Marinade Native and Marinade Liquid (mSOL) are two separate products. Only Liquid staking issues mSOL. Changing your reward token on a Native position does not convert it to mSOL.
Why You Don't See mSOL
On Marinade Native, your SOL is delegated directly and stays in your own stake account. You never receive a token that represents it. The Choose your rewards dropdown on the Native stake panel only sets what your rewards are paid in:
SOL is the default. Rewards stay in your stake account and compound automatically.
Any other token (BTC, ETH, MNDE, USDC, USDT, USDG, EURC, gold, SPY, or NVDA) is paid to your wallet each epoch instead of compounding. Your staked SOL itself is unchanged. The picker in the app is the source of truth for what is currently offered.
Choosing MNDE does not give you mSOL. MNDE is Marinade's governance token and is unrelated to mSOL.
On Marinade Liquid, you hold mSOL itself, a token in your wallet that represents your staked SOL and its rewards. This is the only Marinade product that mints mSOL.
How To Move From Native to mSOL
There is no direct switch. You have to unstake and stake again.
Open the Marinade app and go to your Native position.
Choose Unstake. Instant Unstake returns your SOL immediately for a dynamic fee, typically 0.10% to 0.40%. Delayed Unstake pays out after one epoch, about 2 days, and costs a flat 0.003 SOL, charged from your wallet's SOL balance rather than deducted from the amount you unstake.
Once the SOL is in your wallet, go to the Earn tab and click the Marinade Liquid banner below the Marinade Native card (or go directly to https://app.marinade.finance/earn/liquid/).
Stake your SOL there. You receive mSOL, which you can then use in DeFi.
You will have a gap in rewards. Your new mSOL position needs the underlying stake to activate, so plan for roughly one epoch of reduced earning across the switch.
FAQ
Q: Can I keep earning while I switch?
A: No. The SOL has to leave staking before it can be staked again as Liquid. Instant Unstake shortens the gap but costs a fee.
Q: Can I just change my reward token to mSOL?
A: No. mSOL is not one of the reward token options, and the dropdown only changes how rewards are paid, not what your position is.
Q: I'm earning MNDE on Native. Do I lose my MNDE if I switch to Liquid?
A: You keep any MNDE already paid to your wallet. Going forward, Liquid staking pays no MNDE: rewards come through the mSOL exchange rate instead.
Q: Does moving to mSOL change my risk?
A: Yes. On Marinade Native, no Marinade smart contract ever holds your SOL. It stays in stake accounts you own: Marinade holds only the stake authority, which lets it choose validators, while you keep the withdraw authority. mSOL is a token issued by the Marinade stake pool program, which does hold the underlying SOL, so it carries smart contract risk.
Q: Why does the app show my staked SOL but no mSOL token in my wallet?
A: Because only Liquid staking mints mSOL. See My mSOL Is Missing From My Positions if you expected mSOL from a Liquid stake specifically.