Top 10 Solana Staking Statistics and Trends

Staking plays a central role in how Solana secures its network and distributes rewards. With more than 67% of SOL staked and over 1,300 active validators, the structure of that stake reveals who holds influence, how users participate, and where capital is flowing.

The rise of liquid staking and restaking protocols is shifting how SOL is used across applications. At the same time, validator-level data shows clear concentration at the top, while the majority of stake accounts are small holders.

To break this down, we’ve pulled the most recent on-chain data from Dune Analytics. The following ten trends highlight the state of Solana staking in 2025; from stake distribution and MEV activity to protocol adoption and staking behavior.

1. Over 67% of SOL Staked By Just 1,321 Validators

As of May 2025, Solana is secured by 1,321 active validators. Roughly 67.12% of the total SOL supply is currently staked to the network. Meanwhile, validator concentration remains substantial, as the top 25 validators control 46.3% of all staked SOL, while the top five alone account for over 16.4%, including:

• Binance (4.2%): The world’s largest exchange, operating a dominant validator.
• Helius (3.8%): Solana-native infrastructure provider focused on developer tooling.
• Coinbase Cloud 02 (3.1%): Major US exchange running validators across multiple chains.
• Galaxy (2.9%): Institutional-grade firm active in trading and blockchain infra.
• Ledger (2.4%): Hardware wallet maker now extending into validator operations.

2. Most Solana Stake Accounts Hold Under 10 SOL

Solana’s staking is dominated by small accounts: 82.2% of all stake accounts hold less than 10 SOL. Only 35 accounts hold more than 1 million SOL, reflecting a broad base of participation but a sharp drop-off in high-volume wallets.

On the validator side, stake remains highly concentrated. The top 3 validators alone control over 11% of all stake, while the top 25 collectively manage 45.5%. This highlights a key decentralization challenge: even with many validators and a wide user base, staking power is still clustered.

3. Liquid Staking Now Makes Up Over 10% of All SOL Staked

Liquid staking has grown steadily in the past year, now accounting for 10.4% of the total 399.6 million SOL staked on Solana. While the majority (89.6%) is still staked natively, LSTs are gaining traction month-over-month.

While LSTs are still a smaller slice of the staking ecosystem, they’re growing as stakers seek more flexibility, through integrations with Solana's decentralized exchanges and lending protocols. The largest players are Jito (4.4%), bnSOL (2.1%), and mSOL (1.3%), each distributing staking rewards while keeping SOL liquid.

Over the past month, LST usage increased by 3 million SOL, led by inflows to jupSOL and driftSOL. Still, the sector lags behind Ethereum, where over 29.9% of all staked ETH is liquid, highlighting the room for growth on Solana.

4. Jito and bnSOL Dominate Solana’s Liquid Staking TVL

Solana’s LST market has expanded rapidly since late 2023, rising from under 20M SOL to nearly 42M today. Growth has been especially sharp since February 2024.

Jito (JitoSOL) leads Solana's liquid staking market with 17.6 million SOL, followed by bnSOL with 8.16 million. Together, they account for over 61% of all SOL held in Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs).

The next tier includes mSOL (5.28M), jupSOL (3.88M), and bbSOL (1.44M), forming a long tail of smaller but growing players. This concentration shows how network effects and protocol integrations are reinforcing a few early leaders.

5. LST Market Cap Growth Outpaces Staking Ratio

Solana’s liquid staking market cap has grown dramatically, but not in lockstep with its staking ratio. This implies that while LSTs are attracting value, their share of the overall stake is increasing more gradually.

Take May 12 as a benchmark across years:

• 2022: 3.19% LST staking ratio, $340M market cap (SOL at $27).
• 2023: 2.28% ratio, $176M market cap (SOL at $20).
• 2024: 4.95% ratio, $2.82B market cap, a 10x growth in value, but only 2x growth in ratio.
• 2025: $6.91B market cap, 11.4% ratio as SOL is trading at $170-$175.

This disconnect shows the ratio grows more slowly because it’s based on total staked SOL, not just inflows into LSTs. As more SOL gets staked overall, LSTs must grow faster just to maintain (or increase) their share.

6. Jito Leads by Far in User Adoption Among LSTs

Jito now has over 11,200 wallets holding more than 10 SOL, or more than double its closest competitor. This makes it the most widely adopted LST on Solana by a significant margin.

The next most popular options are mSOL (5,022 holders) and jupSOL (3,602), with all others trailing far behind. Smaller LSTs like heliusSOL (1,036), bSOL (535), and bbSOL (267) reflect a steep drop-off in user distribution.

This spread highlights that while newer tokens may grow in TVL, they’ve yet to build comparable trust or traction at the wallet level. For now, Jito dominates both in value and in the number of engaged stakers.

7. LSTs See Deepest DeFi Integration in Lending Protocols

LSTs are becoming increasingly composable in Solana DeFi, especially within lending markets. Lending platforms now hold over $420 million in LSTs, making up 40.3% of their total TVL.

Solend stands out with $117.4 million in LSTs, representing nearly 66% of its collateral pool, by far the highest among major apps. Other lending apps like Port Finance and PsyFi also show strong LST usage, both exceeding 40%.

DEX integrations lag behind, with platforms like Raydium (1.0%), Orca (8.1%), and Serum (17.5%) showing lower penetration. As LST adoption grows, expect DeFi-native protocols to deepen support across both trading and borrowing use cases.

8. Over 2.2 Million SOL Is Now Restaked via Jito and Solayer

Restaking has arrived on Solana, with platforms like Jito and Solayer offering stakers new yield layers. As of April 2025, at least 2.25 million SOL is restaked across major providers.

Jito restaking accounts for 1.56 million SOL across protocols like Fragmetric (953k), Renzo (408k), and Kyros (204k). On Solayer, 683,770 SOL has been restaked, spanning both native SOL and LSTs.

These numbers show early momentum in restaking infrastructure, even though it still represents a small slice of total staked SOL. As Solana-native protocols look to compete with EigenLayer on Ethereum, restaking could become a new pillar of yield strategy.

9. JitoSOL TVL Is Highly Distributed Across DeFi and Wallets

Over 11 million JitoSOL is held in user wallets, spread across more than 653,000 accounts. This makes up the vast majority of JitoSOL’s total TVL, highlighting strong retail-level participation.

Beyond wallets, key DeFi protocols also hold large JitoSOL balances:

• Kamino: 973.8k across 283 accounts.
• Drift: 392.5k across just 2 accounts.
• Solend: 112.1k across 10 accounts.
• Orca: 72.4k across 73 accounts.
• Meteora: 56.9k across 102 accounts.

This distribution shows that while wallets are the primary holders, JitoSOL is seeing wide integration across Solana DeFi, especially in trading, lending, and restaking platforms. The presence of protocols like Marginfi, Raydium, Squads, and Kamino further supports Jito’s dominance across both liquid staking and utility.

10. Jito’s MEV Tipping Hit 1.37M Daily Users in January 2025

On January 18, 2025, Jito’s MEV-enabled staking reached an all-time high of 1.37 million unique tippers in a single day. These tippers are stakers who share in MEV rewards by delegating to Jito validators—earning passive income beyond standard staking yield.

The top 10,000 addresses have collectively paid millions in tips to access prioritized block space, with the leading tipper alone contributing over 686,000 SOL. This model is unique to Solana staking, where stakers can opt into validator sets that capture and distribute MEV back to them.

What is Solana Staking?

Solana staking is the process of delegating SOL tokens to validators who participate in maintaining the network’s security and consensus. Validators confirm transactions and produce blocks, and in return, both they and their delegators receive staking rewards.

Delegators don’t need to run any infrastructure themselves. Instead, they assign their stake to a validator of their choice, typically through a Solana wallet interface like Phantom, Solflare, or via staking platforms and liquid staking protocols.

Rewards are distributed automatically and are based on the validator’s uptime, commission rate, and performance. Users can also choose to stake using Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs), which allow them to retain access to their capital while still earning yield, enabling participation in DeFi, restaking, or other dApps.

Solana Staking vs. Ethereum Staking

Both Solana and Ethereum use proof-of-stake consensus, but the design and user accessibility of their staking systems differ in key ways. Solana allows any amount of SOL to be delegated without running a validator, and withdrawals can be immediate when using liquid staking tokens.

Ethereum staking has undergone recent changes with the Pectra upgrade, which increased the maximum validator balance from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH, enabling more efficient capital allocation for institutional stakers. However, the protocol still requires unstaking delays and generally depends on third-party services.

In practice, Solana staking favors flexibility and composability with DeFi, while Ethereum prioritizes validator decentralization and layered security guarantees. Each model reflects different trade-offs in accessibility, liquidity, and operational complexity.

How Much Will You Earn Staking Solana?

Staking returns on Solana vary by provider, validator performance, and whether you’re using native or liquid staking. According to data from Staking Rewards, current reward rates range from around 6.7% to 7.8% annually before fees.

For example, staking 1,000 SOL with Jito Network (7.23% APY) would yield approximately 72.3 SOL in a year. However, after a 10% protocol fee, your net earnings would be around 65 SOL, excluding any additional MEV rewards or DeFi usage.

Different platforms charge different fees and offer different levels of liquidity and integration. Liquid staking providers like JitoSOL or mSOL may offer slightly lower base yields but add flexibility through restaking, lending, and trading options that can boost total returns.

Is Staking SOL Risky?

Staking SOL involves real capital and carries specific technical and financial risks, depending on how and where it’s done. While the protocol itself is stable, risks arise from validator selection, liquidity constraints, and smart contract exposure.

Key risks when staking SOL include:

• Validator underperformance: If your chosen validator frequently misses blocks or is offline, your rewards can drop significantly even without direct penalties.
• Slashing (rare but nonzero): While slashing is minimal on Solana, delegating to a validator that double-signs can still result in small losses to your stake.
• Smart contract vulnerabilities: Liquid staking protocols like JitoSOL or mSOL introduce contract risk, where a bug or exploit could impact user funds or peg stability.
• Liquidity limitations: Native staking has an unbonding period (~2-3 days), and liquid tokens can trade below peg during network or market stress.
• Stacked protocol exposure: Using LSTs in DeFi or restaking platforms compounds risk across multiple smart contracts and systems, increasing the surface area for failure.

Final Thoughts

Looking at the data, Solana staking is no longer defined by its simplicity. What began as a binary choice between staking or not has evolved into a layered ecosystem with competing protocols, multiple yield strategies, and increasingly sophisticated infrastructure.

The numbers show real momentum; more users, more restaking, more LST adoption, but they also surface trade-offs around concentration, liquidity, and protocol risk.

The next phase of staking on Solana won’t be about growth alone, but about how that growth is shaped, who controls it, and who benefits.