What is a liquid staking token?

Staking SOL directly means delegating to a validator. Unstaking only takes effect when the current epoch ends, and a Solana epoch lasts two days or a bit more. A liquid staking protocol stakes for you and hands back a token instead: jitoSOL, mSOL, jupSOL or bSOL on Solana, stETH on Ethereum. You can trade it or lend it. The stake underneath keeps earning.

On most Solana LSTs your balance never changes. The token's exchange rate against SOL climbs as rewards come in. Hypothetically, if 1 jitoSOL is worth 1.10 SOL today and it earns 7 percent a year, it will be worth about 1.18 SOL a year from now. Some LSTs also pass MEV rewards through, which is one reason their yields differ.

The risks go beyond plain staking. Protocol contracts can break and validators can underperform. And in a rush for the exits an LST can trade below what it redeems for. Instant unstaking goes through a pool and costs a fee. The free route waits for the epoch boundary.

Small LSTs often have thin liquidity. Sanctum Infinity exists for exactly that: one pool where any supported LST swaps for another, or for SOL, close to its fair value.

Also called: LST, liquid staking.

Solana yields lists Sanctum APYs for INF, jitoSOL, jupSOL, mSOL, bSOL and dSOL next to Marinade's trailing 30-day mSOL APY, and marks the highest. Read the window labels. Sanctum's figure is the average since each LST launched, so a recent change in yield barely moves it. For stETH, the Ethereum pulse shows Lido's APR as a 7-day average next to the protocol staking APR, which adds issuance, tips and MEV.

• Solana yields
• Ethereum pulse

• Sanctum Infinity
• APY vs APR
• DeFi
• Lending market
• MEV