Sunrise Stake

Sunrise Stake is a regenerative finance (ReFi) liquid staking protocol on Solana that uses staking yield to automatically purchase and retire on-chain carbon credits. Users deposit SOL and receive gSOL at a 1:1 ratio, maintaining full principal liquidity while the protocol routes their staked assets to generate yield that is directed entirely toward carbon offset purchases.

The Problem It Solves

Proof-of-stake blockchains generate staking yield as an inherent byproduct of network operation. Sunrise Stake captures that yield before it reaches the staker and redirects it toward purchasing and permanently retiring carbon credits on-chain, creating a mechanism for stakers to offset real-world carbon emissions simply by holding their SOL in the protocol — without any additional cost, active decisions, or sacrifice of principal liquidity.

How It Works

When a user deposits SOL, Sunrise Stake mints gSOL 1:1 and deploys the deposited SOL into Marinade Finance and SolBlaze liquid staking pools. Each epoch, these pools generate staking rewards. Sunrise Stake extracts the yield differential — the rewards earned above the face value of the deposited SOL — and uses it to autonomously purchase and retire carbon credits.

Carbon credit purchases are made from two sources: Toucan's NCT (Nature-Based Carbon Tonnes, bridged from Polygon and Celo) and EcoToken (Regen Network credits native to Solana). Each retirement is executed on-chain and is cryptographically verifiable. Holders receive a Retirement NFT as permanent, on-chain proof of the carbon they have offset. The protocol charges no fees; all yield goes to carbon retirement.

Users can redeem gSOL for SOL at any time at the 1:1 ratio, recovering their full principal. The staking yield they would otherwise have received is the only "cost" — it is redirected to carbon purchases rather than paid to the depositor.

Notable Milestones

In December 2023, the Solana Foundation used Sunrise Stake to offset 100% of the Solana network's carbon footprint on-chain — the first time a major blockchain network's emissions had been fully offset through an on-chain mechanism using verifiable, permanently retired carbon credits.

The protocol was founded by Daniel Kelleher in late 2022 and won the Climate track at the Solana Grizzlython hackathon. It reached version 0.7.9 in November 2024.

Shutdown

In March 2026, Sunrise Stake announced a staged shutdown. The protocol had operated for approximately three and a half years. No replacement product or successor protocol has been announced as of the time of writing.

Security and Audit Status

No public third-party smart contract audit has been disclosed in available sources. The protocol's non-custodial design — users can always redeem gSOL for SOL — limits counterparty risk to the continued operation of Marinade Finance and SolBlaze, whose own security postures are independently established.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Sunrise Stake occupied a unique position in the Solana DeFi ecosystem as its primary ReFi (regenerative finance) protocol. It was built natively on Solana's liquid staking infrastructure rather than running on a separate chain or using bridged assets as its primary mechanism. The protocol's composability with Marinade and SolBlaze, and its use of gSOL as a drop-in liquid token compatible with standard Solana wallets, made it accessible without requiring specialized tooling.