‘Lido for Solana’ is a Lido-DAO governed liquid staking protocol for the Solana blockchain. Anyone who stakes their SOL tokens with Lido will be issued an on-chain representation of SOL staking position with Lido validators, called stSOL. This will allow Solana token holders to get liquidity on their staked assets which can then be traded, or further utilized as collateral in DeFi products.
stSOL is the tokenized form of staked SOL native to Lido. Lido for Solana is backed by several industry-leading staking providers. It makes staked SOL liquid and allows participation with any amount of SOL.
A SOL token holder connects their wallet and deposits their tokens into the Lido program. They immediately receive stSOL tokens that represent a share of the total pool and the Lido program delegates SOL to Lido-controlled validators on the Solana network. When these delegations accrue rewards on the allotted stake, the total SOL under management grows and this increases the value of stSOL tokens.
stSOL can be used as one would use SOL, allowing holders to earn SOL staking rewards in addition to rewards through integrated platforms like Saber and Raydium.
## How does stSOL work?
stSOL is the liquid token that represents your share of the total SOL pool deposited with Lido. As soon as you delegate to the pool, you receive the newly minted stSOL. Over time, as your SOL delegation accrues rewards, the value of your stSOL appreciates. There is no waiting time for receiving stSOL tokens. When a user delegates their SOL tokens they do not need to perform or wait for the completion of any delegation or activation steps, as is the norm in traditional staking. The user can instantly exchange stSOL for SOL at any time in the open market.
## How many stSOL are in circulation?
The supply of stSOL tracks the number of SOL deposited into the Lido contract and the current exchange rate. For example, if there are 1000 SOL in the Lido contract and the stSOL-SOL exchange rate is 2 then the total stSOL in circulation are approximately 500. This is because the exchange rate updates only once per epoch and the exact number of stSOL in circulation can be observed at epoch boundaries. The total supply of stSOL can be tracked via the https://solana.lido.fi/api/stsol?q=totalcoins