In the fast-paced world of Solana's DeFi scene, where meme tokens often steal the spotlight, underlying infrastructure like staking protocols plays a crucial role in keeping the ecosystem humming. A recent thread from Messari analyst Boomer (@0xBoomz) sheds light on Marinade Finance's impressive Q2 2025 performance, highlighting how its Native staking product has overtaken others in total value locked (TVL). For those new to the term, TVL refers to the total amount of assets deposited into a protocol, a key metric for gauging its popularity and utility.

Boomer's thread kicks off with a striking chart showing the evolution of Marinade's staking products. Here's the visual for context:

As of Q2 2025, Marinade has hit a milestone with 11.1 million SOL staked across its three main products: Marinade Native, mSOL (their liquid staking token), and Marinade Select. What's exciting is that Native has emerged as the leader, boasting 5.3 million SOL in TVL. This edges out mSOL at 5.0 million SOL and leaves Select at 844.7K SOL. The surge in Native's popularity? It's largely thanks to growing institutional demand for non-custodial staking solutions. Non-custodial means users keep control of their keys and assets, reducing risks associated with third-party custody— a big win for big players wary of hacks or regulatory hurdles.

Institutional Focus Takes Center Stage

Marinade isn't just resting on retail users; they're pushing hard into traditional finance (TradFi). Boomer points out that Marinade Native powers the Solana Staking ETP from Bitwise Invest, which is already live. On top of that, Marinade Select is set to handle staking for Canary Funds' proposed Canary Marinade Solana ETF. These integrations could bridge the gap between crypto and mainstream finance, potentially bringing in more liquidity to the Solana network—great news for meme token traders who rely on SOL as their base currency.

To meet institutional standards, Marinade Native snagged SOC 2 Type 2 certification in Q2. This is essentially an audit that verifies strong security and compliance practices, making it more appealing to regulated entities. They also rolled out a beta for Native Instant Unstake, allowing faster access to funds without sacrificing the non-custodial perks. In a volatile market where meme tokens can pump or dump in hours, quicker liquidity like this could be a game-changer for stakers looking to pivot into hot trends.

Driving Value Back to $MNDE Holders

Now, how does all this growth benefit $MNDE, Marinade's governance token? Through smart governance mechanisms, of course. Boomer explains that MIP-11 introduced a buyback program for $MNDE, and the upcoming MIP-13 proposal—if passed—would use 50% of protocol performance fees for monthly buybacks. This could create upward pressure on the token's price by reducing supply, rewarding holders who participate in governance. For meme token enthusiasts, think of it like a community-driven meme project but with real DeFi utility backing it up.

The thread wraps up by directing readers to Messari's full State of Marinade Q2 2025 report, which dives deeper into ETF integrations, compliance upgrades, staking tech, and governance moves. It's a free resource packed with insights that could help you level up your understanding of Solana's staking landscape.

Why This Matters for the Meme Token Community

While Marinade isn't a pure meme play, its advancements strengthen the Solana foundation where most meme tokens thrive. Higher staking TVL means more network security and rewards, which indirectly supports the liquidity and hype around SOL-based memes. If you're holding or trading memes on Solana, keeping an eye on protocols like Marinade can give you an edge—after all, a robust ecosystem means more room for those viral pumps.

Check out the original thread for the full scoop, and stay tuned to Meme Insider for more updates on how DeFi intersects with the wild world of memes.