TL;DR: Marinade Borrow lets you borrow against your staked SOL without giving up staking rewards. You choose how much to borrow, Marinade puts together the collateral as mSOL, and a routing engine places your position on whichever lending venue has the best rates.
How it works
Instead of asking how much you want to deposit, Marinade Borrow asks how much you want to borrow. It then assembles the collateral automatically. It draws first from your external stake accounts, then your Marinade Native position, then your idle SOL, and finally your idle mSOL. You see exactly what will be used before you confirm, and nothing moves until you approve the transaction.
Your collateral is held as mSOL, so it keeps earning staking rewards the whole time it backs your loan. Only the minimum amount needed for your loan gets converted. A small loan against a large Native position leaves the rest untouched.
Your position lives on an established lending venue, currently Kamino or Jupiter Lend. The venue sets the market parameters (max LTV, liquidation threshold, borrow rate), and the app shows the exact values for your position.
What to keep an eye on
Your LTV (debt divided by collateral) is the number that matters. If it crosses the liquidation threshold shown in the app, part of your collateral can be sold to repay debt, usually with a penalty.
When you borrow SOL, mSOL and SOL move together, so LTV drifts up slowly through interest. Check in on the timescale of weeks. When you borrow a stablecoin, a drop in SOL's price raises your LTV directly, so watch it closely.
To lower your LTV at any time, repay some debt or add collateral. Both are available in the app.
Repaying
Repay part or all of your debt whenever you want. There are no fixed terms or schedules; interest simply accrues while the debt is open. Repaying reduces your debt, but it does not automatically return your collateral: once fully repaid, withdraw your collateral separately to get it back in your wallet as mSOL, which you can hold, use in DeFi, or unstake back to SOL.
FAQ
Q: What do I need to start?
A: A Solana wallet with SOL, mSOL, or an existing staking position. Marinade Borrow calculates your max borrow from what it finds.
Q: Do I need SOL in my wallet to open a borrow position?
A: Yes. Keep a SOL buffer in your wallet to cover Solana network transaction fees. Do not send SOL to Marinade to cover them. If you are borrowing against mSOL, around 0.045 SOL is enough, since no conversion is needed. Other collateral sources are converted to mSOL first, and each conversion is its own transaction, so keep more on hand. The app tells you if your wallet cannot cover the transaction.
Q: Does borrowing stop my staking rewards?
A: No. Your collateral is mSOL, which earns Marinade's staking APY the entire time your loan is open. That's the point of the design.
Q: Can I keep my Marinade Native position and still borrow?
A: Yes, for the most part. Only the portion needed to back your loan gets converted to mSOL, sized to the loan you take. The rest stays native.
Q: I hold mSOL. Can I use Marinade Borrow, or do I need to unstake first?
A: You can borrow directly against your mSOL, no unstaking needed. mSOL is the asset Borrow is built around, everything else gets converted to mSOL under the hood, so an mSOL holder needs zero conversion steps. You just need slightly more than dust amounts (roughly $2 of mSOL) plus the SOL fee buffer described above.
Q: Who sets the interest rate?
A: The lending venue your position sits on. Borrow APY is variable and follows supply and demand in that market. Marinade shows it to you but doesn't control it.
Q: Which protocol will my loan end up on?
A: The routing engine picks the venue with the best rates at the time you open the position, currently Kamino or Jupiter Lend. The app shows you where your position lives.
Q: Why is my LTV allowed to be so high in the SOL market?
A: Because mSOL and SOL are price-bound. The pair doesn't have the volatility risk that forces conservative ratios in ordinary lending markets. The remaining risk is interest accrual, which moves slowly and predictably.
Q: What happens if I do nothing?
A: Interest keeps accruing and your LTV drifts upward, while staking rewards on your collateral partially offset it. Left alone long enough, any position with debt can eventually reach the liquidation threshold. Check in periodically, or set a comfortable buffer from the start.
Q: Can I get liquidated even if the market doesn't move?
A: Yes, eventually, through interest accrual alone if you never repay or add collateral. This is slow in price-bound markets, but it's not zero.
Q: What are the risks?
A: Smart contract risk on Marinade's liquid staking contracts and the lending venue's contracts. Liquidation risk if your LTV crosses the threshold. Variable rate risk, since borrow APY can rise. And in stablecoin markets, price risk on SOL.
Q: What does Marinade charge?
A: The costs you see in the app are the ones that apply: the venue's borrow APY on your debt, plus any fees shown at transaction time. No hidden charges beyond what's displayed before you confirm.
Q: Where do I see the exact parameters for my position?
A: On your position screen in the app. Every number that matters, including your LTV, the liquidation threshold, and both APYs, is shown live for the specific market your position sits in.
Want more detail?
The full breakdown of every number on your position screen, borrowing pairs, net APY, and risks: