Imagine if your paycheck could work two jobs at once — same hours, same money in, but double the output. That’s basically what Solayer is doing for your staked SOL.
Instead of just securing the Solana network and earning one stream of rewards, Solayer lets your SOL (or certain liquid staking tokens like mSOL, JitoSOL, BlazeSOL, or INF) take on an extra shift: securing other networks and services called Actively Validated Services — or AVS for short.
In return? You get paid twice: your regular staking rewards plus whatever those extra networks are willing to give for your security.
Why It’s a Big Deal
Every new blockchain service — whether it’s a fancy new rollup, a DeFi protocol, or some niche data availability layer — needs to be secure. Usually, they’d have to find their own validators and convince people to stake capital with them.
That’s a slow, uphill climb.
With @Solayer , these services can “borrow” security from SOL that’s already staked. For them, it’s like plugging into a power grid instead of building their own generator. For you, it’s like getting paid rent for something you were already using.
The Simple Flow
Here’s what actually happens when you use Solayer:
1. You stake SOL or an eligible LST with Solayer.
2. You get a token back — like sSOL — that proves your stake and still earns yield.
3. Solayer delegates your stake to validators who also do extra work for AVS.
4. Those AVS pay rewards, which get added to your regular staking income.
5. You can unstake whenever you like — with normal Solana delays for SOL, or per-token rules for LSTs.
It’s like renting out your car while you’re at work — it’s still yours, but now it’s earning for you in two ways.
What’s an AVS?
AVS stands for Actively Validated Service — basically, a service that actually needs ongoing work from validators. Not just “lock up your tokens and hope,” but real-time participation in keeping something running smoothly.
This could be:
A rollup doing transaction processing
A decentralized oracle network
A new data storage layer
The more AVS join Solayer’s marketplace, the more earning opportunities there are for stakers.
The Ambitious Side Project: InfiniSVM
While most projects stop at building a marketplace, Solayer’s also working on InfiniSVM — a hardware-accelerated version of Solana’s virtual machine that can handle huge workloads at crazy speeds.
The idea is to connect multiple execution clusters together so they can scale “infinitely” — perfect for AVS that want more horsepower without clogging up the main Solana chain.
The Token Cast
LAYER — Solayer’s own governance and incentive token, traded on major exchanges.
sSOL — Your proof of stake with Solayer, still earning yield.
sUSD — A yield-bearing stablecoin backed by real-world assets (think U.S. treasuries), with plans for an Emerald Card so you can actually spend it.
Safety First
Solayer’s core restaking program was audited by Halborn in August 2024, and the code is open for anyone to inspect. That’s a good start — but it’s still crypto.
Things that can go wrong:
Bugs in the contracts
AVS misbehaving, leading to slashing
Liquidity delays if you use certain LSTs
This isn’t risk-free yield, and Solayer doesn’t pretend it is.
Why Use Solayer Instead of Just Staking SOL?
With Solayer, you:
Earn from two reward streams
Can keep using your LSTs instead of unwrapping them
Get access to a growing AVS marketplace
Tap into tech like InfiniSVM that could boost future opportunities
Plain staking is simpler — but it leaves extra yield on the table.
Things to Keep in Mind
More AVS = more potential slashing scenarios.
Your liquidity depends on what you’re staking.
Governance can change the reward structure.
More moving parts mean more complexity.
The Bottom Line
Solayer isn’t just porting Ethereum’s restaking idea to Solana — it’s reshaping it to fit Solana’s speed, token ecosystem, and developer culture. If it all works out, it could become the security backbone for a lot of future Solana projects.
Just remember: higher yield usually means higher risk. Read the docs, check the audits, and stake .