How to stake Solana (SOL) using the stakefish Staking Dashboard
The complete guide to staking Solana (SOL) using the stakefish staking dashboard.
stakefish is a leading staking service provider in the blockchain industry, dedicated to offering secure, stable, and efficient staking solutions since 2018. stakefish now supports Solana staking services through our new dedicated Solana staking dashboard.
In this guide you will find how to:
Introduction
Our Solana Staking Dashboard brings the same beloved stakefish Ethereum staking experience to Solana, now with features tailored for serious stakers and institutions. This is the most complete Solana staking dashboard in the industry, giving you one unified view to manage all your Solana stake accounts, track MEV rewards history, and see real-time staking and rewards.
Built for large stakers and retail alike, our dedicated validator infrastructure is optimized for MEV, so your earnings scale with your stake size. We’ve maintained 99.98% uptime since 2021, ensuring you can stake confidently while maximizing rewards.
stakefish is one of the few Solana validators offering full MEV rewards support and tracking, giving you visibility and earnings that others can’t match.
Solana Staking Lifecycle
Before you begin staking, it's helpful to understand the complete lifecycle of your staked SOL. Unlike some other networks, Solana staking follows a specific activation and deactivation schedule tied to epoch boundaries (approximately 2-3 days each).
The Journey of Your Staked SOL:
1. Stake (Inactive → Activating) When you initiate staking, your SOL moves from your wallet into a stake account. The transaction is signed and broadcasted, but your stake isn't earning rewards yet. Your stake account enters the "activating" phase.
2. Activating → Active (One epoch, ~2-3 days) Your stake account waits for the current epoch to end. At the next epoch boundary, your delegation becomes active. This waiting period ensures network stability and prevents gaming of the reward system.
3. Active (Earning rewards every epoch) Your SOL is now fully staked and earning rewards! You'll receive:
- Inflation rewards: Automatically compounded to your active stake each epoch
- MEV rewards: Accumulated in your inactive balance (requires manual harvesting to compound)
Your stake remains active indefinitely until you choose to deactivate.
4. Deactivating → Inactive (One epoch, ~2-3 days) When you initiate deactivation, your stake stops earning rewards at the next epoch boundary. The deactivation process takes one full epoch to complete, during which your SOL is locked but not earning.
5. Withdrawable (Inactive) Once deactivation completes, your principal plus any accumulated rewards are available for withdrawal back to your wallet. You can withdraw immediately or leave it in the inactive state until needed.
Key Timing Insights:
- Minimum commitment: ~4-6 days (one epoch to activate + one epoch to deactivate)
- Rewards begin: After activation completes (~2-3 days from staking)
- Unstaking time: ~2-3 days from deactivation request to withdrawable
- Epoch boundaries: All state changes happen at epoch boundaries, not immediately
Understanding this lifecycle helps you plan your staking strategy, especially if you need access to your SOL by a specific date. The stakefish dashboard shows your current status in real-time, so you always know exactly where your stake is in this journey.
1. Stake Solana
Key Solana staking terms:
- Pending: Transaction submitted but not yet confirmed.
- Activating: Delegation started, waiting for activation (usually takes 1 epoch).
- Active: Fully activated and earning rewards.
- Deactivating: Deactivation started, waiting to complete (usually takes 1 epoch).
- Inactive: Fully deactivated, ready to withdraw.
- Epoch: A fixed period of time on Solana (about 2–3 days) during which staking state changes, such as activation and deactivation, finalize and rewards are calculated.
- Rent: A small fee required to keep accounts alive on Solana. Accounts must maintain a minimum balance (rent-exempt reserve) to remain active without being deleted.
1. Open the stakefish Solana staking dashboard by selecting “dashboard” from the homepage or selecting “Solana” from the “Networks” dropdown menu.
From the Solana network page select “Stake Now.”
From the staking dashboard select the network as “Solana.”
2. Click Connect Wallet.
3. Select your preferred Solana wallet (e.g., Phantom, Solflare, Ledger) and approve the connection in your wallet popup.
- From the dashboard, click Stake Now.
- Enter the amount of SOL you wish to delegate (leave a small balance for transaction fees). The minimum amount to stake is 0.01 SOL.
- Click Stake Now and approve the transaction in your wallet.
- After the submitted transaction is confirmed by the Solana network, the web page will prompt "Transaction Confirmed.”
- Return to the Dashboard and you will see that your stake account will appear with status Activating. Staking on Solana activates at the next epoch boundary (typically ~2–3 days), which you can track in the upper-left on your Solana staking dashboard.
Once Active, you’ll automatically begin earning both protocol rewards and MEV rewards.
- Once your stake is activated and the status changes to “Active”, your Solana stake will start generating staking rewards. You can also find the stake account in the Stake Account list, click “View details”, select “Stake authority”, and check the status of the Staking account corresponding to this “Stake authority” on solscan.io.
- About Rent: Solana staking requires a small deposit to keep accounts rent-exempt. This amount doesn't earn rewards and is returned when you close the account by withdrawing everything. It is not a gas fee.
In the dashboard, hovering over the balance information icon you can see the total balance breakdown.
Total Balance = Active Stake (delegated) + Inactive Stake (withdrawable) + Rent
2. Deactivate and withdraw delegated stake
Use this process when you want to stop staking your SOL and return it to your wallet. Deactivation completes at the next Solana epoch boundary (~2–3 days).
2.1 Deactivate Stake
- From the dashboard, locate the stake account you wish to deactivate.
- Select Deactivate.
- Confirm the transaction in your wallet. The stake status will change to Deactivating.
- Wait until the next epoch boundary for the status to change to Inactive.
2.2 Withdraw Stake
- Once Inactive, click Withdraw on the stake account.
- Approve the transaction in your wallet.
- Once the transaction is confirmed your SOL will return to your wallet balance.
3. View Epoch Rewards
- Navigate to the Epoch Rewards tab in the dashboard.
- Use the tabs to view Total Rewards or Epoch Rewards and their date range.
- View real-time rewards and a full history of MEV payouts, all in one place.
4. Claim Jito MEV Rewards
Understanding MEV Rewards Distribution
MEV rewards work differently from standard staking rewards:
- To compound these rewards and earn on them, you'll need to manually harvest them.
- Unlike inflation rewards, MEV rewards do not auto-compound.
- MEV rewards accumulate in your stake account's inactive balance.
To harvest your MEV rewards: Visit the Jito Harvest UI to claim and restake your accumulated MEV rewards. https://www.jito.network/harvest/
- Toggle the switch to off for “Convert MEV to JitoSOL” to convert MEV rewards into native SOL tokens.
- Sign the transaction and you'll be brought back to the same screen.
- Once harvested, the inactive SOL stake is returned to the withdrawal authority account (not the stake account). This is your regular SOL wallet.
Conclusion
stakefish is here to help you thrive with Solana staking. With our Solana staking dashboard, you can:
- Stake in easily in minutes
- Track both protocol and MEV rewards in real-time.
- View a complete history of MEV earnings for every stake account.
- Deactivate and withdraw stake at your convenience.
- Manage all your Solana stake accounts from one unified dashboard.
Start staking Solana today.
About stakefish
Founded in 2018 by Ethereum and Bitcoin veterans, stakefish is the leading validator for Proof of Stake blockchains. With support for 20+ networks, we combine institutional‑grade infrastructure with intuitive dashboards, transparent reporting, and a spotless slashing record so individuals and institutions alike can stake confidently while strengthening decentralized networks.
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