Solana Liquid Staking Tokens and Pools

Every liquid staking token, by size

Liquid or direct: what actually differs

A liquid token stays tradeable while it earns, which is its whole point, and the pool takes a cut for it. Right now the median token pays 4.82%, while the network's own issuance yield is 4.89%. Those measure different things: 4.89% is what inflation pays stakers before any commission, whereas a token's figure is what it actually returned — issuance plus whatever MEV tips and priority fees its validators passed through, already net of the pool's cut. So treat 4.89% as a line rather than something to subtract: 6 of the 12 tokens that report a yield clear it, which usually means they pass tip and fee income through; the rest come in below it. The number to act on is the spread: pSOL at 5.45% against dzSOL at 3.76%, 1.69 points apart. Neither route is safer in the abstract: with a token you carry the pool’s smart-contract risk and the chance it trades below the stake behind it, with a direct delegation you carry your validator’s performance and a wait to unstake. If you delegate directly, the ranking shows who runs well and our guide explains what to look at.

What this counts, and what it does not

It counts SOL that sits behind a liquid staking token — you deposited SOL, you hold a receipt token, the stake works for you. It does not count SOL delegated directly to a validator, which is the larger share of the network. So the number here is not “how much of Solana is staked”; it is how much of the staked SOL chose a token instead of a direct delegation.

What the bars add up to

Every liquid staking token is stacked here, and the last band, “Other tokens”, carries the long tail (dozens of them are too small for the source to name separately). So the bars add up to the whole of liquid staking rather than to a selection of well-known names. The same total can be cut a second way, by the pool program that issues each token: SPL, Sanctum, Marinade and Lido. That cut is the daily table below; it is the same SOL counted differently, never something to add on top.

FAQ

Why do the yields differ so much between tokens?

Four things move them. Whether the pool insists its validators run the MEV-sharing client, which adds tips. Whether those validators pass priority fees through instead of keeping them — the largest and least discussed of the four. The pool’s own cut. And the validator set it delegates to, since a pool spread across weak operators earns less before any fee is taken. Only the first two can lift a token above the network’s plain issuance yield. The APY column above is what each token actually returned, already net of the pool’s cut and with no protocol token emissions mixed in; a headline rate quoted elsewhere may include emissions that can stop at any time.

Can a liquid staking token be worth less than the SOL behind it?

The redemption value only goes up — one token is redeemable for a little more SOL each epoch — but the market price can sit below it. When many holders want out at once, the instant route is a swap rather than a redemption, and a discount of a couple of percent is ordinary under stress. The patient route avoids the discount: withdrawing through the pool returns the token’s on-chain value, less the pool’s own withdrawal fee. It matters most if the token is posted as collateral, where a deeper discount can trigger a liquidation.

Why is this measured in SOL rather than dollars?

Because a dollar chart answers a different question. Value locked in dollars rises when the SOL price rises even if every holder is withdrawing, and falls in a sell-off even if deposits are flat. Counting SOL shows whether stake is actually arriving or leaving. The share tile does the same job for scale: 12.45% of all staked SOL, a ratio no exchange rate can move.