since 2019, he has written articles to educate readers about cryptocurrency and its substantial positive impact on global prosperity. Nicholas is a Bitcoin holder, believing firmly in its fundamentals. His work has been featured in publications such as Finance Magnates, Blockchain.News, Bitcoin Magazine, Coincub, and among others. When he's not writing, Nicholas enjoys performing domestic tasks, spending time with friends, listening to music, and watching football.
