Solana LST Holders Earn $230 Million in Rewards Through Sanctum
Liquid staking users have collected roughly $230 million through Sanctum since 2024, while the protocol’s TVL reached a record 18.62 million SOL by late Q3 2026.
Solana users who chose liquid staking tokens instead of staking SOL through a traditional route have earned approximately $230 million in rewards through Sanctum since 2024, according to a post on X. On-chain data broadly supports the figure, with DefiLlama recording about $233.85 million in cumulative fees for Sanctum Validator LSTs, a measure that includes staking rewards and related fees.
Liquid Staking at Scale
A liquid staking token, or LST, represents SOL deposited with a staking provider. The underlying SOL continues generating staking rewards, while the receipt token remains tradable and usable across decentralized finance applications.
Sanctum supports more than 200 validator-specific or branded LSTs. The number could eventually exceed 1,000 if every branded token is included. These assets can be traded through Sanctum’s Infinity pool, a shared liquidity venue designed to support low-slippage swaps between different LSTs.
That shared infrastructure reduces the need for each new liquid staking token to establish its own market from the beginning. It also gives users a common venue for moving between validator-linked assets while keeping their staked exposure liquid.
TVL and Yield Growth
Sanctum’s expansion has been reflected in deposits. By late Q3 2026, the protocol’s total value locked reached a record 18.62 million SOL, worth more than $1.9 billion at the time. The figure represented an 11.9% quarter-over-quarter increase and marked 12 consecutive quarters of growth.
In August 2026, Sanctum briefly overtook Jupiter to become the largest Solana protocol by TVL. Reported yields have generally remained in the mid-to-high 5% APY range, with recent readings around 5.7% APY.
Returns can exceed base staking yields through validator-linked MEV and fee-sharing arrangements. Maximal extractable value, or MEV, refers to additional revenue validators can earn through transaction ordering. When validators share some of that revenue with stakers, LST holders receive an incremental return.
Sanctum has also introduced product and security changes, including a 2-of-3 multisig model in its consumer app. Under that structure, transactions require approval from two of three keys. The protocol has additionally launched Sanctum Wrapped SOL, or swSOL.
What This Means
The reward total highlights the scale liquid staking has achieved on Solana and shows why users may prefer tokenized staking positions over illiquid deposits. For Sanctum, rising TVL, a broad validator-token network and shared liquidity reinforce its role as core DeFi infrastructure. However, users remain exposed to smart-contract, validator, liquidity and multisig risks, while yields may change as staking economics and fee-sharing conditions evolve.