Network Update
Feb 10, 2026
How Marinade is Using USDG to Launch a New Kind of Product on Solana
What is Marinade Finance?
Marinade Finance is one of Solana’s largest and most trusted liquid staking and delegation protocols, with over $2 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL).
Marinade acts as an optimization layer for stakers. Rather than manually selecting individual validators, users stake with Marinade, which automatically distributes stake across a curated set of high-performing, community-aligned validators. This approach ensures users receive competitive returns while contributing to the security and resilience of the ecosystem.
Marinade by the numbers:
Over 8M SOL TVL across products
150K+ total users
Delegates to over 100 top-performing validators across the ecosystem
Why Marinade Joined Global Dollar Network
Marinade joined Global Dollar Network to anchor its staking products to a stablecoin built for a regulated DeFi environment. To decouple staking returns from the underlying asset (SOL), Marinade needed a stable reward currency users could trust as a dependable store of value. USDG’s regulatory oversight and transparent backing provide that foundation.
The economics also matter. As a GDN member, Marinade earns rewards generated from USDG’s reserve assets, creating a sustainable engine for funding its ecosystem. And because GDN includes leading exchanges, custodians, and protocols, the USDG rewards users receive are liquid, transferable, and widely usable across Solana.
By adopting USDG for reward distribution, Marinade helps expand the stablecoin’s footprint across Solana and supports a more liquid, user-friendly staking experience.
How Marinade is Using USDG
Staking traditionally forces a choice: lock SOL for long-term yield or keep liquidity in dollars. Users wanting to spend or reinvest their rewards often need to claim, swap, and manage volatility manually. Marinade’s integration of USDG removes this friction.
Marinade introduced a new model: Stake SOL, earn USDG.
This product decouples the staked asset from the reward asset. Users deposit SOL into a dedicated zero-commission validator managed by Marinade. Instead of accruing more SOL, the validator automatically converts all rewards, including 100% of priority fees and MEV rewards, into USDG.
Automated rewards: Payouts occur every epoch (approximately every 2 days), delivering USDG directly to the user’s wallet without manual claiming or swapping.
Zero-commission: Marinade passes through 100% of the rewards generated by the validator, ensuring stakers capture the full value of their position.
Ecosystem alignment: More predictable rewards help drive broader SOL staking, strengthening the network as a whole
To date, Marinade’s USDG Recipe has hit a TVL of over 249,000 SOL.
A New Model for Staking on Solana
Integrating USDG into Marinade’s staking architecture fundamentally transforms the value proposition for SOL holders. By decoupling the asset you hold from the reward you receive, investors can maintain their long-term position in Solana while maintaining short-term liquidity.
This collaboration also highlights the role regulated stablecoins can play in advancing decentralized networks. USDG provides a reliable, compliant reward asset that strengthens the economic foundation of staking and supports broader participation across Solana. It bridges long-term network alignment with short-term utility, setting the stage for more innovative reward systems across the ecosystem.
About Global Dollar Network
Global Dollar Network is an open network designed to accelerate and reward global stablecoin adoption. It is powered by Global Dollar (USDG), a safe and trusted stablecoin issued by Paxos Digital Singapore Pte. Ltd and Paxos Issuance Europe Oy. If you’re interested in learning how your company can join Global Dollar Network, reach out here.