How to Unstake Your Solana LST: The Complete Guide to Getting Your SOL Back

You staked your SOL to a liquid staking token like INF, JitoSOL, or mSOL, and so far, the yields have been flowing. But now you need your SOL back! Maybe a DeFi opportunity caught your eye, you want to take profits, or you simply need the liquidity for something else.

The good news: getting your SOL back from an LST is pretty straightforward.

This guide walks through the main method for unstaking your Solana LSTs, from native protocol features to DEX swaps and unified liquidity solutions. Whether you currently hold INF, JupSOL, JitoSOL, or any of the 1,400+ LSTs on Solana, you will find the best way to get SOL back from LSTs for your specific needs.

Before diving into specific methods, it helps to understand what makes one unstaking option better than another for your particular needs. Three factors determine the quality of any unstaking experience: liquidity, fees, and speed.

Liquidity determines how much SOL you can unstake without moving the market against yourself. Deep liquidity means you can unstake large amounts with minimal price impact. Shallow liquidity means even modest amounts might result in slippage.

This matters more than you might think. On traditional AMMs (automated market makers, the smart contracts that power most DEX liquidity pools), larger trades face exponentially more slippage because they "eat through" available liquidity at progressively worse prices. A 1,000 SOL unstake might see 0.1% price impact, while a 100,000 SOL unstake could see several percent. That difference adds up quickly.

This is one of the reasons Sanctum built Infinity to provide zero price impact swaps for LSTs. Because Infinity reads exchange rates directly from on-chain stake pool data rather than using AMM formulas, trades of any size happen at fair value.

→ How Infinity facilitates swaps

The fragmentation problem makes this worse. Smaller LSTs often have thin liquidity pools because their trading volume does not justify deep liquidity provision. This creates a situation where users holding niche LSTs face worse unstaking conditions than those holding major tokens like JitoSOL or mSOL.

Fees come in several flavors. Protocol withdrawal fees are typically fixed, often around 0.1%. Dynamic fees adjust based on pool utilization. And DEX swap fees introduce slippage that varies with market conditions and trade size.

Marinade, for example, charges between 0.1% and 9% for instant unstaking depending on how much liquidity is available in their pool and how large your unstake request is. Jito charges a flat 0.1% withdrawal fee for delayed unstaking but recommends using Jupiter for instant liquidity to avoid that fee entirely.

The trade-off is usually straightforward: pay a fee for instant access, or wait a few days for cheaper or free withdrawal.

Speed breaks down into two categories: instant and delayed.

Instant unstaking gets SOL into your wallet within seconds through swaps or liquidity pools. You pay for that convenience through fees or slippage.

Delayed unstaking follows Solana's native epoch-based cooldown. An epoch lasts approximately 2 to 3 days, though the exact timing depends on network conditions. When you initiate a delayed unstake, your SOL becomes available at the next epoch boundary. If you unstake right at the start of an epoch, you might wait the full duration. If you unstake near the end, your wait could be much shorter.

Solana also enforces network-wide limits on how much stake can be deactivated per epoch. No more than 25% of total active stake can be deactivated within a single epoch. Under normal conditions, this does not affect individual users, but during periods of mass unstaking, your withdrawal might span multiple epochs.

TL;DR: Each major LST protocol offers direct unstaking through their own interface. Choose instant unstaking for immediate SOL (with fees) or delayed unstaking for lower costs (with a 2-4 day wait). Best for users who hold a single LST type and prefer working directly with that protocol.

Each major LST protocol offers its own unstaking interface. These are the most direct paths but come with protocol-specific quirks.

Marinade Finance was Solana's first liquid staking protocol and remains one of the largest. They offer two unstaking methods:

Instant Unstake: For mSOL holders, instant unstaking works as a swap with no protocol fee. However, price impact may apply depending on swap size and available liquidity. Marinade's liquidity router finds the best path to convert your mSOL to SOL immediately. Smaller amounts typically see minimal price impact, while larger unstakes may experience more slippage.

Delayed Unstake: You wait 1 epoch (approximately 2-3 days) for your SOL. A 0.1% fee applies, which gets redistributed to other mSOL holders to discourage timing games. Once the waiting period ends, return to the Marinade app to claim your SOL. There is no expiration date on claim tickets.

Timing matters for delayed unstakes. If you initiate during the last hours of an epoch, you may wait until the beginning of the epoch after next, not the next one.

How to access: Visit marinade.finance, connect your wallet, navigate to the unstaking interface, and choose your method.

Best for: mSOL holders who want direct protocol redemption. Use instant for smaller amounts with minimal price impact, or delayed for larger positions where the 0.1% fee beats potential slippage.

Jito built its reputation on MEV rewards, sharing maximal extractable value with stakers through its validator network. Their unstaking approach reflects a practical philosophy.

Instant Unstake: Jito actually recommends using Jupiter rather than their own instant unstake feature. Their documentation states this directly: "We suggest users sell their JitoSOL on Jupiter to receive instant liquidity and avoid any withdrawal fees." Jupiter's integration with the Sanctum Router often provides better rates than Jito's native instant unstake.

Delayed Unstake: A 0.1% withdrawal fee applies. You initiate the unstake, deactivate the resulting stake account, and wait for the next epoch boundary (up to 2 days). Then you withdraw the SOL to your wallet. The process involves multiple steps but guarantees no slippage.

The delayed method makes sense for large positions where slippage would exceed the 0.1% fee and the 2-day wait is acceptable.

How to access: Visit jito.network, connect your wallet, and navigate to the unstake interface. For instant liquidity, Jito will route you to Jupiter.

Best for: JitoSOL holders who prefer no slippage and can wait, or who want the precision of knowing exactly how much SOL they will receive.

Binance's BNSOL represents staked SOL on their platform. The redemption process differs from DeFi-native LSTs because Binance handles the backend.

Standard Redemption: Submit a redemption request through the Binance Earn dashboard. Processing takes up to 4 days, accounting for Solana's epoch-based unstaking and Binance's internal processes. During the waiting period, your BNSOL is frozen and no longer earns rewards.

Market Swap: For instant liquidity, trade BNSOL for SOL on Binance's spot market. This bypasses the redemption queue entirely but subjects you to market spreads and order book depth.

BNSOL can also be withdrawn to external wallets and used in DeFi protocols like Kamino, Drift, Jupiter, and Sanctum while still earning staking rewards. This opens up additional unstaking paths through decentralized venues.

How to access: Log into Binance, navigate to Earn, find your BNSOL position, and select redeem. Alternatively, trade on the spot market.

Best for: Binance users who hold BNSOL and prefer working within the Binance ecosystem.

TL;DR: Jupiter is Solana's leading DEX aggregator, offering best-in-class routing across dozens of liquidity sources. For LST trades specifically, Jupiter partners with Sanctum to tap into unified LST liquidity. Works with any LST, executes instantly, and handles routing automatically. Best for users who already use Jupiter and want a familiar interface for unstaking.

Jupiter has earned its reputation as essential Solana infrastructure. Their aggregator routes trades across dozens of liquidity sources, consistently finding the best execution for users. For LST unstaking specifically, Jupiter partners with Sanctum to access deep LST liquidity through the Sanctum Router. This collaboration means Jupiter users benefit from Sanctum's unified liquidity layer without needing to leave the interface they already know and trust.

Jupiter aggregates pricing from AMMs, order books, and specialized routers, including Sanctum's infrastructure. When you swap an LST for SOL on Jupiter, the aggregator searches all available paths and presents the best option.

The process is simple: visit jup.ag, connect your wallet, select your LST as the input token, select SOL as the output token, enter your amount, and execute the swap. Jupiter handles the routing automatically.

For LST swaps specifically, Jupiter integrates deeply with Sanctum's Router. This means even LSTs with no direct SOL liquidity pool can be unstaked through Jupiter. The Router unwraps the LST into its underlying stake account and routes through Sanctum's unified liquidity layer.

Price impact considerations: Jupiter displays the expected price impact before you confirm. For large amounts, this number matters. If price impact exceeds 1%, consider splitting your unstake into smaller transactions or using delayed unstaking through the native protocol.

Smart routing in action: Jupiter might route your trade through multiple hops. A JitoSOL to SOL swap could go JitoSOL to mSOL to SOL if that path offers better execution. For LST swaps, Jupiter frequently routes through Sanctum's infrastructure because it often provides the best rates. This partnership between Jupiter and Sanctum means you get optimal execution without needing to think about which protocol is doing the work behind the scenes.

How to access: Visit jup.ag or use Jupiter through any Solana wallet with built-in swap functionality.

Best for: Users who want flexibility, instant execution, and access to the best available rates across all liquidity sources.

TL;DR: Sanctum provides unified liquidity for all 1,400+ LSTs on Solana through a single interface at app.sanctum.so/unstake. The protocol automatically routes through its Reserve pool, Infinity liquidity layer, or external DEXs to find the best execution. This is the best way to get SOL back from LSTs if you want optimal rates, support for any token, and both instant and delayed options in one place.

Here is where things get interesting. Sanctum built infrastructure specifically to solve the fragmented liquidity problem that makes unstaking difficult for smaller LSTs and large positions alike.

Sanctum supports over 1,400 LSTs. That number is not a typo. In late 2024, Sanctum created a liquid staking token for every Solana validator, bringing the total past 1,400 and growing. More importantly, every single one of those LSTs can tap into Sanctum's unified liquidity layer.

This matters because liquidity fragmentation was the core problem with LST unstaking. Before Sanctum, each LST needed its own liquidity pools. Small LSTs had shallow pools. Users faced high slippage or could not unstake at all during volatile periods.

Sanctum solved this with three interconnected products:

Sanctum Reserve: A deep pool of liquid SOL that accepts any LST or stake account and returns SOL instantly. The Reserve charges a dynamic fee ranging from 0.01% to 3% based on utilization. Under normal conditions, expect fees around 10 basis points (0.1%). The Reserve maintains over 200,000 SOL in liquidity, providing a reliable backstop for the entire Solana staking ecosystem.

Sanctum Router: Integrated into Jupiter, the Router enables swaps between any two LSTs even when no direct trading pair exists. It works by unwrapping and rewrapping stake accounts. If you want to go from a small validator LST to SOL, the Router pulls out the underlying stake account and routes it through the most efficient path. This unified all LST liquidity into a single accessible layer.

Sanctum Infinity: A multi-LST liquidity pool that facilitates zero-slippage swaps at fair value. Unlike traditional AMMs that use constant-product formulas, Infinity reads LST exchange rates directly from on-chain stake pool data. This means trades of any size happen at fair value with no price impact. Infinity has facilitated over 9.6 million SOL in trading volume since launch.

Sanctum's unstaking interface consolidates everything into a single, clean experience.

Step 1: Visit app.sanctum.so/unstake and connect your Solana wallet.

Step 2: Select the LST you want to unstake. The interface shows all LSTs in your wallet.

Step 3: Enter the amount you want to unstake. The interface displays the expected SOL output, fees, and the route Sanctum will use.

Step 4: Choose between instant unstaking (pay a small fee, get SOL now) or delayed unstaking (0.1% fee, wait for epoch boundary).

Step 5: Confirm the transaction in your wallet. For instant unstakes, SOL arrives within seconds.

The interface shows everything before you commit: exact fees, expected output, and which liquidity sources are being used. No surprises.

When you unstake through Sanctum, the protocol evaluates multiple paths:

• Direct swap through Infinity if the LST is in the pool and liquidity is available
• Routing through the Reserve if that offers better execution
• Combining paths through Jupiter's aggregator if external liquidity is superior
• Using the Router to unwrap stake accounts when needed

You do not need to understand these mechanics. Sanctum handles the optimization and displays the result. If one path offers 0.05% better execution than another, Sanctum routes there automatically.

This includes routing through Jupiter when their aggregator finds better rates. Sanctum and Jupiter work together bidirectionally: Jupiter taps into Sanctum's liquidity layer for LST trades, and Sanctum routes through Jupiter when that provides superior execution. This partnership ensures users get optimal rates regardless of which interface they choose. Two teams, shared infrastructure, one goal: the best possible unstaking experience for Solana users.

This is Sanctum's defining feature for unstaking. Whether you hold:

• Major LSTs like JitoSOL, mSOL, or JupSOL
• Validator-specific LSTs like heliusSOL, dSOL, or bonkSOL
• Newer LSTs from smaller validators
• BNSOL accessed through DeFi (not directly through Binance)
• Any of the 1,400+ LSTs in the Sanctum ecosystem

You can unstake them all through the same interface with access to the same unified liquidity.

Before Sanctum, the LST landscape looked like isolated islands. Each LST had its own liquidity pools, its own trading pairs, its own depth. Moving between them required finding the right pool, accepting whatever slippage was available, or waiting days for native unstaking.

Sanctum connected the islands. The Reserve provides baseline SOL liquidity available to every LST. The Router enables trading between any two LSTs regardless of whether a direct pair exists. Infinity aggregates everything into a single pool that can grow without limits.

The December 2023 mSOL depeg illustrated why this matters. When heavy selling pressure hit mSOL, it temporarily traded below its fair value because Marinade's stake pool was not yet integrated with Sanctum's Router. Users could not access Sanctum's SOL reserves or route through alternative paths. Sanctum's infrastructure would have provided a release valve for that selling pressure.

Since launch, the Router and Reserve have processed over $460 million in volume through Jupiter alone. That volume represents unstaking requests, LST swaps, and liquidity provision that would have been fragmented or impossible without unified infrastructure.

Ready to unstake? Visit app.sanctum.so/unstake to access unified liquidity for all your LSTs.

The LST landscape on Solana has matured dramatically. What started with a handful of protocols and fragmented liquidity has evolved into an ecosystem of over 1,400 LSTs with unified infrastructure connecting them all.

Sanctum sits at the center of that infrastructure. Whether you hold mSOL, JitoSOL, a validator-specific LST, or something more obscure, Sanctum provides the same level of service: intelligent routing, deep liquidity, and transparent fees.

For users holding major LSTs, Sanctum often matches or beats the rates available through native protocol interfaces. For users holding smaller LSTs, Sanctum is frequently the only option for instant unstaking at reasonable rates. And for large positions that would move markets on traditional DEXs, Sanctum's fair-value swaps through Infinity eliminate slippage entirely.

One interface. All LSTs. Best routes. That is the value proposition, and it is why Sanctum has become the default unstaking solution for Solana stakers who care about execution quality.

What is the fastest way to unstake my LST?

Instant unstaking through Sanctum or Jupiter provides the fastest path to SOL. Both options complete within seconds. Sanctum evaluates routes across its Reserve, Infinity pool, and external liquidity sources to find optimal execution. Jupiter aggregates pricing across all Solana DEXs and the Sanctum Router. For most LSTs and standard amounts, either option returns SOL to your wallet almost immediately after confirming the transaction.

Why do some unstaking methods have fees?

Fees compensate liquidity providers and protocols for the service of instant conversion. When you unstake instantly, someone else is providing the SOL you receive. That capital has an opportunity cost. Fees ensure sufficient liquidity remains available when users need it most. Dynamic fees that increase with utilization prevent pools from draining during high-demand periods.

What happens if I unstake during high market volatility?

Volatility affects instant unstaking more than delayed unstaking. During volatile periods, liquidity providers may widen spreads or reduce exposure, increasing slippage on DEX swaps. Dynamic fees on protocols like Marinade may increase as utilization rises. Delayed unstaking locks in your exchange rate at initiation and is unaffected by subsequent price movements. If volatility is extreme, consider delayed unstaking or splitting large positions across multiple transactions.

Can I unstake an obscure or small LST that has no liquidity?

Yes, through Sanctum. The Router enables unstaking for any LST in the Sanctum ecosystem, currently over 1,400 tokens. Even LSTs with zero dedicated liquidity pools can be unstaked because the Router extracts the underlying stake account and routes it through unified liquidity. This is one of Sanctum's core value propositions: small LSTs get the same liquidity access as major ones.

Is it better to swap on Jupiter or unstake through Sanctum?

Both are excellent options built on shared infrastructure. Jupiter and Sanctum work closely together: Jupiter integrates Sanctum's Router for LST trades, and Sanctum routes through Jupiter when that provides better execution. This partnership means you benefit from the same underlying liquidity regardless of which interface you choose. The main difference is user experience. Sanctum's unstake interface at app.sanctum.so/unstake is purpose-built for LST unstaking, with clear fee displays and both instant and delayed options. Jupiter offers the familiar aggregator experience with access to all token pairs, not just LSTs. Choose whichever interface you prefer knowing that both teams are working together to get you the best rates.

How long does delayed unstaking take on Solana?

Delayed unstaking takes 1 to 2 epochs, with each epoch lasting approximately 2 to 3 days. Your exact wait depends on when during the epoch you initiate the unstake. Starting early in an epoch means waiting nearly the full duration. Starting near the end means shorter waits. After initiating, your stake enters a "deactivating" state and stops earning rewards. Once the epoch boundary passes, you can withdraw your SOL.

What is the difference between Sanctum Reserve and Sanctum Infinity?

The Reserve is a pool of liquid SOL that services instant unstaking for any LST or stake account. It charges a dynamic fee based on utilization. Infinity is a multi-LST liquidity pool that enables zero-slippage swaps between LSTs at their fair exchange rates. When you unstake through Sanctum, the protocol might use the Reserve, Infinity, or both, depending on which path offers better execution. You see the optimal route before confirming.

Do I lose any staking rewards when I unstake?

You do not lose previously earned rewards. LSTs are reward-bearing tokens whose value increases relative to SOL as staking rewards accumulate. When you unstake, you receive the current value of your LST, which includes all accrued rewards. For delayed unstaking, rewards continue accruing until you initiate the unstake. Once deactivation begins, reward accumulation stops. For instant unstaking, you receive the market value of your LST at the moment of swap, reflecting all accumulated rewards up to that point.