Solana Staking Guides
Learn how to stake SOL, how rewards and APY really work, where to delegate, and how to unstake — practical guides that keep more of every reward in your pocket.
How to Stake Solana
Stake SOL natively from Phantom, Solflare or a Ledger in minutes, keep your keys, and earn around 5.6% APY.
Read the guide →Native vs Liquid Staking
Native delegation or an LST like JitoSOL or mSOL? Control and auto-compounding versus instant liquidity and DeFi.
Read the guide →Staking Rewards & APY
What really drives your yield: inflation, MEV and fees, how APY is calculated, and why it keeps compressing.
Read the guide →How to Choose the Best Validator
Commission, uptime, skip rate, vote credits and MEV pass-through: the metrics that separate the best validators from the rest, plus red flags.
Read the guide →How to Unstake Solana
Deactivate, wait out the rest of the epoch, then withdraw, or skip the wait. Every exit option compared.
Read the guide →Best Solana Validators
A live ranking of the best Solana validators by independent Wiz Score — commission, MEV, uptime and APY compared, updated every epoch.
See the ranking →Staking Calculator
See your SOL staking rewards per epoch, month and year, compounded, in SOL and USD, with live network data.
Open the calculator →Solana On-Chain Metrics
Live daily charts built from chain data: how much validators earn in SOL, staking flows and network activity.
See the charts →Where to start
New to staking? Begin with how to stake Solana — it walks through native delegation from Phantom, Solflare or a Ledger step by step. Then read how staking rewards and APY work to see what actually drives your yield, and how to choose a reliable validator before you delegate. Weighing control against liquidity? Compare native and liquid staking. And when you need your SOL back, unstaking takes a short cooldown — or none at all.
Every guide is written by the team behind Stake.Cake, an active Solana mainnet validator, and updated as the network changes.
Solana staking FAQ
Is staking Solana worth it?
For long-term SOL holders, usually yes. Staking pays around 5.6% APY, rewards land every epoch (about 2 days) and compound automatically, and your SOL stays in a stake account you control. You can unstake after the rest of the epoch, under two days, so the commitment is light — model your numbers with the staking calculator.
Is staking SOL safe?
Native staking is non-custodial: SOL never leaves a stake account you control, and Solana does not currently slash stake for ordinary downtime, so the practical downside is reduced rewards rather than loss of principal. The main risks are SOL's market price, lost yield from a poorly run validator and, for liquid staking, smart-contract and depeg risk.
How much can I earn staking Solana?
Around 5.6% APY, depending on network inflation, validator performance, commission and MEV sharing. On 100 SOL that's roughly 5.6 SOL a year before compounding. The rewards guide breaks down the drivers, and the calculator shows per-epoch, monthly and yearly numbers with live network data.