I assume all our readers are familiar with the Solana (SOL) cryptocurrency, as it has firmly secured a spot in the top 10 most popular cryptocurrencies globally and is currently ranked 6th by CoinMarketCap. However, there are cryptocurrencies with very similar names—BBSOL and BNSOL—that are related to Solana but, thanks to a smart contract, continuously appreciate in value relative to SOL. Let's explore how this works and how you can profit from it in this article.
Let's start with some background. Solana is a direct competitor to Ethereum, as it also supports smart contracts and uses Proof-of-Stake (POS) mining to maintain its blockchain. This means the network has validators who lock up their SOL coins and verify all transactions for compliance with the rules. In return, validators receive rewards in the form of SOL. Currently, the annual yield for running your own Solana validator is about 7%. Validator rewards are a basic feature of any POS cryptocurrency, including Solana. For comparison, Ethereum validators currently enjoy an annual yield of around 2.8%.
Liquid Staking on Solana
To make POS mining more popular, the concept of liquid staking was introduced. This involves a middleman (a service) that takes your SOL coins and, after deducting its fee, pays you the yield generated from running validators on the network. Typically, instead of the original cryptocurrency, this intermediary service pays out its own token, which represents your ownership of the staked assets. All these operations are secured by the network's smart contracts, guaranteeing the terms of the agreement. Liquid staking itself isn't new; it emerged back in 2020 with the Lido project, which offers liquid staking for ETH and pays out its own token, stETH.
BBSOL and BNSOL are exactly the same kind of liquid staking tokens, but for the Solana cryptocurrency. BBSOL is a token issued by the Bybit exchange, and BNSOL is a token issued by the Binance exchange.
If you're already familiar with liquid staking and are ready to close this page, thinking "nothing new again, just fluff," hold on—BBSOL and BNSOL have one crucial difference from all other similar staking tokens!
Advantages of BBSOL and BNSOL
All previously existing liquid staking tokens always maintained a 1:1 exchange ratio with the staked cryptocurrency (e.g., 1 stETH = 1 ETH), and the staking rewards were paid out separately through a special request to the smart contract.
In BBSOL and BNSOL, the staking yield is baked directly into the token's price. This means if the validator yield on the Solana network is 7% per year, then the BBSOL (or BNSOL) token will be 7% more valuable than the native Solana cryptocurrency in a year. After two years, the token's price will have appreciated by another 7%.
This dynamic can be clearly observed on the BBSOL/SOL price chart below:
Moreover, this rule is also hardcoded into the smart contract. The price dips visible on the chart are due to market factors, such as large volumes of BBSOL being sold on the market. If you exchange BBSOL using the smart contract, you will always get back your Solana cryptocurrency plus the accumulated staking yield, which is reflected in the bbSOL price.
In other words, simply by holding BBSOL (or BNSOL), you are already earning 5-7% annually, instead of just holding plain Solana in your wallet.
How to Get BBSOL and BNSOL
The simplest way to get BBSOL or BNSOL is to exchange your Solana on a DEX (Decentralized Exchange), like Jupiter. For large volumes, you might lose a few percent to price slippage.
The second way is to buy BBSOL on the Bybit spot market and BNSOL on the Binance spot market, respectively. As mentioned earlier, the spot market price may differ from the "real" value (the smart contract rate), and low liquidity could lead to losses of a few percent on large orders.
The third way is to go to the WEB3 wallet on the Bybit or Binance exchange and directly stake your Solana in their liquid staking program. In this case, the only cost is the network fee for executing the smart contract.
What to Buy: BNSOL or BBSOL?
To choose between these two options, you need to decide what's more important to you: yield or reliability.
BNSOL is issued by Binance, the world's largest and most reliable crypto exchange, which naturally inspires more trust. However, the yield for bnSOL is noticeably lower than for bbSOL.
Currently, the yield for bnSOL is 5.48%. You can check it at this link: Binance Staking Page.
The yield for bbSOL is about 1% higher—6.39% annually. The Bybit exchange has also proven to be quite reliable and is currently the second-largest exchange by trading volume.
Bybit's page with BBSOL yield: Bybit Earn Page.
How to Use BBSOL and BNSOL
The first and simplest method is to just hold BBSOL (BNSOL) in a cold wallet, earning staking yield, which is already much more profitable than simply holding Solana.
Liquid staking tokens can be used as collateral in lending protocols and for margin in leveraged trading
.
On exchanges, the tokens can be placed in Earn products, which can add up to another 1% annually.
BBSOL and BNSOL tokens can also be invested in liquidity pools, which offer an additional ~6% APY. However, you need to be careful here, understand how liquidity pools work, and be aware of the potential for impermanent loss.
Conclusion: If you are a holder of Solana cryptocurrency and plan to hold it for more than a year, you should consider exchanging your SOL for liquid staking tokens like bbSOL or bnSOL. For each year of holding these tokens, you will get a roughly 6% boost to your assets. We recommend choosing BBSOL from the Bybit exchange, as it offers a slightly higher yield. However, if you trust Binance more, then BNSOL might be somewhat more reliable.
The risks are minimal because the tokens are not only issued by two of the largest crypto exchanges, Binance and Bybit, but their entire economy operates on smart contracts. This means you can get your Solana back even if something happens to the exchanges themselves.
