---
type: entity
entity_type: protocol
name: Marinade Finance
domain: internet-finance
status: active
tracked_by: rio
created: 2026-03-25
---

# Marinade Finance

## Overview
Marinade Finance is the oldest liquid staking protocol on Solana (launched 2021), pioneering mSOL — the first liquid staking token on the network. Marinade decentralizes Solana by automatically delegating stake across 100+ high-quality validators.

Key innovation: the Stake Auction Marketplace (SAM), where validators competitively bid for stakers' delegated SOL (similar to Google Ads model). Validators share revenue via bids, improving staker APY. SAM 2.0 launched August 2024.

## Key Details
- **Token:** MNDE (1B total supply, ~547M circulating)
- **Products:** mSOL (liquid staking), Marinade Native (direct staking), Marinade Select (institutional), SAM (validator marketplace), Instant Unstake
- **TVL:** ~$740M total
- **Marinade Native:** 5.3M SOL (surpassed mSOL, 21% QoQ growth)
- **Marinade Select:** 3.1M+ SOL (institutional)
- **Validators:** 100+ active delegations
- **Website:** marinade.finance

## Futarchy Adoption
Marinade used MetaDAO's futarchy mechanism for MIP.5 (February 2025) — routing a percentage of SAM bids to MNDE-Enhanced Stakers. The community first passed a Realms vote authorizing futarchy to make the determination, then the MetaDAO market cleared the 3% TWAP threshold at 5.319%. MIP.11 (MNDE token buybacks) was also approved through futarchy.

## SAM Mechanics
- Validators bid on stakers' SOL deposits, creating price competition
- Performance fee: conditional — only charged when Marinade APY outperforms Solana Staking Rate (changed under MIP.18, Feb 2026)
- MIP.5 routes 0.95% of performance fees to eligible MNDE-enhanced stakers who direct stake to validators with winning bids

## Timeline
- **2021** — Marinade Finance launched, mSOL created
- **2024-08** — SAM 2.0 launched
- **2025-02-04** — [[marinade-sam-bids-mnde-stakers]] passed via MetaDAO futarchy (MIP.5)
- **2025-11** — Marinade Select surpasses 3.1M SOL TVL

## Relationship to KB
- [[metadao]] — futarchy governance provider (FaaS customer)
- [[futardio]] — platform used for MIP.5 decision
- [[futarchy adoption faces friction from token price psychology proposal complexity and liquidity requirements]] — Marinade adoption extends futarchy to major Solana protocols