On January 20, 2026, the staking rate of the Solana network rose to approximately 68.8%, with multiple Chinese and English media outlets uniformly describing it as a "historic high." This data was first disclosed by the English media Blockworks, and was subsequently widely quoted and amplified by Cointelegraph as well as Chinese media including Odaily Planet Daily, BlockBeats, and PANews, creating a strong information resonance. Accompanying this milestone increase, the positive narrative around Solana's network security and participation was reinforced, but at the same time, the nearly 70% staking ratio also means that the freely circulating token supply is significantly compressed, creating new structural tension between enhanced security and liquidity pressure.

Relative Position of the 68.8% Lockup Level

● The staking rate essentially refers to the proportion of tokens in a staked state relative to the total issuance of the network, used to measure the economic value scale of participation in consensus and security assurance. For public chains using the PoS mechanism, a higher ratio theoretically represents more value locked within the security mechanism.
● According to current data from Blockworks/Cointelegraph, and relayed by several Chinese media outlets, the staking rate of Solana climbed to approximately 68.8% on January 20, 2026, which is widely described as a "historic high," marking an increase from a previously maintained high but slightly lower range, reaching the upper end of the historical range.
● In comparison with other mainstream PoS public chains, although the current brief does not provide precise staking rate rankings for each chain, it can be qualitatively stated that Solana's current close to 70% staking range is relatively high, significantly exceeding many mid-staking rate public chains, entering the ranks of "high staking participation."

Elevation of Security and Subtle Changes in Node Structure

From the perspective of the PoS security model, the increase in the staking rate means that if an attacker wants to launch an economic attack, they need to control and lock up a larger scale of tokens. This mechanism significantly raises the economic cost of attacks, making it more difficult to control network consensus by acquiring and manipulating a large number of staked tokens. For a network like Solana, which has already formed a large market value and depth, the staking rate rising further from a relatively high position to nearly 70% can marginally increase the financial threshold for potential malicious behavior, reinforcing external confidence in its security. At the same time, higher staking rewards attract more token holders to participate in delegation and validation, which usually leads to an expansion in the total number of validators and delegators, helping to enhance the "breadth" of decentralization from the perspective of participant numbers.

However, this security benefit does not come without cost. If new staking primarily flows to leading staking service providers, large institutional nodes, or a few infrastructure providers, a high staking rate may instead bring about a centralization side effect in power distribution. More voting rights and block rights concentrating among a few validators will amplify these nodes' influence in governance and network evolution, forming a "structural concentration under high staking ratios." Therefore, Solana's current staking rate of 68.8% means, on one hand, an elevation of the economic security threshold, while on the other hand, it reinforces the necessity for ongoing observation of staking concentration, node distribution, and delegation structure.

Tightening of Circulating Tokens and Potential Amplification of Price Volatility

In the token economic structure, total supply can be roughly divided into staked and freely circulating portions. When the staking rate approaches a high level like 68.8%, it means that nearly 70% of tokens are locked in consensus and staking contracts, resulting in a corresponding compression of the proportion of effective tokens that can be traded on the secondary market. Theoretically, this will lead to a decrease in the available supply of tokens for trading in the market, reducing the real supply scale on the spot order book. Under the same scale of capital inflow or outflow, the price elasticity to new buying or selling pressure may be amplified, manifested as: in price ranges with insufficient liquidity, order book depth is more easily penetrated, thereby amplifying unilateral price fluctuations.

At the same time, high staking rewards provide token holders with a path to "lock in profits." For participants with a more conservative risk appetite, staking tokens to earn continuous returns is often more attractive than frequent short-term trading. This incentive structure will behaviorally encourage some tokens that might have participated in high-frequency trading to shift towards long-term lockup, further exacerbating the relative scarcity of circulating tokens. Overall, Solana's current high staking rate both tightens the immediately sellable tokens on the supply side and alters token holders' preferences on the demand side through yield-driven incentives, making the path of "locking in for returns" more mainstream, while marginally weakening the willingness for short-term trading.

Single English Source and "Historic High" Narrative

Currently, the claim that Solana's staking rate has risen to 68.8% and "set a historic high" presents a relatively clear but centralized path in the information dissemination chain: first, the English media Blockworks disclosed this key data, followed by Cointelegraph relaying the relevant figures in their report, and then several Chinese crypto media outlets compiled and interpreted the English reports, causing this narrative to rapidly amplify and spread within the Chinese-speaking community. This top-down dissemination path means that the widely circulated 68.8% and "historic high" statements still fundamentally rely on data support from a single English source.

Chinese reports in this process play the role of relaying and secondary interpretation, with a consensus to reinforce the market narrative of "staking rate hitting a new high, expectations for network security enhanced," rather than independently calculating or cross-verifying the underlying original data itself. Based on existing public information, we can view "setting a historic high" as having gained multiple citations and a certain degree of cross-confirmation in the media narrative dimension, but in terms of rigorous data analysis, it still needs to be compared with the original statistical criteria. Therefore, when accepting this statement, it is necessary to distinguish between "first-hand statistical data" and "second-hand media interpretation," maintaining a moderate caution regarding specific statistical methods and time windows.

Genuine Participation Heating Up or Yield-Driven Short-Term Amplification

From the perspective of on-chain participation, the staking rate rising to 68.8% can easily be intuitively interpreted as a direct increase in user stickiness and network participation enthusiasm. More tokens entering staking contracts often indeed accompany more wallet addresses participating in delegation and more active governance voting, which are all positive signals of ecological maturity and deeper participation for the network. However, the motivations behind this change are not singular; it could be the result of long-term optimists choosing a "hold + stake" strategy, or it could be driven by funds flowing in to capture phase-specific staking yields.

Currently, there is a clear divergence in the market regarding the driving reasons for this round of staking rate increase. One viewpoint holds that the high staking ratio mainly reflects an increase in long-term holders who, after experiencing multiple rounds of market fluctuations, lock more tokens in the network's security and yield mechanisms, reflecting a vote of confidence in Solana's long-term fundamentals. Another voice emphasizes that staking yields, incentive programs, and market narratives often have cyclical characteristics, and a significant portion of the current high staking rate is driven by short-term funds chasing yields, which may flow back into the secondary market through unstaking channels when yield expectations or market conditions change. Looking back at historical experience, fluctuations in staking rates are usually linked to price trends, ecological narratives, and real-time yield rates, so viewing the single point of 68.8% as absolute evidence of "long-term participation enthusiasm" or "short-term speculative frenzy" carries the risk of overgeneralization.

Observational Coordinates Under the New Normal of High Staking

In summary, Solana's staking rate rose to approximately 68.8% on January 20, 2026, and was described by multiple media outlets as a "historic high," structurally bringing about two opposing forces: on one end, the enhancement of network security and the elevation of economic attack costs based on the PoS model; on the other end, the tightening of circulating tokens and the liquidity pressure of potential price volatility. This contradiction forms the core framework for understanding Solana's current state and lays an important foundation for subsequent market performance.

On this basis, key dimensions worth continuously tracking include: whether the number and distribution of validators become more decentralized as the staking rate rises, or whether they are further concentrated among leading nodes; whether the concentration of staking and delegation shows significant elevation, thereby amplifying the systemic importance of a single node or service provider; and whether the design of unlocking cycles and actual unstaking rhythms will concentrate liquidity release during certain future time windows, impacting prices and market sentiment. It is particularly important to emphasize that there is still a lack of systematic explanations from Solana's official sources regarding this set of staking data, and no complete original statistical report has been seen, so investors should remain sensitive to data sources and statistical criteria when making position and risk decisions, avoiding reliance solely on a single indicator or single report clue.

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