Phantom SOL

Rejected venues wait the longest for re-review; a rejection has to earn another look before the scheduled date.

PSOL is Phantom’s non-custodial Solana stake-pool receipt, earning inflation, MEV and priority-fee rewards. DefiLlama records about $123.8M. Phantom documents a 4% protocol fee on rewards and 0.1% exit fee, but does not establish in the cited public material a validator-distribution advantage over selected Marinade. This is comparative non-selection, not a finding that PSOL is unsafe.

Kill criteria: the events that revoke this verdict
• The selected provider in this category fails a kill criterion (these are the bench)
• The provider demonstrates a material improvement on the axis it lost on (validator distribution, liquidity depth, or distinct capability)

The research file

Selection, not disqualification

This is a relative choice within an already-accepted exposure category, not an allegation that the non-selected provider carries a disqualifying defect: every provider in the comparator set inherits the same slashing, validator, contract, oracle and token-liquidity risks, and a clean record alone is insufficient to win the selection. The mandate avoids holding multiple near-substitute liquid-staking tokens for the same native asset merely to diversify brands. The alternate reopens if the selected provider breaches a kill criterion or loses its comparative advantage in validator distribution, governance, liquidity, fees, or operating record.

Mechanism

SOL enters the audited Solana stake-pool program and PSOL appreciates against SOL as rewards accrue. Phantom remains non-custodial and integrates minting, swaps and Kamino use in its wallet. A standard stake-pool receipt does not itself differentiate the provider on validator allocation.

Control and operating evidence

The stake-pool manager controls validator allocation and fee authorities within Solana program constraints. Phantom cites nine audits of the common stake-pool program and launched PSOL in 2025. This application makes no complete independent incident-record or validator-performance approval claim.

Exit consequences

Phantom first attempts instant redemption from reserve liquidity and charges a 0.1% exit fee. If reserves are insufficient, PSOL converts to a native stake account that must deactivate over roughly two to three days; secondary swaps exit at market price.

Why the class rule decides

The category review chose Marinade for broader validator distribution among close Solana LST substitutes. PSOL has not demonstrated a material advantage on that axis or liquidity depth, so it remains on the bench. Review reopens if the selected provider fails or Phantom publishes superior distribution and stressed-liquidity evidence.

Sources

The claims above trace to these. Where a number could not be independently verified, the thesis says so.

• Phantom Help — PSOL mechanism, fees and exits · secondary · accessed 2026-08-15
  Supports: PSOL mechanism, fees
• Phantom — PSOL launch and stake-pool design · secondary · accessed 2026-08-15
  Supports: PSOL launch, stake-pool design
• Solana Program Library — stake-pool architecture · primary · accessed 2026-08-15
  Supports: stake-pool architecture
• Marinade Docs — delegation strategy FAQ · primary · accessed 2026-08-15
  Supports: delegation strategy FAQ

Inherited controls

The verdict above grades the protocol layer. Every position also inherits the asset it holds and the chain it settles on. The least safe layer sets the position’s grade, and the position table names which one that is.