Marinade Finance may be the quintessential Solana success story. Now a staking powerhouse, the project first emerged in 2021 as a scrappy hackathon project built by Discord acquaintances experimenting at the front lines of Web3 innovation — liquid staking.
The Marinade protocol was the first non-custodial liquid staking product to reach the market, and the platform quickly grew into a cornerstone of Solana DeFi. Marinade Labs, the team behind the protocol, has since evolved its product line to include native staking, and has become a market leader in staking rewards. Through it all, they’ve remained open-source and 100% bootstrapped, building the infrastructure that may, in the future, support billions of staked Solana assets.
The Marinade Labs team has distinguished itself with a laser focus on product and a disciplined approach. "In 2021, we didn't really raise traditional funding like other projects did," explains core contributor Michael Repetny. "We wanted to be honest with ourselves and our community — is what we are building valuable on its own? And can we do it without taking any VC money?” This discipline is what pushed the product’s development throughout periods of market fluctuations in crypto. "The fundamentals really didn't change. The tech stayed, and we kept on building.”
Now in 2025, their self-reliant approach has been validated. Firstly by the significant amount of SOL that holders stake via the Marinade platform, but also in growing adoption by institutions. “The Solana network has proven that digital assets can be traded at huge scale, with such low fees,” says Repetny. “It has set the precedent for how the infrastructure is tested, how strong it is, and its resilience. It’s clear to the world now that you can run many types of asset on Solana. And that’s why institutions have started to take such an interest.”
To meet the market interest, Marinade Labs launched a non-liquid staking option (Marinade Native) and brought on new team members from preeminent financial institutions like PwC, Fidelity, and Bank of New York Mellon. "With institutions, we know having a sales-driven, go-to-market approach matters," Repetny explains. "To get institutions staking SOL, we can’t just offer them a dApp or website — we need a human element."
Their strategy has been successful. Marinade Labs is now the staking provider for Bitwise’s Solana staking ETP (BSOL) and has integrated with leading custody providers including Zodia Custody and Copper - and continues to onboard new institutions, including custodians, exchanges, funds and family offices, to the world of Solana staking. Their new proximity to TradFi is also one of the main reasons the Marinade Labs team joined the Solana Incubator in New York City.
”For most of our existence, we’ve been a completely remote team of engineers in Europe, so the most valuable element of the Incubator is the physical presence in the Solana offices in New York City,” Repetny explains. “We’re working face-to-face with people in the Solana ecosystem, TradFi institutions, and the big funds already on Solana. They’re usually in the very same city, or in the very same building.”
Perhaps the most significant opportunity on the horizon is the potential for Solana ETFs, a number of which sit on the docket for SEC approval. Having refined its expertise serving crypto users and web3 native funds, Marinade Labs is positioning itself to be the staking partner for these institutions as they enter the market via ETF products.
“If there’s a Solana ETF, we feel very strongly that staking has to be a part of it. And Marinade Labs is preparing to be the driving force in bringing staking to Solana ETFs,” says Repetny. “We’re ready on all sides: On the product side, we have Marinade Native ready for these products. We have compliance handled, especially with our current and upcoming qualified custodian integrations, and we’re even building an insurance layer due to launch this year.”
Repetny expects more institutions will arrive on Solana soon. While some institutional players have been reluctant to expand into DeFi or liquid staking, they are overwhelmingly positive about native staking and earning yield from their Solana holdings. "For institutional folks, 'Real Yield' is language they understand," Repetny explains. "As a TradFi institution, an asset that represents ownership of the network and the asset’s economic activity, that also has yield, is very attractive.”
With Solana tech knocking on the door of a new era, the Marinade Finance arc exemplifies the industry's evolution from experimental technology to serious financial infrastructure. “The longer we build in this, the more resilient we are," Repteny concludes. "We are long on the vision that stays, but flexible on how we get there."
Learn more: Marinade.finance