Key Takeaways
- A solana holder lost $1.05M selling 21,911 SOL despite earning $145K in staking rewards over two years.
- Solana’s 5.86% APY failed to offset a 64% price decline from the $294 all-time high hit in January 2025.
- SOL trades near $84 at press time; institutional demand has held firm even as retail holders absorbed deep losses.
A Loss Despite Earning Staking Rewards
The trader’s total cost basis stood at roughly $2.91 million. Over two years of staking, the wallet earned an additional 1,711 SOL in rewards, worth approximately $145,000, bringing total holdings to 21,911 SOL. When those tokens were sold for $1.85 million, the net realized loss came to just over $1.05 million. The Solana network currently offers around 5.86% staking APY, one of the more competitive yields in the proof-of- stake ecosystem, but even that cushion could not absorb the price decline.
Solana’s collapse from peak to current levels tells the story. The coin hit a then all-time high of approximately $294 in January 2025, fueled by the launch of the TRUMP memecoin on the Solana network. What followed was a steep 64% drawdown that dragged SOL to around $105 by early April 2025. The slide has continued into 2026, with the asset testing the $80 support band in recent months.
The introduction of spot solana exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in October 2025 was widely expected to stabilize (or revive) institutional interest. And while Bitcoin.com News reported earlier in May that solana demand held firm even as Blackrock led a $635 million bitcoin ETF selloff, that resilience has not translated into sustained price recovery for individual holders.
Separately, a company that expanded its SOL treasury in 2026 claimed returns above the network average, suggesting that there was still clear divergence between institutional strategies and retail outcomes.
A Recurring Pattern
In today’s macro climate, high nominal staking yields (such as those being provided by Solana) can create the impression of wealth accumulation even as underlying asset prices erode. For the trader in question, the $145,000 earned through staking represented roughly a 5% return on the original cost basis. However, SOL’s multi-year drawdown has wiped out multiples of that figure.
In a prolonged bear environment, staking rewards represent a fraction of potential unrealized losses. For long-term holders averaging into positions above current market prices, the math rarely works in their favor without a structural price recovery.
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