Blockchain analytics firm Nansen on Wednesday announced a partnership with Sanctum to launch nxSOL, a liquid staking token (LST) built on Solana – the second largest blockchain with a total value locked (TVL) of more than $13 billion.
The token allows users to earn staking rewards while maintaining liquidity, allowing them to withdraw or use funds at any time in Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Nansen said the project aims to make betting on Solana more liquid and user-friendly.
Sanctum – with a TVL of $2.5 billion, up significantly from $900 million in April – is the fourth largest protocol on Solana and helps increase the utility of deployed SOL. Currently, approximately 68% of SOL’s total supply has been staked – that’s approximately 372 million tokens worth $74.5 billion. According to Coinbase data, Staked SOL earns an average annual return of 4.38%.
The launch of nxSOL adds to Solana’s growing liquid staking market, which includes protocols like Jito and Marinade. JitoSOL currently owns over $2.9 billion in TVL, making it the largest liquid staking protocol on Solana. Meanwhile, Marinade’s liquid staking division (mSOL) has approximately $835 million in TVL and an average 30-day APY of 6.89%.
The addition of nxSOL reflects a broader shift at Solana, with liquid staking helping to drive growth and making the network more flexible, decentralized and easy to use. Solana’s broader ecosystem has seen strong growth this year as more investors are attracted to its fast transactions and low fees.
“nxSOL marks the next chapter in Nansen’s deployment journey, expanding our reach to Solana while staying true to our mission of making onchain participation simple, fluid and secure,” said Alex Svanevik, CEO of Nansen. “It’s about unlocking new horizons for users and builders as staking becomes an integral part of the onchain economy.”
The partnership comes as Nansen expands its striking footprint. Since acquiring validator platform StakewithUs last year, the company’s total deployed assets have grown from $60 million to more than $2 billion, spanning more than 20 blockchain networks and 350,000 stakers, according to a press release from The Defiant.