What is Sanctum (CLOUD)?
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🟢 The simple version
Plain English — no jargon. Start here.
Sanctum solves Solana's liquid staking fragmentation problem by creating infrastructure for any validator to issue their own liquid staking token (LST), and then unifying all of them into INF — a single token that earns the best staking yield from across all validators simultaneously.
Solana's LST fragmentation problem
On Ethereum, Lido's stETH dominates liquid staking — but on Solana, there are dozens of LSTs: jitoSOL (Jito), mSOL (Marinade), bSOL (Blaze), and many validator-specific tokens. Each has different liquidity depths, DeFi integrations, and yield rates. A user wanting to stake with a small validator gets a token with almost no DeFi utility — you can't use an obscure validator's LST as collateral on marginfi or as DEX liquidity.
Sanctum solves this two ways. First, it provides the infrastructure for any validator to create an LST with instant liquidity — Sanctum's reserves back all LSTs so they can be swapped with minimal slippage regardless of size. Second, INF (Infinity) is Sanctum's meta-LST: it holds all Sanctum-backed LSTs and continuously allocates to the highest-yielding validators, giving holders a single token that earns optimised SOL staking yield.
Why Sanctum matters for Solana decentralisation
Solana's staking is more centralised than Ethereum's — a small number of validators receive the majority of delegated stake because most stakers use the easiest LSTs (jitoSOL, mSOL), which concentrate stake with large operators. Sanctum enables smaller validators to create competitive LSTs, potentially distributing stake more evenly across the validator set over time.
Is CLOUD legal in India?
Yes. CLOUD qualifies as a Virtual Digital Asset (VDA) under Indian law. 30% tax on gains and 1% TDS applies. Always consult a tax professional.
🟡 A bit more detail
For when you want to go a little deeper.
INF: how the infinity pool works
INF is backed by a diversified basket of Solana LSTs held in Sanctum's reserves. When you deposit SOL or any LST into INF, you receive INF tokens. Sanctum allocates the underlying SOL across multiple validators weighted by staking rewards — effectively auto-rebalancing toward the highest-yielding validators while maintaining diversification. INF's exchange rate against SOL increases over time as staking rewards compound.
For DeFi, INF is deeply integrated as collateral on Solana protocols — marginfi, Drift, and others accept INF. This gives INF holders the utility of a single well-known collateral token while earning optimised staking yield. Instead of choosing between jitoSOL (higher yield, jito MEV) or mSOL (more DeFi integrations), you hold INF and get both.
INF holds multiple LSTs, but if the largest underlying validators perform poorly or behave maliciously, INF holders are affected. Sanctum's validator selection and rebalancing logic is a trust point — you're delegating validator selection to Sanctum's algorithm. This is a different trust model than choosing a single validator directly. Live data: CoinGecko
Sanctum vs Lido on Solana (jitoSOL/mSOL)
Lido's stSOL was wound down on Solana in 2023. The current LST landscape is Jito (jitoSOL) — with MEV-boosted yield — and Marinade (mSOL) as the most established options. Sanctum doesn't compete with these directly; it provides the infrastructure layer that makes all LSTs more useful and more liquid, while INF sits above them as an aggregator. For users who want simplicity, INF is the "just give me optimised SOL staking yield" answer without choosing between jitoSOL vs mSOL debates.
🟣 The full technical picture
For the technically curious.
Key facts
- Token: CLOUD (governance)
- Chain: Solana
- Core product: LST infrastructure — any validator can create an LST via Sanctum
- INF: Infinity pool — meta-LST backed by all Sanctum LSTs, optimised yield
- LST liquidity: Sanctum reserves back all LSTs for instant swap regardless of size
- DeFi integrations: INF accepted as collateral on marginfi, Drift, others
- Decentralisation goal: Enables smaller validators to issue competitive LSTs
- vs jitoSOL: Sanctum/INF = diversified optimised; jitoSOL = MEV-boosted single validator set
- vs mSOL: Sanctum/INF = meta-aggregator; mSOL = Marinade's single pool
Sanctum's LST marketplace
Beyond INF, Sanctum operates a marketplace where any validator can list their LST and users can discover, compare, and swap between LSTs at low slippage. This creates a competitive market for validator LSTs — validators can attract stake by offering higher yields (through efficient operations), MEV sharing, or community perks. Some validators created community-specific LSTs (e.g. LSTs for specific DAOs or Solana projects) that Sanctum enables with Sanctum's liquidity infrastructure behind them. This LST marketplace concept — open infrastructure anyone can build on — is the Solana-native equivalent of what Lido did for Ethereum but with significantly more validator diversity.