Solana Staking in 2025: Institutional Momentum Grows as Marinade Select Surpasses 3.1M $SOL IN TVL

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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