Summary: The best platform to stake Solana (SOL) is Binance because they offer flexible staking options that earn up to 14% APY. For decentralized staking providers, you will want to use Lido because they have the safest and most audited smart-contracts.
What is Solana Staking?
Solana staking is a process where you lock up your SOL tokens to help secure the network and earn rewards. Staking Solana is safe and easy to do, and it can be a great way to earn extra income. When you stake Solana, you can earn up to 14% per year in rewards.
Best Solana Validators for Staking
There are many different validators you can select to stake your Solana (SOL) tokens to earn rewards. These include centralized exchanges like FTX, Binance or Huobi and decentralized staking service providers like Lido or Stakefish.
When factoring in highest yields, best security and deepest liquidity for Solana staking - our research has concluded that these are the best SOL Validators:
- Binance - best overall + highest rewards (13% APY)
- FTX Exchange - best for security (6% APY)
- Lido - best decentralized platform (5.7% APY)
- CoinSpot - best for Australians only (6.6% APY)
- Stakefish - alternative on-chain SOL Staking platform (8% APY)
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|---|---|---|---|
| Staking Reward | 13% APY | 6% APY | 5% APY |
| Network Status | Centralized (Regulated) | Centralized (Regulated) | Decentralized (Unregulated) |
| Fees | No Deposit or Staking Fees | No Deposit or Staking Fees | 0.55% Staking Fees |
| Staking Tokens | ETH, AVAX, LUNA + 100 more | Solana and FTT Token | Ethereum and Solana |
| Year Founded | 2017 | 2018 | 2020 |
| Derivative Token |  |
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| Flexible Staking | |
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| Overall Rating |  |
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| Visit Website | Binance | FTX | Lido |
Why Binance is the best for SOL Staking
Binance is the best overall platform to stake Solana tokens because they offer the best security and the highest yield. As one of the largest centralized exchanges and custodians in the world, their wallet management is the gold-standard with respect to security.
They also provide advanced staking options that offer boosted yields by locking your SOL for 30, 60 or 90 days.
Solana Staking Calculator
If you are wondering how much you can make staking Solana, you can use our SOL APY calculator. This calculates your Annual Percentage Yield (APY) compounded one time within the 365 days.
Why calculate it with compounded? This is because when you stake Solana you are streamed tokens every second. That enables you to to redeposit them in the Staking Platform to compound your rewards and increase your APY% overall.
Where are Solana Staking Rewards coming from?
The Solana Staking Rewards are part of the protocol's inflation rate that helps incentivize validators to secure the network. Early-stage Layer 1 platforms need to incentivize staking to help bootstrap adoption in the early phases.
This means that in the early stages, Solana (SOL) is a pretty inflationary token compared to more developed networks like Bitcoin, Ethereum or even Avalanche who have high network burns. That is why it is important to stake and earn rewards that counter-balance the inflation rate for active participants.
Lido Solana Staking
Lido is the largest decentralized staking provider for the Solana network. They currently have over $330,000,000 SOL locked on Lido earning 5.6% APY.
The biggest benefit of staking SOL on Lido is that you earn yield, and they give you a token called 'stSOL' that represents 'staked SOL'. You can take that stSOL token and stake it on another platform like Saber Finance. They will give you another 5% to deposit stSOL as liquidity on their DEX.
Is Solana Staking Safe?
Staking Solana (SOL) is the safest way to earn interest or yield on your tokens. With that said, there is a risk-spectrum when it comes to the different platforms you can lock your SOL to stake and earn rewards. We generally recommend that new users stick to centralized platforms because they have insurance as a back-stop.
Decentralized platforms like Lido or Stakefish may not offer the same assurances and therefore could pose a higher risk to the safety of your funds.
I fell into crypto during the 2017 mania and have been around ever-since. I now write, research and publish my own reports on the digital asset ecosystem.
