Marinade Recipes let you stake SOL and receive your staking rewards in a token of your choice instead of in more SOL. Your SOL principal stays in SOL the whole time. Only the yield is converted, each epoch, into the token you picked. Marinade Recipes are also called Customized Rewards. You may see either name in the Marinade app or community channels. They refer to the same feature.
The USDG recipe was the first one available. Recipes now support a range of tokens, with more added over time.
How It Works
Your principal stays in SOL and is delegated through Marinade's native staking. It is never swapped, so you keep full price exposure to SOL.
Each epoch, the staking rewards from your SOL are converted on-chain into your chosen token and sent to your wallet.
You earn a SOL staking rate, just paid in another token. Converting your rewards does not change your rate of return. Once you hold the payout token, its market price then applies to it like any other asset.
Payouts arrive automatically once per epoch (roughly every 2 days). There is no claim button.
What Tokens Can I Earn?
You choose your payout token when you stake. Current options include:
Stablecoins: USDG, USDC, USDT, and EURC (a euro stablecoin).
Major crypto: BTC (paid as cbBTC), ETH (paid as WETH), and MNDE.
Tokenized gold: paid as Tether Gold.
Tokenized equities: such as the S&P 500 (SPYx) and Nvidia (NVDAx).
For the current, complete list, see the Marinade Recipes product page.
How Do I Start?
Pick a recipe and stake your SOL in the Marinade app. The process is the same as Marinade Native; you simply choose your payout token. See Stake Your SOL with Marinade Native for the step-by-step.
Good to Know
For some assets you receive a tokenized version rather than the native asset. BTC pays out as cbBTC (a Bitcoin-backed token from Coinbase), ETH as WETH, gold as Tether Gold, and the equities as Backed's xStocks (SPYx and NVDAx). These are issued by third parties, not by Marinade.
Some payout tokens carry issuer restrictions. Tokenized equities such as SPYx and NVDAx are generally available only to non-U.S. persons.
For USDG, you can send rewards to a different wallet than the one you stake from. This redirect option is currently available for USDG only and may expand to other tokens later.
Keep your payout token account open. If it is closed, payouts pause until you reopen it. Up to 2 weeks of missed rewards are recovered automatically once it is active again.
A small amount of slippage applies when your rewards are swapped each epoch. Your SOL principal is never swapped.
Taxes are your responsibility. Marinade does not provide tax advice and is not responsible for your tax obligations. You can review your reward transactions on a Solana explorer such as Solscan.
Open a token account for your payout token: Rewards arrive as token airdrops, so your wallet needs an open account for the token your Recipe pays out in. Marinade does not open it for you. Create it before or right after you stake (a tiny swap for that token works), and keep it open. If it is closed, payouts pause. Up to 2 weeks of missed payouts are recovered when you reopen it, and anything older is lost.
FAQ
How do I choose my reward token?
There is no separate "USDG strategy" or standalone product. When you stake SOL with Marinade Native, you simply select the reward token you want to receive — SOL (default) or any available Recipe token such as USDG, USDC, cbBTC, and others. You can also change the reward token on an existing position — see How to Change Staking Reward Token.
What happens to my SOL when I use a Recipe?
Nothing changes for your principal. Your SOL stays in native Solana stake accounts under your control and is never swapped. Only the staking rewards earned each epoch are converted into your chosen reward token and sent to your wallet. You keep full SOL price exposure on your staked amount, and Marinade cannot move, lock, or seize it.
I already stake with Marinade. Can I switch to a Recipe?
Yes. If you already stake with Marinade Native, you can change your reward token at any time — see How to Change Staking Reward Token. The change takes effect from the next epoch.
Can I exit a Recipe or stop earning the reward token?
There is no separate "off switch" — you exit by unstaking (instant or delayed, same as any Marinade Native position), or you can switch your reward token back to SOL to keep staking without the Recipe. Rewards already delivered to your wallet stay yours and are not affected.
Do my Recipe rewards show up in the Staking Rewards Report?
No. The Staking Rewards Report covers SOL-denominated rewards only (Marinade Native Max Yield and Marinade Select). Recipe rewards are airdropped to your wallet each epoch, so you can track them in your wallet's transaction history or on a Solana explorer such as Solscan. No report is generated for them.