Overview
Sanctum is a protocol that provides foundational infrastructure for liquid staking on Solana. Rather than competing directly as another LST issuer, Sanctum enables the broader LST ecosystem through three core products:
Infinity Pool: A multi-LST liquidity pool that accepts any Sanctum-supported LST and provides instant liquidity between them. Instead of each LST needing its own liquidity pool, the Infinity pool serves as a unified liquidity layer where any LST can be swapped for any other LST or SOL. This solves the LST fragmentation problem — new LSTs can launch with immediate liquidity access.
LST Launchpad: Tools for validators and protocols to create their own liquid staking tokens. This democratizes LST creation, enabling any Solana validator to offer a branded LST to their delegators. The launchpad handles the smart contract deployment, staking logic, and integration with the Infinity pool.
Reserve Pool: A SOL liquidity reserve that enables instant LST-to-SOL redemptions, bypassing the standard Solana unstaking cooldown period.
Sanctum has become critical infrastructure for Solana's liquid staking ecosystem. Major Solana LSTs (including those from validators, protocols, and DAOs) use Sanctum's infrastructure. The protocol processes significant volume and has enabled the creation of dozens of Solana LSTs.
Smart Contracts
Infinity Pool
The Infinity pool is a constant-product style AMM optimized for LST-to-LST and LST-to-SOL swaps. The pool's pricing mechanism accounts for the varying exchange rates of different LSTs (based on their staking reward accrual and validator performance). The smart contract handles multi-asset pool management, fee collection, and LP token accounting.
The pool's design enables adding new LSTs without requiring new pool creation — a scalable architecture that supports the growing number of Solana LSTs.
LST Contracts
The launchpad deploys standardized LST contracts for each new token. These contracts manage staking delegation, reward distribution, and LST minting/burning. The standardization ensures consistency and security across LSTs while allowing customization of validator delegation and fee parameters.
Solana Program Security
Sanctum's programs are built on Solana using Anchor framework. The programs have been audited by multiple security firms. Solana's program model differs from EVM smart contracts — the security considerations include program upgrade authority, PDA (Program Derived Address) management, and cross-program invocation patterns.
Security
Pool Security
The Infinity pool holds significant value in multiple LST assets. Pool contract vulnerabilities could impact all deposited LSTs. The multi-asset pool design is more complex than single-pair AMMs, with additional attack surface around price calculation and multi-token accounting.
LST Quality
The launchpad enables permissionless LST creation, which means the quality and security of individual LSTs varies. While Sanctum provides the infrastructure, the underlying validators and their operational quality affect each LST's risk profile. Sanctum implements minimum standards but cannot guarantee validator performance.
Audit Coverage
Multiple audits cover the Infinity pool, reserve pool, and LST launchpad contracts. The critical infrastructure role makes ongoing security monitoring essential. Sanctum has maintained a clean security track record.
Decentralization
Validator Democratization
The LST launchpad is Sanctum's most significant contribution to Solana decentralization. By enabling any validator to create an LST, Sanctum reduces the concentration of staking in a few large LST providers (Marinade, Jito). Smaller validators can attract delegation through branded LSTs with competitive features.
Stake Distribution
Sanctum's infrastructure promotes stake distribution across Solana's validator set. Rather than staking concentrating in a few large pools, the LST launchpad enables a long tail of validator-specific LSTs that distribute stake more broadly.
Protocol Governance
CLOUD token governance (Sanctum's governance token) enables community participation in protocol parameters, fee structures, and supported LST criteria. The governance model is active, with the Solana community engaged in protocol decisions.
Adoption
Ecosystem Integration
Sanctum has achieved deep integration in the Solana DeFi ecosystem. The Infinity pool is one of the most-used liquidity sources for LST swaps. Major Solana protocols, wallets, and aggregators route LST operations through Sanctum's infrastructure.
LST Count
Dozens of LSTs have been created using Sanctum's launchpad, including validator-specific LSTs, protocol LSTs, and community LSTs. This proliferation demonstrates the demand for the launchpad product and the liquidity infrastructure that makes it viable.
Volume
Sanctum processes significant swap volume through the Infinity pool and reserve pool. The volume reflects genuine utility — users swapping between LSTs, redeeming LSTs for SOL, and providing liquidity. The infrastructure role means Sanctum captures a portion of all LST-related activity on Solana.
Tokenomics
CLOUD Token
CLOUD is the governance and utility token for the Sanctum protocol. Token holders participate in governance, can earn yield from protocol fees, and influence supported LST parameters. The token was distributed through community-focused mechanisms.
Fee Revenue
Sanctum earns fees from Infinity pool swaps, reserve pool redemptions, and LST launchpad services. Fee revenue scales with LST activity on Solana — the more LSTs are created and traded, the more fees Sanctum generates. This creates a direct link between Solana staking ecosystem growth and protocol revenue.
Value Accrual
CLOUD benefits from fee revenue sharing, governance utility, and the growth of Solana's LST ecosystem. The infrastructure positioning means Sanctum captures value from the entire LST ecosystem rather than competing for a single LST's market share.
Risk Factors
- Solana dependency: Sanctum's success is entirely tied to Solana's liquid staking ecosystem growth
- Pool complexity: The multi-LST Infinity pool has complex pricing and accounting that increases smart contract risk
- LST quality variance: Permissionless LST creation means some LSTs may have poor validator performance or operational issues
- Competition: Marinade and Jito dominate Solana LST market share; Sanctum's infrastructure role faces potential competition
- Concentration risk: If a few large LSTs dominate, the multi-LST infrastructure value diminishes
- Solana network risk: Solana outages and performance issues affect all Solana-based protocols
- Regulatory risk: Liquid staking tokens may face regulatory classification challenges
Conclusion
Sanctum has established itself as critical infrastructure for Solana's liquid staking ecosystem. Rather than competing as another LST, Sanctum built the infrastructure layer that enables and connects all LSTs — the Infinity pool for liquidity, the launchpad for creation, and the reserve for instant redemptions. This infrastructure positioning is strategically sound and has achieved strong adoption.
The 6.3 score reflects genuine product-market fit, strong ecosystem adoption, and a differentiated infrastructure approach. The decentralization contribution (enabling validator-specific LSTs that distribute stake more broadly) is a meaningful positive. Risks center on Solana ecosystem dependency, pool complexity, and the challenge of maintaining infrastructure relevance as the Solana LST market matures.