Marinade's MNDE token surged 30% after unveiling instant SOL withdrawals and a new creator rewards program, as Solana's DeFi activity rebounds.

Marinade's governance token MNDE (MNDE) shot up nearly 30%, briefly hitting $0.17, as the Solana-based liquid staking protocol rolled out a wave of updates aimed at reviving community engagement and token utility.

"A wave of updates from liquid staking protocol Marinade saw governance token MNDE (MNDE) surge 30% as Solana's DeFi activity continues to pick up.

MNDE shot up 29.4% in the past 24 hours by 9:38 AM ET (13:38 GMT), briefly hitting $0.17. The move follows a 50% rally in the previous seven days.

The gains come as the Solana-based protocol unveiled a new creator rewards program, part of broader efforts to engage the community and find new avenues for token utility.

With 4 hours remaining in the voting period, MetaDAO's proposal to allocate 40% of protocol performance fees to buy back MNDE has gained strong support.

Join us as we break down MIP.11 and its potential impact on MNDE and the broader Marinade ecosystem.

proposal would see the DAO purchasing the equivalent of about 12% of MNDE's market cap annually, potentially adding steady buy pressure on the open market.

Other updates that may have boosted sentiment include the launch of instant unstaking for SOL - letting users skip Solana's usual cooldown period - and a new creator rewards program.

This is part of a broader push to support content contributors and community builders, following the late April rollout of MNDE-Enhanced Staking, which allocates 10% of SAM’s performance fees to active MNDE holders.

These follow the launch of MNDE-Enhanced Staking in late April, which gives MNDE holders a 10% share of SAM’s performance fees, encouraging deeper participation in governance.

This is also saw activity across Solana's DeFi ecosystem pick up, with total value locked on the network surging more than 50% in the past month.

TVL rose from $6.2 billion to over $9.3 billion, according to data from DefiLlama, bringing it close to the all-time highs of over $10 billion set in January, before up to 60% drawdowns from November's peak.

Among the biggest movers was Kamino Finance's rapid rise in TVL after launching its decentralized exchange in mid-April. The platform saw assets surge from zero to over $600 million within a month.

Meanwhile, Sanctum, a new DeFi protocol focused on private and structured data, saw TVL triple to $400 million following the launch of its mainnet on May 10.

While these developments may have contributed to MNDE's gains, it's worth noting that the token usually tends to move in tandem with broader market trends.

Indeed, a broader recovery in crypto markets saw most major tokens rise 5-10% on Monday, with Bitcoin (BTC) back above $30,000.