SOL under a lockup, for example from a vesting or grant arrangement, behaves differently from ordinary SOL. The short version: it can be staked with Marinade, but it cannot be liquid staked.

Liquid staking requires your SOL to leave your control and enter the Marinade stake pool, with mSOL issued back to you in exchange. A lockup exists specifically to prevent that transfer, so the deposit cannot happen.

This is a property of the lockup itself, not a Marinade restriction. It applies to every liquid staking token on Solana.

A lockup restricts withdrawing SOL from a stake account. It does not stop that stake account from being delegated to a validator. That is why locked SOL can still earn staking rewards while remaining locked.

The process is the same as moving any existing stake account to Marinade. Marinade delegates it across the validator set chosen by our Stake Auction Marketplace, so your locked SOL earns the same way an ordinary Marinade Native position does.

Your lockup is untouched by this. The unlock date, the terms, and your authority over the account all stay exactly as they were. See Migrate Stake Account to Marinade for the steps.

If your SOL is held in a vesting contract rather than a stake account, or you are not sure which you have, start a conversation with us and we will confirm what applies to your setup.

Q: Can I get mSOL for my locked SOL?
A: No. mSOL requires a transfer that the lockup blocks.

Q: Does staking locked SOL change when it unlocks?
A: No. Delegating does not alter the lockup schedule. The unlock date is set by the lockup, not by staking.

Q: Can I unstake before the unlock date?
A: You can undelegate, but the SOL stays subject to the lockup and still cannot be withdrawn until it expires.

Q: Do I earn less because the SOL is locked?
A: No. Rewards depend on the delegation, not on whether a lockup is attached.

Q: I already have a stake account. Can I move it to Marinade?
A: Yes, whether or not it has a lockup. See Migrate Stake Account to Marinade.