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Staking Solana (SOL) FAQs
Staking Solana (SOL) FAQs

How to stake Solana. Stake SOL to help support the Solana network. You can stake Solana in a few taps. Earn SOL staking rewards in Exodus.

Updated over a week ago

How to stake Solana. Stake Solana to help support the Solana network. You can stake Solana in a few taps. Earn SOL staking rewards in Exodus.

Everything you need to know about staking Solana (SOL) in Exodus. How to stake Solana and earn Solana staking rewards.

To start staking Solana from a self-custody wallet, download Exodus.


In this article:


What is Solana staking?

By staking your Solana (SOL), you are allocating resources to the Solana network and contributing to its stability. Staking allows you to earn SOL rewards, which can be claimed from your Exodus wallet.

Staking Solana means you agree to lock up an amount of SOL that you choose for a period of time, during which you can't send or swap it. However, your SOL never leaves your wallet, and you can unstake it whenever you choose.

After unstaking, you will have to wait for an epoch or two to send or exchange your funds.


Tutorial video: How to stake Solana?


Staking Solana FAQs

What happens when staking Solana?

When you stake your Solana (SOL), what you are really doing is delegating an amount of it to a validator. This makes you a delegator. Solana validators validate and approve transactions on the Solana blockchain.

By delegating your SOL to a validator, you vote for and signal your trust in it. The more SOL that is delegated to a validator, the more opportunity it has to validate transactions.

The more transactions a validator validates, the more crypto it earns. From this income, it gives back to everyone who delegated (staked) their SOL to it. This is how you earn rewards.


Is staking Solana safe?

Staking your SOL is done in a self-custodial way in Exodus. That means that it is as safe as holding SOL in your wallet. You keep full control over your tokens while they are staked, and you're free to unstake your funds whenever you choose.


How does staking work?

When you stake your SOL, you are able to choose how much of your SOL you want to delegate to the validator.

You can stake any amount of Solana over the 0.01 SOL minimum reserve. While you are staking, you will only be able to transact with any unstaked amount of SOL in your wallet above the minimum reserve.

Staking doesn't take effect immediately. When you stake your SOL, you will need to wait for several epochs before you start earning rewards.

Both staking and unstaking take effect at epoch boundaries. An epoch is approximately equivalent to 2-4 days, but the time it takes for your SOL to finish staking and unstaking depends on where in the epoch you stake or unstake, how long the epoch lasts, and the warmup or cooldown period.


How does unstaking work?

When you decide to unstake your SOL inside of Exodus, you can only unstake all of your currently staked balance. Your funds might take between the end of the current epoch to several epochs to become available again.

Unstaking your SOL will cost a transaction fee of 0.000005 SOL which will be deducted from your minimum reserve.

After your SOL has finished unstaking, Exodus will automatically withdraw your SOL balance the next time you open your wallet. Once this process is complete, you can send or exchange your SOL.


Are Solana addresses case-sensitive?

Yes, Solana addresses are case-sensitive.

This means that if even one character of the address is changed from uppercase to lowercase, or vice versa, it will be a different Solana address.

Copy and paste your Solana address or scan a QR code rather than type it in. Always double-check that an address is correct before sending your funds.

In Exodus, when you send crypto to a Solana address, you will see a warning on the confirmation screen that Solana addresses are case-sensitive. You can review the address and capitalization to confirm that it is correct:


What are warmup and cooldown periods?

There is a limit on how much total stake can become delegated (staked) or deactivated (unstaked) in a single epoch, to prevent large sudden changes in stake across the network as a whole.

Because of this, there are warmup and cooldown periods that extend the time before staking and unstaking complete. Since warmup and cooldown are dependent on the behavior of other network participants, their exact duration is difficult to predict.

Stakes, once delegated, do not become effective immediately. They must first pass through a warmup period. During this period some portion of the stake is considered effective, while the rest is considered activating. Changes occur on epoch boundaries.

The amount of stake that can be warmed up each epoch is a function of the previous epoch's total effective stake, total activating stake, and the stake program's configured warmup rate.

Cooldown works the same way. Once a stake is deactivated, part of it is considered effective, and part deactivating. As the stake cools down, the effective stake continues to earn rewards. Once it has finished the cooldown process, it becomes available for withdrawal.

Rewards are paid on the effective portion of the stake for that epoch.

For more detailed information, including examples of how this works, you can visit Solana's official documentation here.


How do I check the current epoch progress?

If you would like to see the amount of time remaining in an epoch, you can visit Solana Explorer and look at the value in Epoch time remaining (approx.)


Which validator will I be delegating my funds to?

When you stake your SOL in Exodus, you will be supporting our third-party staking API provider Everstake.


How much can I earn from staking my SOL?

You can find the latest yield for staking Solana (SOL) in your SOL wallet, or on Everstake's website here.

To find out more about Annual Percentage Yield (APY), please visit: What is APY?


Does Exodus charge a fee to stake my SOL?

No, Exodus does not charge a fee. However, there are a few transaction fees that you'll pay to the Solana network:

Staking fees

  • A transaction fee for sending the delegation transaction when you stake your SOL

Unstaking fees

  • An unstake transaction fee when you unstake SOL

  • A withdraw transaction fee to move your SOL from your staking address to your regular address


What is the minimum amount I need to start staking?

Any amount over the 0.01 SOL minimum balance can be staked. The minimum balance of 0.01 SOL cannot be staked.


When will I start earning Solana staking rewards?

When you decide to stake your Solana, you will need to initially wait for 2 epochs (where 1 epoch is roughly equivalent to 2-4 days) to start generating rewards. This means that if you start staking your SOL in epoch 100, then you will start earning rewards on the effective amount in epoch 102.

Your rewards are distributed every epoch after that.

Any additional SOL that you stake after will also need to wait for 2 epochs before earning rewards on the effective amount.


Do I need to claim my Solana staking rewards?

No, your rewards are automatically claimed for you and added to your staked balance.

As a condition of the Solana network, If you want access to your rewards, then you need to unstake all of your SOL and withdraw it to your wallet.


How do I stake Solana in Exodus?

Mobile

  1. In Exodus Mobile, a) tap the Profile icon, then b) tap Staking.

  2. Tap Solana.

  3. Tap Stake SOL.

  4. a) Enter the amount of SOL you want to stake, then b) tap Stake SOL.


Desktop

  1. In Exodus Desktop, click the Rewards app.

  2. Navigate to Solana (SOL) and click Explore.

  3. a) Enter the amount of SOL you want to stake, then b) click Stake SOL.


Web3 Wallet

  1. In Exodus Web3 Wallet, a) click the Profile icon, then b) click Staking.

  2. Click Solana.

  3. Click Stake SOL.

  4. a) Enter the amount of SOL you want to stake, then b) click Stake SOL.

  5. Your Exodus wallet will initiate staking Solana. This may take a few minutes to complete.

  6. Your wallet will let you know that your Solana is staked. To exit, click OK.


How do I unstake Solana in Exodus?

Mobile

Unstaking your SOL will cost a transaction fee of 0.000005 SOL, which will be deducted from your minimum balance.

  1. In Exodus Mobile, a) tap the Profile icon, then b) tap Staking.

  2. Tap Solana.

  3. Tap on Unstake SOL.

  4. To confirm, tap Unstake.

When you unstake SOL, you may need to wait for several epochs (approx. 4-8 days or more) for it to be available to send or swap.


Desktop

Unstaking your SOL will cost a transaction fee of 0.000005 SOL which will be deducted from your minimum balance.

  1. In Exodus Desktop, click the Rewards app.

  2. Navigate to Solana and click Overview.

  3. a) Click the Unstake tab at the top, then b) click Unstake SOL.

When you unstake your Solana, you may need to wait for several epochs (approx. 4-8 days or more) for it to be available to send or swap.


Web3 Wallet

Unstaking your SOL will cost a transaction fee of 0.000005 SOL which will be deducted from your minimum balance.

  1. In Exodus Web3 Wallet, a) click the Profile icon, then b) click Staking.

  2. Click Solana.

  3. Click Unstake SOL.

  4. To confirm, click Unstake.

  5. Your Exodus wallet will initiate unstaking your SOL. This may take a few minutes to complete.

  6. Your wallet will let you know when your Solana is unstaked. To exit, click Continue.

    When you unstake your Solana, you may need to wait for several epochs (approx. 4-8 days or more) for it to become available to send or swap.


How do I see my Solana rewards?

You can see your SOL rewards inside the app by following these steps:

Mobile

  1. In Exodus Mobile, a) tap the Profile icon, then b) tap Staking.

  2. Tap Solana.

  3. You will see the total amount of SOL rewards you've earned so far under Earnings.


Desktop:

  1. In Exodus Desktop, click the Rewards app.

  2. Navigate to Solana and click Overview.

  3. Here you will see the total amount of SOL rewards you have earned so far.


Web3 Wallet

  1. In Exodus Web3 Wallet, a) click the Profile icon, then b) click Staking.

  2. Click Solana.

  3. You will see the total amount of SOL rewards you've earned so far under Earnings.


What is the 0.01 SOL minimum balance?

In Exodus, the 0.01 SOL minimum balance is used for 2 reasons:

  1. To ensure you always have enough SOL to unstake. When you unstake Solana, SOL is needed to pay the network transaction fees. By keeping a minimum balance, your wallet always has enough SOL to unstake.

  2. To make your Solana address rent exempt. In the Solana network, accounts must pay rent to store data on the blockchain. However, an account does not need to pay rent if the SOL balance in the address exceeds what is equal to 2 years worth of rent payments. With the 0.01 minimum reserve in Exodus, your Solana address is rent exempt. You can find more information about rent in the Solana docs here: What is rent?

In Exodus, it is not possible to withdraw the SOL minimum reserve.



How can I send out the 0.01 SOL minimum reserve?

Exodus does not support sending out the 0.01 SOL minimum reserve. However, you can restore your Exodus wallet in another third-party wallet that supports sending out the SOL minimum reserve.

Phantom is a Solana wallet that supports sending the SOL minimum reserve. Here's how to send out the SOL minimum reserve with the Phantom browser extension wallet:

Phantom is a third-party platform that is not affiliated with Exodus. As such, Exodus cannot guarantee the performance of its products/services or that the steps shown and the information provided will always be accurate.

  1. First, you will need your Solana private key. Viewing the private key is only possible on Exodus Desktop. For a guide on how to view your private keys, visit: How do I view my private keys?

    If you use Exodus Mobile or Web3 Wallet, you can sync to Exodus Desktop to view the private key. For a guide on syncing, visit: How do I sync my Exodus wallet to a different device?

  2. Next, you will need to install the Phantom wallet. You can install Phantom from their website: Download Phantom.

  3. Open Phantom, click Create a new wallet, and follow the steps to set up your Phantom wallet.

  4. After setting up Phantom, you need to import your Exodus Solana wallet. Click the menu in the top left corner.

  5. Click the + icon.

  6. Select Import Private Key.

  7. a) Make sure Solana is selected, b) give your wallet a name, then c) Paste in your Exodus Solana private key that you viewed in step 1, and d) click Import.

  8. After importing your Exodus Solana wallet, click on Solana.

  9. Click Send.

  10. a) Enter the address you want to send your SOL to, then b) click MAX to send out all your Solana, including the minimum reserve, and c) click Next.

    Please note that there is a network transaction fee to send your SOL. If your wallet balance only consists of the SOL minimum balance of 0.01 SOL, then the amount you can send will be less than 0.01 SOL after the network fees. Make sure the wallet you send to supports the amount you are sending.

  11. Review the transaction details and click Send.

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