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Solana Staking in 2025: Your Complete Guide to Maximum Rewards and Network Security

Solana staking continues to be one of the most popular and effective ways for SOL holders to earn passive income and play a vital role in securing the Solana blockchain. As of July 2025, with the approval of Solana staking ETFs and rapidly growing institutional and retail participation, more than 67% of SOL’s circulating supply is already staked. Whether you’re new to Solana staking or looking to optimize your rewards, understanding your staking options, yields, and their respective benefits is essential. This comprehensive, step-by-step guide will help you master Solana staking—elevate your portfolio and ensure you’re part of blockchain’s next evolutionary leap. What Is Solana Staking and Why Should You Care? Solana staking is the process of locking up your SOL tokens to support the network’s consensus and security. In return for delegating your assets to network validators, you receive staking rewards—typically between 5.5% and 7.5% APY in 2025, depending on validator performance and overall network conditions. Staking allows SOL holders to generate steady passive income instead of letting their assets sit idle. Additionally, Solana staking boosts the network’s security and decentralization, making it more robust against attacks while incentivizing active community participation. With Solana ETFs drawing billions in new capital and mainstream attention, the benefits of Solana staking—including non-custodial control, flexibility, and multiple staking options—make it an essential tool for portfolio growth. How Solana Staking Works Solana staking is built upon a high-performance proof-of-stake (PoS) model, with the added innovation of Proof-of-History (PoH) for scalability. When you engage in Solana staking, you are delegating your SOL to network validators. These validators bundle and verify transactions on the Solana blockchain. In exchange for supporting network operations, you—and your chosen validator—receive staking rewards generated from token inflation and transaction fees. Stakers never lose custody of their tokens; rather, their SOL is “locked” in a special stake account via their wallet or a liquid staking protocol. You’re always in control of your digital assets, and rewards are automatically paid out at the end of each network epoch (roughly every 2–3 days). The Two Main Types of Solana Staking Native Staking (Delegated Staking) The most straightforward and widely used method is native Solana staking. Here, you deposit your SOL into a stake account and delegate it to a validator of your choice via user-friendly wallets like Phantom or Solflare. Validators play a critical role in verifying and securing the network. With native staking, rewards are added directly to your staked balance every epoch, compounding your earnings over time. You remain in control of your keys and can split your stake among multiple validators to optimize for yield and risk. Liquid Staking For those seeking flexibility and enhanced capital efficiency, liquid Solana staking has become increasingly popular. By depositing SOL into protocols like Jito or Marinade, you receive a liquid staking token (LST) such as jitoSOL or mSOL. Liquid staking tokens represent your share of the underlying staked SOL, and their value appreciates as staking rewards are earned. You can freely trade or use these LSTs in DeFi platforms as collateral or in liquidity pools—allowing you to generate additional yield while your SOL continues to earn rewards in the background. Liquid staking offers near-instant liquidity and advanced DeFi integration, but also comes with some smart contract risk. What Happens When You Stake SOL? Staking SOL either natively or via liquid staking follows a simple process: Native staking: Your SOL is locked in a stake account and delegated to your selected validator(s). After a short activation period (one epoch), your SOL starts earning rewards. When you want to unstake, a similar epoch-long cooldown applies before your SOL can be freely moved or sold. Native staking compels regular compounding and greater control, but SOL remains “locked” unless unstaked. Liquid staking: You deposit SOL into a liquid staking protocol and receive an LST. Your SOL is pooled and staked across multiple validators. You can instantly use your LST for trading, borrowing, or lending, capturing both yield and liquidity. The appreciation of your LST reflects accrued staking rewards, enabling DeFi integrations without the unbonding delay of traditional staking. Both forms of Solana staking reinforce network security, decentralization, and reward participants for their contribution. How Is Solana Staking APY Generated? The annual percentage yield (APY) for Solana staking is primarily generated from protocol inflation and transaction fees. The precise rate you receive depends on network-wide staking participation (higher total staked = lower APY), validator performance, validator commission rates, and—if using a liquid protocol—protocol fees and efficiency as well. In native staking, rewards are compounded directly to your staked balance each epoch; with liquid staking, you accrue yield through price appreciation of your LST relative to SOL. How Long Does Solana Staking Last? One of the hallmarks of Solana staking is its flexibility. There’s no fixed, minimum, or maximum lock-in period—simply an epoch-based delay (about 2–3 days) for staking activation or deactivation. This applies to both native and liquid staking, though liquid stakers can generally trade their LST for instant liquidity in the secondary market at any time. Step-By-Step Guide: How to Stake Solana Follow these steps for a smooth Solana staking experience: Download a Solana Wallet:Install Phantom, Solflare, or your preferred wallet; create your secure seed phrase and password. Fund Your Wallet:Transfer SOL from an exchange like Bitget, or purchase SOL directly through wallet-integrated fiat onramps. Initiate Staking: Open your wallet, select your Solana balance, and click “Start earning SOL.” Choose between native staking and liquid staking. Source: Phantom Wallet For Native Staking: Browse available validators (check commission, reliability, and performance). Enter your stake amount, confirm, and delegate. Your SOL will start earning rewards after the activation epoch. For Liquid Staking: Select a liquid staking protocol (such as Jito or Marinade). Approve the transaction; receive your LST directly in your wallet. Use your LST within DeFi platforms, or hold to simply accrue rewards. Monitor and Manage Rewards:Track your rewards and validator performance in your wallet dashboard. You can unstake or swap your position whenever you need liquidity. Solana Staking vs. Ethereum Staking Both Solana and Ethereum offer attractive staking rewards, but Solana’s process is notably more flexible for small holders—no minimum is required for delegation, transaction fees are minimal, and the staking/unstaking delay is brief. Solana’s liquid staking scene is especially strong, giving DeFi-oriented users even more avenues to maximize returns and liquidity. Solana staking is widely viewed as more accessible than Ethereum’s, with fast activation, low fees, no minimum requirements, and powerful DeFi composability through advanced liquid staking solutions. Conclusion Solana staking empowers every SOL holder to earn passive income, strengthen the blockchain’s security, and participate in the future of decentralized finance. With both native and liquid staking options available, flexible lock-up times, easy-to-use wallets, and booming DeFi integrations, Solana staking stands as one of the most attractive strategies in today’s digital asset landscape. As institutional momentum builds and the protocol continues to innovate, getting involved with Solana staking could be the smartest move for anyone looking to maximize yield, liquidity, and network influence in 2025 and beyond. Frequently Asked Questions 1. Is Solana staking safe?Yes, provided you choose reputable validators or audited liquid staking protocols. Like any DeFi activity, smart contract risk exists in third-party staking solutions. 2. When are rewards distributed?Solana staking rewards are automatically paid and compounded at the end of every epoch—about every 2–3 days. 3. Can you lose SOL by staking?Network slashing on Solana is rare, with losses to principal virtually unheard of in native staking. For liquid staking, risks are mainly tied to protocol smart contract vulnerabilities.

Bitget Hot Takes (January 23 - January 29)

Bitget Hot Takes is the exclusive weekly newsletter series by Bitget Academy, the 360-degree onboarding guide for all crypto enthusiasts. Bitget Hot Takes the week before can be found here. Central Themes • ETH sliding, BTC hovering above US$23,000 with hashrate hitting new all-time high levels. • DeFi blue chips are actively building and expanding to different chains. • New insights from Genesis’ bankruptcy filing; SBF attempted to influence witnesses. • Moody’s is in the early stage of developing a stablecoin scoring system. BGB Hit A New High For 2023 While Bitcoin managed to hold the US$23,000 mark throughout the weekend, BGB saw a small contraction of 0.07% in returns and Ethereum 3.25%. That could be a lil’ bit concerning for BGB diamond hands, but check out the chart below: Source: TradingView BGB reached 2023’s new high this week, following the bullish sentiment of general markets. The U.S. 2022 GDP numbers published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis seemed to have given BGB the momentum it needed to cross US$0.21 Check the analyses of BGB price trend in 2022 here: BGB Sail: December Edition BGB Sail: November Edition BGB Sail: October Edition BGB Sail: September Edition BGB Sail: August Edition BGB Sail: July Edition BGB Sail: June Edition BGB Sail: May Edition If you are completely new to the token, we are delighted to give you the full guide to BGB - the golden ticket to the Bitget Ecosystem here: Why BGB Is Your Bluechip Exchange Token. Markets Got Busy Again Ethereum prices saw quite a shrinking over the last seven days compared to Bitcoin and other altcoins. That could be a result of the unclear definition of the PoS Ethereum, which is discussed in the first volume of The Crypto Burrito. Of course ETH holders are looking for a reason to expect price soaring, and they have it: The Shanghai upgrade is set to take place in March. Developers have been working on it; a fork devoted to the purpose of upgrade rehearsal, called ‘shadow fork’, was finalised on January 23. As we are already in the last few days of January, there are less than 60 days until the Shanghai upgrade as well as the enabling of withdrawals on the Ethereum network. Under direct influence of this event are LSD protocols (again, check out The Crypto Burrito (Volume I): Ethereum Merge to learn more about liquid staking derivatives or LSDs). The biggest validator on the Beacon Chain (also the most popular LSD protocol per se), Lido, has published their design proposal for the ETH unstaking on the community forum and asked for feedback. The proposal needs to undergo a voting process by Lido DAO before any changes are implemented on the protocol. On a side note, we are seeing more L1s embracing LSD, with Marinade Finance introducing a reward programme worth around US$10 million for liquid staking on Solana. Last year, the U.S. announced the blacklisting of crypto-mixing service Tornado Cash, saying ‘Tornado Cash has repeatedly failed to impose effective controls designed to stop it from laundering funds for malicious cyber actors on a regular basis and without basic measures to address its risks’. That severely impacted the decentralised state of crypto, as Tornado Cash allows for easy, non-custodial, anonymous on-chain transactions. Now there’s a way out for Tornado Cash users: Web3 builder venture Chainway recently launched a Proof-Of-Innocence protocol, through which Tornado Cash users can prove that their funds do not come from hacker addresses while preserving their privacy. DeFi and NFT blue chips are building non-stop We can agree that many crypto blue chips are Ethereum-native protocols. But Ethereum’ congestion and high gas fees remain a firm entry barrier for new users, which understandably explains the rise of BNB Chain and most recently Polygon in terms of daily active users. Therefore, the biggest names are looking to expand their services to other chains: • Uniswap to deploy on BNB Chain: Proposal by 0xPlasmaLabs, preliminary polls see 80% saying yes; • Sushiswap to launch a perpetual DEX on Sei Network (per Sushiswap Head Chef), after the Head Chef proposed a change to the SUSHI tokenomics, following a temporary change to replenish the Treasury. Still putting the focus on Ethereum are MakerDAO, whose community is backing a proposal to yield interests for their Treasury from an earning vault by Yearn Finance, and Aave, which will soon launch a ‘fresh’ Aave v3 with the initial listings consisting of WBTC, WETH, wstETH, USDC, DAI, LINK, and AAVE. Three major news regarding the NFT/Metaverse space last week include: • Decentraland partners with Pedigree to bring canine adoption to the metaverse; • Bored Ape NFT game Dookey Dash registered over US$40 million (27,090 ETH) in 10-day trading as players are excited about the mystery rewards • The German carmaker Porsche releases the official Terms and Conditions (TC) for their Porsche NFT collection, which gives buyers the opportunity to withdraw from the purchase within 14 days. In the Wild West of NFT, Porsche is one of the first to honour consumer rights with this TC and may have set the example for future NFT projects so as to prevent rug pulls and scams. Trouble, trouble, trouble Crypto saw a new week of layoffs, half from the troubled actors: Gemini (10% of staff), DCG’s Luno (35%), CoinTracker (20%) and Moralis (numbers undisclosed). New from the court proceedings: Genesis’ creditor list shows not only crypto/financial firms (Gemini, Cumberland, Mirana, MoonAlpha Finance and VanEck, among others), but also government agencies - the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the U.S. as well. The creditor list of FTX appears to be even longer, with star athletes, crypto firms, tech giants, media outlets, the PM of Bahamas and public servants of both the Bahamas and the U.S. More information on the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy can be found here: The Crypto Burrito (Volume IV): Understanding 2022’s Crypto Bankruptcy Filings Still in the process are BlockFi and FTX. The former was granted permission to issue US$10 million in bonuses for their critical employees to keep them from fleeing to Google, Block Inc. and Walmart. Meanwhile, prosecutors are asking the judge to impose new bail conditions and FTX is seeking permission to subpoena SBF after the former FTX CEO used Signal to contact a potential witness in his criminal case. Celsius Earn users already received the ultimatum from the bankruptcy court, but they can still expect to get some of their assets back. A representative of the bankrupt crypto lender told the court that they are ‘in the later stages’ of developing a plan to return assets to Earn customers. Eligible Celsius accounts should also receive the Flare token airdrop after Celsius won court approval for the one-time distribution of FLR to users who had XRP locked on the platform as of December 2020. The Twitter accounts of Robinhood and Azuki were hacked last week. Hackers saw the opportunity to take advantage of their followers, thus promoting the scam token of RBH on BNB Chain and fake virtual land claims in Azuki's newly launched virtual world Hilumia. In-between these hacks was a phishing attack that resulted in the loss of US$1 million value NFTs owned by Moonbirds creator Kevin Rose. The Latest Bitget News Happy new year and Happy Lunar new year to our users with the upgraded 5,005 USDT Welcome Package for newbies! Register here and complete all tasks in Bitget Rewards Center to receive the gifts! Have you tried Bitget Spot Copy Trade on your Android devices? Realising how much our users love Bitget One-Click Copy Trade, we have worked diligently to release Bitget Spot Copy Trade - the sibling of Bitget One-Click Copy Trade that targets Bitget spot markets and our plentiful offering of crypto pairs. Learn how to dive in right now with our guide here. Another key component of Bitget Social Trading is Bitget Insights, which is now available on web here: Bitget Insights Web. Sign in right now and share your experience and opinions on markets to share US$4,000 in rewards. 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[Bitget VIP] Free To Claim Your New Year Gifts Join Bitget Discord and Participate in the New Weekly Registration Contest, Win BGB Bitget Partners with TealStreet; Plus, Register, trade for up to $8000 bonus！ Good Reads What is Stagflation and How Does It Affect the Crypto Market? The Crypto Burrito Volume III: The Never-Ending Saga Of FTX The Crypto Burrito Volume IV: Understanding 2022’s Crypto Bankruptcy Filings How Bitget Became A Dark Horse And Earns Market Share And Trust From Millions In Crypto Winter What Is DogeCoin (DOGE)? Follow us for the latest updates: Twitter | Telegram | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram