Marinade DAO executes Token Exchange Program to align with leading Solana builders

Marinade is pleased to officially announce the next chapter of the DAO through the execution of the Token Exchange Program. Through the token exchange, Marinade is aligning with a collection of key builders across the Solana ecosystem.

As shared in the Marinade DAO Forum, The Token Exchange Program will enable Marinade to exchange a total of 9.835M MNDE for 483k USDC and 500k SLND. An additional 1.2M MNDE will be distributed in exchange for 1M SOL staked to Marinade for at least a year.

Among the Solana DeFi protocols participating in the exchange with Marinade are: Raydium, Solend, Port Finance and others. Validators participating are Blockdaemon, Staking Facilities, Laine, Shinobi Systems, Stakin, Cogent Crypto and Solana Compass.

At the beginning of 2022, Marinade shared that one of its key goals for the year was to decentralize the organization from the core founding team into a community-driven DAO. In April, on-chain governance was activated. This concept came with a unique wrinkle: locking MNDE governance tokens into NFT Chefs and using them to vote. The Token Exchange is the next step in decentralizing the DAO by giving these key builders a vested interest in the future of the protocol. This exchange will enable Marinade to not only work towards its decentralization and staking goals for the remainder of 2022, but pursue new projects that will potentially drive Solana performance.

The Token Exchange aligns with Marinade’s foundations as a project launched without venture capital backing or an IDO. It was founded in the spring of 2021 following a successful Solana x Serum Hackathon event and initial funding came from the Solana Foundation and Serum. Marinade launched its mainnet stake pool in August, 2021 with the collateralized SOL token, mSOL (Marinated SOL). Marinade launched its governance token, MNDE, in the fall of 2021 with no presale or IDO, and officially began its path towards an on-chain DAO.

Since launch, Marinade’s stake pool has grown into the largest on Solana with over 7 million SOL staked, distributing stake to over 400 high-performing validators, all of whom are outside the “superminority” — the 27 largest validators that make up 33% of the network stake. The protocol earns revenue primarily through fees generated from its Solana stake pool.

Right now, liquid staking tokens on Solana like mSOL represent only about 3% of all SOL currently staked, which is about 75% of all SOL on the market.

The partners participating in the Marinade Token exchange will receive a Limited Edition Chef NFT with MNDE tokens locked inside. In order to unlock the MNDE tokens, all holders of Chef NFTs must initiate a 30-day unlocking period. Upon completion, the NFT is burned and the MNDE tokens are returned to the holder’s wallet and free to trade.

Click here to view the full list of participants and amounts of the Marinade Token Exchange Program.

Statements from the participants of the Marinade Token Exchange Program

Solana Protocols:

Raydium: “Having partnered with Marinade from the start, it’s been amazing to see their progress in driving the decentralization of Solana. The token exchange program is another big step towards this objective so Raydium is super excited to be a part of it.”

Solend: “It’s been great working with marinade the last 8 months. So when they came to us with the token exchange program we were excited to jump on board and believe it will keep us aligned for the long term. We look forward to continue supporting further decentralization of the Solana network with Marinade.”

Friktion Labs: “Friktion is excited to support the growth and scale of Marinade, Solana’s leading liquid staking token, through the Token Exchange Program. Marinade is a pillar for decentralization in the ecosystem and we look forward to building powerful DeFi money legos with them going forward.”

Crema Finance: “It’s our pleasure to work with Marinade Finance in the way towards buidling a better and more decentralized Solana. The combination of liquid staking and concentrated liquidity is gonna show us the real magic.”

Port Finance: “Marinade is the first and the largest staking project on Solana. We are really impressed with their shipping speed and commitment to decentralization. It is a great pleasure that we can be part of their token exchange program to further strengthen our mutual partnership.”

Solana Validators:

Laine: “Marinade was one of the early innovators in stake pools on Solana and has brought about a paradigm shift for validators. Thanks to pools like Marinade it is easier than ever to achieve sustainable economics running a validator and the barrier to entry has been lowered considerably. As a validator that benefitted from Marinade’s stake early on and has been closely following their journey there was no question about participating in the token exchange program and being part of the ongoing growth and development of this incredible team.”

Staking Facilities: “We’ve always seen Solana as a uniquely different approach to scaling and composing web3 applications. As the largest liquid staking protocol on Solana, Marinade is key in pioneering new ideas around staking, increasing decentralization, and incentivizing good validator performance, all while unlocking massive utility for staked SOL. We’re thrilled to support Marinade in its mission over the coming years.”

Shinobi Systems: “I’m participating because I believe in the importance of Marinade’s position within the Solana Ecosystem. Marinade has always been a force of good, helping to spread stake to smaller validators which strengthens Solana by diversifying the network. I also have had great experiences with the Marinade core team whom I know have the interests of Solana at heart, so I’m happy to do my small part to support Marinade.”

Stakin: “Solana has one of the fastest growing ecosystems and fastest blockchain, run by thousands of independent operators such as ourselves. Liquid staking solutions like Marinade are an important piece of this thriving ecosystem. We intend to take part in the decentralized governance of Marinade and look forward to contributing to the growth of the protocol and Solana’s ecosystem.”

Blockdaemon: “As a long standing contributor to the Solana ecosystem, Blockdaemon is proud to participate in Marinade’s decentralized governance. Liquidity is the lifeblood of web3, and Marinade’s liquid staking solution plays an important role in Solana’s vibrant DeFi ecosystem. Blockdaemon continues to be an active and engaged operator on the Solana network, and is excited to contribute to the growth of the Marinade protocol.”

Solana Compass: “It’s really exciting to be part of Marinade’s exchange program and validator council. They are going above and beyond to help decentralize and support Solana’s validator ecosystem; indeed without their stake pool it is unlikely I, nor many others, would have had the confidence to launch my validator independently.”

Cogent Crypto: “”Marinade does an incredible job helping new validators get initial stake and reduce the overall risk of starting a new validator. I think many of the independent validators like our selves would not have started if it weren’t for decentralizooors like Marinade. Seeing this value provided, it was a no brainer to participate in the marinade token exchange program.”

About Marinade

Marinade is the first and leading non-custodial liquid staking protocol built on the Solana blockchain. Its mission is to strengthen and decentralize Solana and onboard people around the world to decentralized finance. Marinade is the creator of the mSOL, a liquid staking token that you receive when you stake SOL to Marinade. These mSOL tokens represent your staked SOL but can be utilized across the leading projects in the Solana DeFi ecosystem in addition to accruing staking rewards. Marinade operates as a DAO thru the MNDE governance token and NFT Chefs.

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Marinade Media Contact:

Brandon Tucker, Head of Communications: Press@marinade.finance