Marinade Recipes

Stake SOL with Marinade and receive your staking rewards in a token of your choice instead of more SOL. Your principal stays in SOL and payouts arrive automatically each epoch.

TL;DR: Marinade Recipes lets you stake SOL and receive your staking rewards in a token of your choice, from stablecoins like USDG and USDC to BTC, ETH, gold, MNDE, and tokenized equities, instead of more SOL. Your SOL principal stays in SOL the whole time; only the yield is converted, and payouts arrive automatically each epoch.

Overview

Marinade Recipes lets you stake SOL and receive your rewards in a different token instead of more SOL. Your SOL principal stays in SOL the whole time. Only the staking yield is converted, each epoch, into the payout token you picked.

The idea is simple: keep your SOL exposure on the principal, but skip the loop of unstaking, swapping, and restaking each epoch just to convert rewards into the token you actually want.

Recipes launched with a single payout token (USDG) and now support a range of them across several categories, with more planned.

How It Works

A Recipe is a separate native staking path. It sits next to Marinade Liquid and Marinade Native and works like this:

• Your SOL stays in SOL: Your deposit goes into native Solana stake accounts managed by Marinade's program and is delegated to validators. The principal is never swapped. You keep full price exposure to SOL.

• Only the yield is converted: Each epoch, the program collects staking rewards from the participating stake accounts, swaps them on-chain into your chosen payout token, and distributes the result proportionally to stakers. For USDG, the swap routes SOL to USDC and then mints USDG via the Global Dollar Network.

• One payout token per stake: The Recipe you choose when you stake sets your payout token. Each stake account pays out in one token.

• Payouts arrive each epoch: The payout token is delivered to your wallet (or a configured redirect wallet) around the start of each new Solana epoch (roughly every 2 days).

Recipes don't use SAM (Marinade Max Yield) or Marinade Select. SAM and Select decide how stake is allocated across validators. A Recipe decides how that stake's rewards are converted and routed back to you. It's a different delegation path with its own infrastructure.

Your SOL sits in standard native stake accounts. You keep full withdrawal authority and Marinade cannot move, lock, or seize it.

Available Recipes

You pick your payout token when you stake. The currently available Recipes are below. For current APY and to get started, see the Marinade Recipes product page.

Payout Token	Reward Asset	Category	Issuer / Backing
USDG	Global Dollar	USD stablecoin	Paxos, via the Global Dollar Network
USDC	USD Coin	USD stablecoin	Circle
USDT	Tether	USD stablecoin	Tether
EURC	Euro Coin	EUR stablecoin	Circle
BTC	cbBTC	Bitcoin	Coinbase
ETH	WETH	Ether	Wormhole-bridged
GOLD	Tether Gold (XAU₮)	Tokenized gold	Tether
MNDE	MNDE	Marinade governance token	Marinade
SPY	SPYx	Tokenized S&P 500 ETF	Backed (xStocks)
NVDA	NVDAx	Tokenized Nvidia stock	Backed (xStocks)

More Recipes are planned. Updates go out on the product page and through official Marinade channels.

Payout tokens are issued by third parties, and each carries its issuer's own trust model. Some of them (for example USDG and the tokenized equities) can be paused or frozen by their issuer, which would pause reward delivery and exits in that token until the pause is lifted. Tokenized equities such as SPYx and NVDAx are issued by Backed and are generally available only to non-U.S. persons. None of this affects your SOL principal, which stays in native stake accounts you control. Confirm a payout token suits your needs before choosing its Recipe.

Stake SOL, Earn USDG

USDG was the first Recipe to go live (Paxos, November 2025) and is the reference example for how every Recipe behaves.

• Reward token: USDG (Global Dollar), an SPL token on Solana issued by Paxos Digital Singapore.

• Conversion pipeline: SOL rewards are swapped to USDC on-chain, then USDC is used to mint USDG via the Global Dollar Network.

• Payout frequency: Once per Solana epoch, around the start of the next epoch (roughly every 2 days).

• Principal: SOL, held in native stake accounts you control.

For current APY and how to get started, see the Stake SOL, Earn USDG page.

Fees

Recipes follow the same fee model as Marinade Native:

• No staking commission: Rewards captured at the validator pass through to stakers (subject to any active launch incentives or boosts noted on the product page).

• Unstake fees: Delayed unstake carries the standard 0.2% (20 bps) Marinade fee. Instant unstake is quoted by the market (typically 0.10% to 0.40%) and carries no separate Marinade protocol fee.

Unstaking

Same two exit paths as Marinade Native:

• Delayed unstake: Standard Solana deactivation. Stake is withdrawable after the cooldown (usually one epoch), subject to the 0.2% (20 bps) Marinade fee.

• Instant unstake: Available right away. Pricing is quoted by the market (typically 0.10% to 0.40%) and carries no separate Marinade protocol fee.

There's no separate "turn off rewards" switch. You exit by unstaking. Any rewards already earned stay in your wallet and are not affected.

Security

Recipes use the same security model as Marinade Native:

• Non-custodial: Principal sits in native Solana stake accounts owned by the staker.

• No smart contract holds principal: The reward pipeline only touches rewards after they've been earned. It never touches the staked SOL.

• Bounded failure mode: Worst realistic case is a delay in the swap or distribution step that pushes a payout to a later epoch. Principal is not at risk in the reward routing.

Full audit reports are on the Audits page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I choose which token I'm paid in?

A: Yes. You pick your payout token when you stake, from the list of available Recipes above. Each stake account pays out in a single token. If you want rewards in more than one token, you can stake separately into each Recipe.

Q: When will I receive my first reward?

A: Solana native staking requires your stake to be active for a full epoch before it earns rewards. If you deposit mid-epoch, your stake activates at the start of the next epoch, earns for that full epoch, and the first payout arrives around the start of the epoch after that.

Q: The epoch just ended and I still haven't received my rewards. Is something wrong?

A: No, this is normal. Rewards are processed in stages after each epoch ends: collect SOL rewards from stake accounts, swap to the payout token, then distribute. The whole pipeline runs on-chain and can take some hours, so there's a gap between the epoch boundary and the tokens hitting your wallet. If a full day has passed since the new epoch started and you still see nothing, check that your payout token account is still open (see the "payouts stopped" question below).

Q: Can I have my rewards sent to a different wallet than the one I stake from?

A: For USDG, yes. The USDG Recipe lets you direct rewards to a wallet other than the one that holds your stake, which is useful for keeping staking and spending separate, routing rewards to an operations or treasury wallet, or sending them to a charity. Your staked SOL stays under your control either way. This redirect option is currently available only for USDG and may expand to other payout tokens in the future. For all other Recipes, rewards are delivered to the wallet that holds the stake.

Q: Is my SOL ever swapped for USDG?

A: No. Only the staking rewards are converted. Your principal stays in SOL the entire time.

Q: My USDG payouts stopped. What happened?

A: The most common cause is a closed payout token account in your wallet (often from a "sweep empty accounts" feature). Reopen it by receiving any amount of that token; even a tiny swap on a DEX such as Jupiter or Titan is enough. Up to 2 weeks of missed rewards are recovered automatically once the account is active again. Anything older than 2 weeks is lost. For USDG specifically, see the help center article "Why Did My USDG Rewards Stop?" for details.

Q: Do my Recipe rewards show up in Marinade's staking rewards report?

A: No. Marinade's staking rewards report covers SOL staking rewards and does not track Recipe payouts, including USDG. To review what you have received, look up your wallet's activity on a Solana explorer such as Solscan.

Q: How are USDG rewards treated for tax?

A: Marinade does not provide tax advice, does not issue tax forms such as 1099s, and is not responsible for determining or meeting your tax obligations. How staking rewards are taxed depends on your country and your personal circumstances, and working that out is your responsibility. You can pull your reward transactions from a Solana explorer such as Solscan to build your own records, and various third-party crypto tax tools can help compile them. Marinade does not endorse or recommend any specific tool, since how well one fits depends on your situation. Consult a qualified tax professional in your jurisdiction.

Q: Which tokens are supported, and which are coming next?

A: The currently available payout tokens are listed in Available Recipes above. More are in development. Updates go out on the Marinade Recipes product page and through official Marinade channels.