Kamino vs MarginFi: Solana Lending Compared (2026)

Kamino and MarginFi are the two most-discussed lending protocols on Solana, but they occupy very different positions. Kamino dominates by TVL at $2.19B — more than 20x MarginFi’s $102M — with a feature set that extends well beyond basic lending into leveraged staking and auto-managed LP vaults. MarginFi appeals to power users with cross-margin accounts, the highest LTV ratios on Solana, and a points system that has farmers speculating on a future MRGN token. Comparing them head-to-head requires understanding what each protocol actually does differently. This comparison breaks down exactly when to use each.

At a Glance

Feature	Kamino	MarginFi
Type	Lending + Multiply + CLMM vaults	Cross-margin lending
TVL	$2.19B	$102M
Rating	9.2	8.2
Max LTV	65%	75%
Best for	Yield maximizers, leveraged staking	Cross-margin power users, points farmers
Multiply/leverage	Yes (up to 3x on LSTs)	No
CLMM vaults	Yes (auto-managed)	No
Cross-margin	No	Yes
Points/token	KMNO token live	MRGN points (no token yet)
Founded	2022	2022
Website	app.kamino.finance	app.marginfi.com

How Kamino Works

Kamino is Solana’s largest lending protocol by a wide margin. At $2.19B TVL, it’s not just the biggest lender — it’s one of the largest protocols on the entire chain. Kamino offers three distinct products under one roof, and understanding all three matters because they interact with each other.

Lending markets are the foundation. Supply SOL, USDC, or a growing list of LSTs and stablecoins to earn interest from borrowers. Borrow against your deposited collateral up to 65% LTV. Standard lending mechanics, similar to Aave on Ethereum — but built natively for Solana’s speed and low transaction costs.

Multiply is where Kamino gets interesting. It automates leveraged staking on liquid staking tokens — JitoSOL, mSOL, and 2ZSOL. Select your LST, choose your leverage multiplier (up to 3x), and Kamino handles the looping: it deposits your LST as collateral, borrows SOL, swaps for more LST, deposits again, and repeats until you hit your target leverage. A 3x Multiply position on JitoSOL earns roughly 3x the staking yield, minus borrowing costs. The entire position opens in a single transaction. A frank warning: Multiply positions carry serious liquidation risk. A 15% SOL price drop at 3x leverage can trigger liquidation, and during volatile markets, cascading liquidations across Kamino’s large TVL can amplify price moves.

CLMM vaults auto-manage concentrated liquidity positions on Solana DEXs. Instead of manually setting and adjusting price ranges on Raydium or Orca, Kamino’s vaults handle rebalancing for you. You deposit tokens, the vault places them in an optimized range, and it adjusts as prices move. This is a separate product from lending, but it uses the same infrastructure and you can use vault positions as collateral in Kamino’s lending markets.

Fees: Kamino charges a 0.5–1% lending spread between supply and borrow rates, a 0.1% fee on Multiply position creation, and a 10% management fee on CLMM vault profits. These are competitive for the feature set — the Multiply fee in particular is low for what’s effectively an automated multi-step leveraged position.

How MarginFi Works

MarginFi takes a different architectural approach. At $102M TVL it’s significantly smaller than Kamino, but its cross-margin design appeals to a specific class of user that no other Solana lending protocol serves as well.

Cross-margin accounts are MarginFi’s core differentiator. Instead of isolated positions where each collateral type backs a separate loan, MarginFi lets you deposit multiple assets into a single account where all collateral is pooled. Your SOL, USDC, and JitoSOL all contribute to one unified margin balance. If your SOL position drops in value but your USDC position holds steady, the gains offset the losses before liquidation triggers. This is how professional trading desks manage risk, and MarginFi brings it on-chain.

75% LTV is the highest on Solana. Where Kamino caps at 65%, MarginFi lets you borrow 75% of your collateral value. That means $10K in SOL collateral gets you $7,500 in borrowing power on MarginFi versus $6,500 on Kamino. More capital efficient — but the margin of safety before liquidation is thinner. You’re walking a tighter line.

MRGN points have been accumulating for users since 2023. Points accrue based on lending and borrowing activity, and MarginFi has strongly implied a future MRGN token distribution based on points balances. No token has launched yet. A frank warning: the points-to-token conversion timeline is unknown, the team has been less transparent than Kamino about governance and roadmap, and speculating on points value is inherently risky. You might earn a meaningful airdrop, or the token might never launch, or it might launch at a valuation that makes the farming economically marginal.

Flash loans are available for developers and arbitrage bots. Borrow any amount from MarginFi’s pools within a single transaction, use the capital for arbitrage or liquidations, and repay before the transaction settles. No collateral required — if the loan isn’t repaid within the same transaction, the entire transaction reverts. This is specialized infrastructure that most retail users won’t touch, but it’s a meaningful feature for the Solana MEV ecosystem.

Fee Comparison

Fee Type	Kamino	MarginFi
Lending spread	0.5–1%	0.5–1%
Multiply fee	0.1% per position	N/A
CLMM vault fee	10% of profits	N/A
Flash loan fee	N/A	0.01%
Liquidation penalty	5%	5%
Solana priority fee	$0.001–$0.05	$0.001–$0.05

Lending spreads are comparable. The fee differences come from the products each protocol offers that the other doesn’t — Kamino’s Multiply and vault fees apply to features MarginFi doesn’t have, and MarginFi’s flash loan fee applies to a feature Kamino doesn’t offer. For basic supply-and-borrow, costs are effectively the same. The real difference is in rates, which fluctuate based on utilization. Kamino’s deeper liquidity pools tend to keep rates more stable; MarginFi’s smaller pools can spike borrow rates during peak demand, which is great for depositors earning supply APY but expensive for borrowers.

Risk Comparison

Risk	Kamino	MarginFi
Liquidation	High — Multiply positions at 3x can liquidate on a 15% SOL drop	High — 75% LTV leaves thin margin before liquidation
Smart contract	Medium — large codebase across three products (lending, Multiply, vaults) increases attack surface	Medium — simpler codebase but cross-margin logic adds complexity
Systemic risk	High — at $2.19B TVL, a Kamino exploit would cascade across Solana DeFi	Low — smaller TVL limits blast radius
Points uncertainty	Low — KMNO token already live	High — MRGN token timeline unknown, points may not convert favorably
Team transparency	Good — regular updates, public governance	Mixed — less frequent communication, roadmap ambiguity
Oracle risk	Medium — relies on price feeds for liquidations across all products	Medium — same oracle dependency for all lending protocols

Both protocols carry real liquidation risk, but from different sources. Kamino’s risk concentrates in Multiply — leveraged staking positions are inherently fragile during volatile markets, and Kamino’s massive TVL means cascading liquidations can move the market. MarginFi’s risk comes from the tighter 75% LTV threshold — you get more borrowing power, but you’re closer to the edge at all times. Neither protocol has suffered a major exploit, but risk is never zero in DeFi, and the risk profiles are meaningfully different.

When to Use Kamino

• Leveraged staking: Multiply is unique on Solana. If you want 2–3x exposure to JitoSOL, mSOL, or 2ZSOL staking yield, Kamino is the only protocol that automates the entire loop in a single transaction. No manual looping, no managing multiple positions across protocols.
• LST collateral lending: Kamino supports the widest range of liquid staking tokens as collateral. If you hold JitoSOL or mSOL and want to borrow against it while still earning staking yield, Kamino’s collateral support is the deepest.
• Auto-managed LP: CLMM vaults remove the need to manually manage concentrated liquidity ranges. If you want LP exposure without active management, Kamino handles the rebalancing.
• Deepest liquidity: $2.19B TVL means the most stable rates and deepest pools on Solana. Large positions enter and exit with minimal rate impact. If you’re lending or borrowing six figures or more, Kamino’s liquidity depth matters.

When to Use MarginFi

• Cross-margin accounts: If you manage multiple collateral types and want one unified margin balance where gains offset losses, MarginFi is the only Solana lending protocol with true cross-margin architecture. This is a real structural advantage for portfolio-level risk management.
• Maximum capital efficiency: 75% LTV gives you more borrowing power per dollar of collateral than any other Solana lender. If you understand the liquidation risks and want to maximize capital efficiency, MarginFi lets you push further.
• Points farming: If you believe the MRGN token will eventually launch and deliver meaningful value, farming points by lending and borrowing on MarginFi is how you position for that airdrop. This is speculative — but so was farming JTO, JUP, and KMNO points before those tokens launched, and early farmers were rewarded.
• Flash loans: If you’re a developer building liquidation bots or arbitrage strategies, MarginFi’s flash loan infrastructure provides uncollateralized capital within a single transaction.

Can You Use Both?

Yes — and diversifying across both is a reasonable risk management strategy. Concentrating all lending activity in a single protocol means a single smart contract exploit wipes everything. Splitting deposits across Kamino and MarginFi spreads that risk across two independent codebases, two different teams, and two different architectural approaches.

A practical split: use Kamino for Multiply leveraged staking positions and CLMM vaults (features MarginFi doesn’t offer), and use MarginFi for a cross-margin lending account where you want higher LTV and points exposure. You’re earning on two protocols, farming MRGN points on one, and reducing single-protocol risk.

Verdict

For most users: Kamino. More features, deeper liquidity, battle-tested at $2.19B TVL, and KMNO token already live. The combination of lending, Multiply, and CLMM vaults under one protocol makes it the most complete lending platform on Solana. If you’re picking one lending protocol, pick Kamino.

For power users: MarginFi. Cross-margin accounts and 75% LTV give experienced users capital efficiency that Kamino can’t match. If you actively manage a multi-asset portfolio and understand liquidation mechanics, MarginFi’s architecture is built for you.

For points farmers: MarginFi. If you’re speculating on a future MRGN token airdrop, points accumulate through normal lending and borrowing activity. The risk is that the token never launches or launches at a disappointing valuation — but the history of Solana protocol token launches suggests early users are often rewarded.

For leveraged staking: Kamino, and it’s not close. Multiply is a unique product with no direct competitor on Solana. Automated leveraged staking on JitoSOL, mSOL, or 2ZSOL in a single transaction, with up to 3x exposure. Just respect the liquidation math — 3x leverage means a 15% drop can end your position.