What Is Stake Account in Solana?
A stake account is a Solana account that holds SOL delegated to a validator. Stake accounts participate in consensus by backing a validator’s votes, and they earn staking rewards proportional to the validator’s performance and the amount staked.
Stake account lifecycle
| State | Description |
|---|---|
| Initialized | Account created with SOL but not yet delegated |
| Delegated (activating) | Delegation submitted; becomes active at the start of the next epoch |
| Active | Earning rewards and backing the validator |
| Deactivating | Undelegation submitted; deactivates at the end of the current epoch |
| Inactive | SOL can be withdrawn |
Authorities
A stake account has two authorities:
- Stake authority — can delegate, deactivate, split, and merge the stake account
- Withdraw authority — can withdraw lamports from the stake account
Both authorities are set at creation and can be changed by the current authority.
Staking rewards
Rewards are distributed at the end of each epoch. The amount depends on the validator’s vote performance, the total active stake on the network, and the current inflation rate. Rewards are automatically credited to the stake account balance.
FAQ
How long does it take to unstake? Deactivation takes the remainder of the current epoch plus one full epoch cooldown — typically 2–3 days.
Can I split a stake account?
Yes. The Split instruction creates a new stake account with a portion of the original’s stake, useful for delegating to multiple validators.
What is the minimum stake? There is no protocol-enforced minimum, but the stake account must be rent-exempt (~0.00228 SOL for a 200-byte stake account).
Sources
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