Lilypad

Lilypad is a Solana NFT launchpad built around a new primitive called the LST-NFT — a non-fungible token whose mint price is permanently backed by a liquid staking token (LST) held in a dedicated on-chain account. The design solves a persistent problem in Solana NFT collections: the lack of a protocol-enforced floor price. Under the LST-NFT model, any holder who wishes to exit can burn their NFT at any time to reclaim the full LST principal, creating an inviolable redemption floor backed by real assets rather than market sentiment.

How It Works

When a buyer mints an LST-NFT through Lilypad, the SOL they pay is immediately converted to a designated liquid staking token — for example, pathSOL, routed through Sanctum's Infinity Router. That LST is locked in a stake account that is cryptographically attached to the specific NFT. The staker's principal never moves to the project team; it remains in the stake account linked to the NFT.

The project treasury receives the staking yield that accrues on the locked LST — the difference between the SOL equivalent at mint time and the growing SOL value of the accumulated staking rewards each epoch. This creates a financing model where project teams are funded by yield rather than by direct sale of principal, and buyers retain a guaranteed redemption floor.

To exit, a holder burns their NFT. The attached stake account is then released and the full LST is returned to the holder. In the secondary market, LST-NFTs trade identically to standard Solana NFTs — they are transferable, listable, and tradeable on any marketplace that supports Solana NFTs. Secondary trading for Lilypad collections is integrated with Magic Eden.

Inaugural Collection: Pathfinders

The Pathfinders collection was Lilypad's first launch: 7,000 NFTs at a mint price of 2 SOL each. pathSOL (via Sanctum's Infinity Router) was the LST used for the backing mechanism. Total mint revenue of approximately 14,000 SOL was locked into attached stake accounts, generating ongoing staking yield for the Pathfinders project treasury.

Platform and Team

Lilypad was built in 2024 by Phase Labs and is operated by Medano Labs. The project's founder operates under the pseudonym PIXISU. No funding rounds have been disclosed publicly. No external security audit of the Lilypad smart contracts has been published.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Lilypad introduces a new structural design to Solana's NFT ecosystem: project financing through LST yield rather than upfront principal extraction, and protocol-enforced floor prices rather than market-convention ones. This positions LST-NFTs as a hybrid between Solana NFT collections and yield-bearing DeFi primitives. The reliance on Sanctum's Infinity Router for LST conversions integrates Lilypad natively with Solana's liquid staking infrastructure. The Magic Eden partnership for secondary trading keeps the NFT experience familiar for existing Solana collectors.