Marinade Finance looks to boost liquid staking on Solana

• Marinade Finance will reward Solana holders who stake SOL via its liquid protocol.
• The incentive program will run for the next 12 months and see the plaform offer up to 160 million native Marinade tokens.
• The goal is to grow Solana TVL by 40 million SOL, and liquid staking is key to that.

Marinade Finance, a liquid staking platform that supports the Solana blockchain, is looking to bring more liquidity to the Solana ecosystem via a major incentive program.

The protocol noted in an announcement that the program “Open Doors” is designed to incentivise Solana builders, validators and wallets into increasing the blockchain platform’s asset liquidity. 

Accordingly, Marinade is looking to offer rewards in the form of its tokens to users who contribute to growing the total value locked (TVL) of Solana on the protocol.

Marinade Finance’s 12-month incentive program for Solana

Over the next 12 months, users have a chance to earn some of the 160 million Marinade (MNDE) tokens when they deposit SOL for mSOL, the liquid staking token they will get in exchange. The target is to get 40 million SOL staked for mSOL, – a scenario that could significantly increase the ecosystem’s liquidity and help with decentralisation.

Currently, only 2-3% of SOL is reportedly in liquid staking, which makes the plan to have more brought into the ecosystem crucial for Solana. This is because staked SOL doesn’t contribute to Solana’s DeFi TVL. However, mSOL’s liquid stake does as it flows across different protocols. 

As for decentralisation, Marinade supports hundreds of validators staking through its delegation strategy.

“For Solana DeFi to rebound stronger, more $SOL (LOTS MORE) must be made liquid. Those who contribute this through $mSOL, on their protocols, or via the referral program will be rewarded with direct Marinade ownership,” the Marinade team said.

According to data from DeFiLlama, the Solana chain has about $278 million in TVL as of 25 January 2023, down from over $10 billion in November 2021. More than 53% of the total TVL on this chain is on Marinade Finance, while Lido’s liquid staking accounts for the second-largest share.