Solana Staking: Rewards, APY and Where to Stake SOL

Solana staking today: where the yield comes from

Most staking yield on Solana comes from inflation. The protocol issues new SOL every epoch and pays it only to staked SOL, so the more SOL is staked, the smaller each staker's slice. MEV tips, paid by traders who want their transactions placed first, add a little more on top.

Inflation falls by 15% each year toward a long-term floor of 1.5%. That is why the staking APY drifts lower over time, even when nothing else changes. In August 2026 validators voted to make it fall twice as fast; that change is not live yet. The charts below update every epoch.

How much does staking Solana pay?

Staking SOL pays about 5.1% a year before commission, with inflation rewards making up most of it. Commission is the share of rewards a validator keeps, so a validator charging 10% passes on the other nine tenths.

Rewards are added to your stake every epoch and then earn rewards of their own, so they compound. A validator that goes offline or misses votes earns less, and so do the people staked with it.

At the live network inflation APY of 4.97%. MEV tips add a little on top, depending on the validator.

MEV tips arrive in your stake account as unstaked SOL and earn nothing until you stake them again; you can collect and re-stake MEV tips in one step. For the full mechanics, read how inflation, commission and MEV add up to your yield, or work out your own numbers with our staking rewards calculator guide.

How to stake SOL

Staking SOL natively takes a few minutes in any wallet that supports it, such as Phantom, Solflare or Backpack. A Ledger works through those wallets too. Your stake starts earning at the next epoch boundary, which is never more than about 26 hours away.

1. Hold SOL in a self-custody wallet that supports staking, and keep a little unstaked to pay transaction fees.
2. Choose how much SOL to stake.
3. Pick a validator, by name or by its vote account address.
4. Sign the transaction. It creates a stake account, which holds a small refundable rent deposit, and delegates it.

Wallet screens differ, so we keep step-by-step guides for Phantom, Solflare, Backpack and Ledger. Once you have stake accounts, you can merge or split them, or withdraw part of a stake account while the rest keeps earning.

Native staking vs liquid staking vs exchange staking

Solana Compass's view: native staking suits holders who want the fewest moving parts and won't need their SOL at short notice. Liquid staking suits people who want to use staked SOL in DeFi or exit at once. Exchange staking is the easiest route and usually pays the least.

Native staking keeps SOL in a stake account you own, with no smart contract involved. A liquid staking token (LST) is a token that represents staked SOL; you can sell it for SOL at any time, at the cost of smart contract risk and a possible discount when many holders sell at once. An exchange holds your SOL for you and keeps part of the rewards as its fee.

Liquid staking tokens hold about 13% of all staked SOL. Read how liquid staking tokens work and what a stake pool does with your SOL, or compare every Solana stake pool by APY and size. US spot Solana ETFs that stake on their holders' behalf exist too; the fund's fee comes out of the yield.

Where is the best place to stake Solana? Choosing a validator

The best place to stake Solana is a validator with low commission and a long record of staying online. It should never have raised its commission, and it shouldn't be one of the biggest. That mix earns you close to the full network rate. It also spreads stake more widely, which makes Solana harder to halt. Right now 18 validators hold a third of all stake.

A validator's past matters more than today's rate. One that charges nothing now can raise its fee later. Some show 100% commission. These are often private nodes run for one firm, set that way to keep outside stake out.

Start with our checklist for choosing a validator. Then compare commission, uptime and stake share for every validator. Curious about the other side? Read what validators earn and spend, or why Solana can't be mined, and what running a validator involves.

Is Solana staking safe? Slashing, commission changes and other risks

Native Solana staking is low risk to the SOL you stake. The validator never controls it. Solana doesn't slash stake yet, so a validator's mistakes cost you rewards, not SOL. The real risks are smaller, and staking won't protect you if SOL's price falls.

Commission rises

A validator can raise its commission, as far as 100%. You then earn less until you move. Check its record before you stake. Moving takes one epoch to unstake and one more to stake with someone new.

Downtime

If a validator goes offline, you earn nothing for that time. Your SOL is safe.

Slashing

Slashing means burning part of a validator's stake, and its stakers' stake, as a penalty for clear cheating. Alpenglow, Solana's new way of reaching agreement on blocks, went live in October 2026. It treats voting twice as a provable offence, but sets no penalty for it. No slashing penalty has been proposed yet; the closest proposal would only record such faults on chain. Read what Alpenglow changes for validators.

Liquid staking tokens

A liquid staking token can trade below the SOL it stands for when more people sell than buy. Cashing out through the pool avoids the gap but waits for the epoch to end. Each token also relies on its smart contract.

Exchanges and tax

Staking through an exchange adds the risk of the exchange itself. Tax rules on rewards differ by country.

When are SOL staking rewards paid, and how long does unstaking take?

Solana pays staking rewards once per epoch. An epoch is 432,000 slots and lasts about 26 hours at the recent pace. Rewards are added to your stake account for you. Unstaking runs on the same clock. You deactivate the stake, wait for the epoch to end, then move the SOL to your wallet.

To leave sooner, swap a liquid staking token for SOL. Or sell your stake account through an instant unstake service, which pays at once for a small fee. See our guide to unstaking and withdrawing SOL, or use our instant unstake tool, whose fee goes to compassSOL holders.

Is staking SOL worth it?

Solana Compass's view: staking is worth it for SOL you won't need for at least a few days. New SOL is paid only to staked SOL, so an unstaked balance's share of total supply shrinks by about 3.4% a year while staked balances keep pace.

SOL you trade or spend every day is better left unstaked, or held as a liquid staking token so it stays usable. Staking earns you more SOL; it doesn't protect the value of that SOL if the price falls.