Solana Stake Pools

Solana Stake Pools Guide: How They Work, Fees and the Best Pools #

A big stake pool is not automatically a good one. We judge Solana stake pools on two things: the fee they charge, and how widely they spread your SOL.

Spread matters because stake that piles up with a few operators weakens the network. Under Alpenglow, Solana's current consensus system, halting the chain takes over 40% of all stake. The fewer operators it takes to reach that share, the more fragile Solana becomes.

The number of validators a pool lists can mislead you. Look at how much of its SOL sits on its biggest validator instead. Our view is simple: send stake to pools that back smaller operators, and pay a fair fee for that work.

The Best Solana Stake Pools and LSTs: Fair Fees and Real Spread #

The best Solana stake pools charge a fair fee and spread SOL across many independent validators. Several of the largest pools don't do that. The tables at the top of this page compare the pools we track, with live data.

This snapshot shows how the three largest pools use your SOL, from our pool data on 10 November 2026.

JupSOL and BNSOL each list five validators, but most of their SOL sits on one. JitoSOL is the only one of the three that spreads stake widely.

Jito (JitoSOL) #

JitoSOL from Jito is the largest pool that spreads stake widely, and the second largest of any kind in our data.

JitoSOL suits you if you want wide spread from one of Solana's biggest pools. Its 4% rewards fee is mid-range. With about 15% on one validator, its spread is less even than most of the pools in the next section.

Binance (BNSOL): the biggest, not the best #

BNSOL is Binance's pool and holds the most SOL in our data, close to 11 million. We wouldn't choose it.

Its 10% rewards fee is the highest of the large pools, and its recent yield is the lowest in the table above. About 80% of its stake sits on Binance's own validator, which is already one of the largest on Solana. That adds to the concentration stake pools were built to reduce.

Solana Stake Pools Doing Things Differently #

Some pools set out to do the opposite of the biggest ones. They send stake to independent operators, or to parts of the world with few validators. This is where we think stake does the most good.

None of the six below has any stake on the 18 validators that together hold a third of all stake.

Figures are from our pool data on 10 November 2026. Germany and the Netherlands together hold almost half of all staked SOL, which is why the last column matters.

Yields for these six ran from 4.38% to 4.78% over the last 10 epochs, a little below JitoSOL's 4.85%. For most holders, that gap is small next to what the stake does for Solana.

Solana pools that back independent validators #

Phase (pdSOL), formerly branded Aero, spreads its stake the most evenly of the group, with about 1% on its biggest validator. Phase's pool rules give priority to validators "who lack significant institutional backing".

The Vault (vSOL) stakes with 124 validators. Its docs say it supports "smaller and newer validators demonstrating strong performance", and it favours operators active in the community.

JPool (JSOL) runs on the SPL program. Its delegation rules cap each validator at 5% of the pool and leave out the largest validators altogether. Part of its stake is set aside for validators building for Solana. Its 7% rewards fee is higher than JitoSOL's.

SolBlaze (bSOL) won't add the validators that hold the first third of all stake, and it gives smaller validators a boost when they perform well. Holders can also direct stake to validators they choose. About 23% of its stake sits on one validator, so its spread is less even than the others here.

Solana pools that spread stake around the world #

These pools push stake away from Germany and the Netherlands, so a problem in one region hits less of the network.

JagPool (jagSOL) is built around geographic spread. None of its stake runs in Germany or the Netherlands. About 52% is in Brazil, with Hong Kong and Singapore next.

Shinobi Performance Pool (xSHIN) has 93% of its stake outside Germany and the Netherlands, across 17 countries in all. The US is its largest at about 40%.

Other Solana Stake Pools You Will Come Across #

Not every pool is trying to spread stake. The pools in this section have other aims, and we still weigh them on fee and spread.

compassSOL (Solana Compass) #

compassSOL is run by Sanctum and stakes only with the Solana Compass validator. That validator funds the guides and data we publish, along with our tools.

The pool charges 2.5% of rewards and 0.1% on withdrawals. Fees from our tools are also paid into the pool, which lifts its yield, though how much varies with tool use.

compassSOL does not spread stake, so it carries the risk of one operator. It suits you if you want to back that one known operator, and you can swap SOL for compassSOL on this page.

Sanctum (formerly Socean) #

Sanctum runs the program behind JupSOL and more than a hundred single-validator pools. It also issues its own INF token. Sanctum grew out of Socean, an early pool. Socean's scnSOL became INF in March 2024.

INF is backed by a basket of LSTs rather than one pool. It suits you if you want one token that holds many pools, though its yield also depends on trading activity.

Marinade #

Marinade's mSOL runs on its own program rather than the SPL one. Marinade's fee page says stakers pay no rewards fee. Validators bid for its stake instead.

How to Choose a Solana Stake Pool #

Choose a pool by its fee and its real spread first, then check its code and how easily you can leave.

• The rewards fee and the withdrawal fee.
• The share of stake on the biggest validator, and how the pool picks validators.
• How long the pool has run, and whose audits cover its code.
• Whether its token trades with enough depth for the amount you hold.

You can check most of this yourself. Click any pool in the tables at the top of this page to see its validators, how many data centres they use and their average commission.

If you would rather pick one operator yourself, our notes on what to look for in a validator cover it. Every other route for your SOL is laid out in one place, including holding it directly.

Which Solana stake pools pay the highest APY? #

On 10 November 2026, the four best yields among the 20 largest pools all came from pools with one or two validators. Each of those four charged 2.5% of rewards or less.

High yield and wide spread often pull in different directions. Yields across those 20 pools ran from about 4.4% to 5.5%, so the gap is about one percentage point.

Treat a very high figure with care. A pool on one validator can see its yield move with that validator, and a zero fee can be raised. The tables at the top of this page have today's numbers.

What Are Staking Pools in Solana? #

Staking pools in Solana are shared stake accounts run by an on-chain program. You put in SOL, the pool stakes it with validators, and you hold a token for your share. Validators are the computers that run the network.

Staking pays around 5% a year at the live network rate. For where the rewards come from, read how payouts work on Solana.

You can also stake directly with one validator, which is called native staking. That needs at least 1 SOL per stake account, a network rule since June 2026. Buying a pool's token has no such floor.

Pools come in two shapes:

• A multi-validator pool spreads stake across many operators by a set of rules.
• A single-validator pool stakes with one operator, usually the one behind it.

Solana Labs wrote the SPL stake pool program. Almost every pool runs it or a copy of it, such as Sanctum's. Marinade runs its own code. For how the tokens behave once you hold them, see our notes on liquid tokens.

How a Solana stake pool works, step by step #

A stake pool works in five steps:

1. You deposit SOL, or a stake account that is already active.
2. The pool mints pool tokens to your wallet at the current exchange rate.
3. The pool moves the SOL from its reserve into validator stake accounts.
4. At each epoch boundary, about once a day, the validators' rewards land in those accounts.
5. The pool updates its total, so each token is backed by more SOL.

Two roles run the pool, according to the stake pool overview. The manager creates it, sets its fees and collects them. The staker adds and removes validators and moves stake between them.

Why an LST rises in value against SOL #

Your token rises in value because rewards add SOL to the pool while the number of tokens stays the same. The exchange rate is the SOL the pool holds divided by the tokens in circulation.

Say you deposit 100 SOL when one token is worth 1.25 SOL, and you receive 80 tokens. If the pool earns about 5% over the next year, those 80 tokens are worth about 105 SOL.

How stake pools soften validator downtime #

A pool spread across many validators barely notices one outage. If you stake natively and your one validator goes offline, your stake earns little or nothing until it is back.

This still happens under Alpenglow, which went live on 21 October 2026. A validator that earns no rewards in an epoch drops out of the active set. One that can't pay its per-epoch admission fee sits the next epoch out, and its stakers earn no inflation rewards for that epoch.

Multi-validator pools such as JPool and SolBlaze set performance rules and move stake away from validators that fall short. That checking is much of what the pool's fee pays for. Single-validator pools don't get this benefit.

Solana Stake Pool Fees Explained #

A stake pool can charge five kinds of fee, set by its manager. The SPL stake pool fee rules list them, and every pool's settings are public on-chain.

The epoch fee matters most, because it comes out of rewards before they reach you. Among the large pools it runs from nothing to 10% of rewards.

Say 100 SOL earns 5 SOL in a year before the pool's cut. A 10% fee takes 0.5 SOL of that, and a 4% fee takes 0.2 SOL.

Withdrawal fees are usually tiny, often a tenth of a percent. They make it costly to game the timing of rewards by moving in and out around an epoch boundary.

Two rules protect you. A change to the epoch fee or a withdrawal fee only takes effect after two epoch boundaries, so you have time to leave first. A withdrawal fee can also rise to at most one and a half times its current level in one step.

Your validators' own commission comes off before the pool's fee, so check both.

Are Solana Stake Pools Safe? #

The team running a well-built stake pool can't take your SOL, but a pool is not risk-free. The SPL program keeps your SOL in stake accounts and a reserve that the manager can't withdraw from.

Solana has no slashing today, so a validator's faults cost rewards and never your stake. Sanctum, which runs many pools on its own deployment of the program, says its management authority "cannot steal your funds, even if compromised."

The SPL stake pool docs list 9 audits by 5 firms between 2021 and 2023. Forks inherit that code but may change it, so check which version a pool runs.

A manager does hold some powers:

• It can raise the rewards and withdrawal fees after a delay, and deposit fees at once.
• It can require an approved signer on deposits or on SOL withdrawals.
• It can't block you from taking out a stake account, unless your token account is frozen.

The other risks are the same as for any LST:

• The code could have a bug.
• The token can trade below its value in a rush to sell.
• Poor validators can drag on yield.
• A pool can close.

Lido is the example of that last one. It stopped taking new deposits on Solana in October 2023, Cointelegraph reported. Holders had to unstake, and Lido has since closed on Solana.

How to Join and Leave a Solana Stake Pool #

Joining a stake pool takes one transaction. The quickest route is to swap SOL for the pool's token in your wallet's swap screen or a swap app. You can also deposit on the pool's own site, which mints new tokens at the exact exchange rate.

If your SOL is already staked, many pools accept the stake account itself. It must usually be delegated to a validator the pool uses, and you get pool tokens for its value.

Leaving works two ways:

• A swap back to SOL is instant, at the market price.
• A withdrawal from the pool gives you the full value less any withdrawal fee, as SOL from the reserve or as a stake account you then deactivate. That stake account unlocks at the end of the epoch, within about a day.

Our instant unstake tool handles the fast route, and this comparison of the ways out sets out the trade-offs.

What else you can do with a Solana LST #

You can use a pool token in Solana DeFi while it keeps earning rewards, for example by lending it out or borrowing against it. Each step adds risk, and a sharp drop in the token's price can see a loan sold off.

How to Create Your Own Solana Stake Pool #

You can launch a Solana stake pool with the SPL program's command-line tool. The steps are in its quickstart guide.

1. Install the Solana command-line tools and the stake pool tool.
2. Create the pool, setting your fees and the most validators it can hold.
3. Deposit some SOL so the pool can fund its validators.
4. Add validators, at a little over 1 SOL each.
5. Rebalance stake over time as validators perform.

Account costs depend on how many validators the pool is sized for. The docs give figures from under 0.5 SOL to about 2 SOL.

The pool also needs an update every epoch, or deposits and withdrawals fail. Anyone can run that update, so plan to automate it. Running a pool also means choosing a delegation strategy, and our breakdown of what operators earn and spend shows the other side of that.

If you run a validator and don't want to manage a pool, Sanctum's setup guide describes a managed route. You send your branding and its team deploys the pool.

FAQ for Stake Pool Operators #

How can I add my stake pool to the list? #

We find stake pools on-chain, so most are added on their own. If your pool runs on the SPL stake pool program or one of Sanctum's copies of it, and it holds more than 1 SOL, it will show up here. If you use your own program, contact us on X at @solanacompass.

My pool's address is on the dashboard - how can I add my name and logo? #

We take a pool's name and logo from its token's metadata first. If that is missing, we read the validator info that your pool's manager key has posted. To add it, post a validator info record with your name, website and logo link, signed with the manager key, as Solana's docs show. We pick it up on the next refresh.