Solana Points Farming Guide: Earn Rewards Across DeFi Protocols

Solana Points Farming Guide: Earn Rewards Across DeFi Protocols

Points farming has become one of the most reliable ways to earn extra yield on Solana. Nearly every major DeFi protocol runs a points program that tracks your activity and rewards you — usually with token airdrops, fee shares, or governance rights. The difference between a casual user and an optimized farmer can be 5-10x in rewards for the same capital deployed.

This guide breaks down the active points programs on Solana, shows you how to stack them for maximum efficiency, and explains the strategies that experienced farmers use.

How Points Programs Work

Most Solana DeFi protocols award points based on your protocol usage. The general formula:

Points = Capital Deployed × Time × Activity Multiplier

Points accumulate over time and are converted to rewards during "seasons" or at token generation events. The reward is typically proportional to your share of total points earned by all users.

Key variables that affect your points:

TVL contribution: How much capital you have deposited
Duration: How long you've been active (early participants often get multipliers)
Activity type: Some actions earn more points than others (borrowing usually earns more than lending)
Referrals: Many programs offer bonus points for referring new users
Loyalty: Sustained participation often earns multiplier boosts

Active Points Programs on Solana

Kamino Finance

Kamino Finance runs one of the most established points programs on Solana.

How to earn:

Supply liquidity to Kamino vaults (automated concentrated liquidity management)
Lend assets on Kamino Lend
Borrow assets (borrowing earns more points than lending)
Use Kamino Multiply for leveraged yield strategies

Point multipliers:

Borrowing earns approximately 3-4x the points of lending
Multiply positions (leveraged loops) earn accelerated points because you're simultaneously lending and borrowing
Certain vaults have seasonal boost multipliers

Strategy: The highest points-per-dollar approach is using Kamino Multiply to create a leveraged lending position. For example, depositing SOL, borrowing USDC against it, and looping. This earns lending points + borrowing points simultaneously. However, this introduces liquidation risk if SOL price drops, so manage your health factor carefully.

Drift Protocol

Drift Protocol awards points across multiple products.

How to earn:

Trade perpetuals (points per dollar of trading volume)
Provide liquidity to Drift's vAMM
Deposit into insurance fund staking
Use Drift's spot trading and lending features
Participate in Drift BET prediction markets

Point multipliers:

Perp trading volume is the primary driver
Market making (providing liquidity) earns bonus points
Insurance fund staking earns steady points with lower effort

Strategy: If you're already trading perps, Drift's points program rewards you for activity you'd do anyway. For passive farmers, insurance fund staking is the lowest-effort option — deposit USDC and earn points plus the fund's yield. For active farmers, consistently trading even small volumes adds up significantly over time.

Marginfi

Marginfi has run multiple points seasons for its lending protocol.

How to earn:

Lend assets on Marginfi
Borrow assets (higher points rate)
Maintain positions over time (duration matters)

Point multipliers:

Borrowing earns roughly 4x the points of lending
Certain assets have boosted point rates that change seasonally
Early-season participation sometimes comes with multiplier bonuses

Strategy: The classic Marginfi farming loop: deposit SOL → borrow USDC → deposit USDC on another protocol → use the other protocol's yield to cover borrow interest. This lets you earn Marginfi points on both the lend and borrow side. Watch your health factor and don't over-leverage — liquidation erases all your farming gains.

Jupiter

Jupiter rewards users through its JUP staking and governance system.

How to earn:

Point multipliers:

Governance voting participation is tracked and rewarded
Consistent usage over time is weighted more than sporadic large trades
JUP stakers earn a share of protocol revenue

Strategy: Jupiter's approach rewards loyal users rather than mercenary capital. Stake JUP, vote in every governance round, and use Jupiter as your primary swap aggregator. The cumulative effect of consistent participation typically outperforms one-time large swaps.

Tensor

Tensor runs points for its NFT marketplace and recently expanded into token trading.

How to earn:

Trade NFTs on Tensor
Provide NFT collection bids (offers across entire collections)
Use Tensor's trading features actively
Hold and trade specific partner collections

Point multipliers:

Collection bids earn significantly more points than simple buy/sells
Active trading (higher number of transactions) earns more than holding
Specific partner collections have seasonal boosts

Strategy: If you trade NFTs on Solana, route all activity through Tensor to capture points. Collection bids are the most capital-efficient way to earn points — you're essentially providing liquidity to the NFT market and getting compensated for it.

Stacking Strategies: Maximizing Points Per Dollar

The real alpha in points farming is stacking — using the same capital to earn points on multiple protocols simultaneously.

Strategy 1: The LST Leverage Loop

Deposit SOL on a liquid staking protocol to receive an LST (JitoSOL, mSOL, etc.)
Deposit the LST on Kamino Lend as collateral
Borrow USDC against it
Deposit USDC on Marginfi as lending collateral
Optionally borrow SOL from Marginfi and repeat

Points earned: LST staking rewards + Kamino lending points + Kamino borrowing points + Marginfi lending points

Risk: Multiple layers of smart contract risk plus liquidation risk if SOL drops significantly. Each additional loop increases your leverage and tightens your liquidation distance.

Strategy 2: The Perp Trading + Lending Stack

Deposit USDC on Drift
Use part as margin for perp trading
The rest earns lending yield in Drift's spot pool
Trade enough volume to accumulate meaningful trading points

Points earned: Drift lending points + Drift trading volume points + actual trading PnL

Risk: Trading losses can eat your capital. This only makes sense if you're trading perps anyway.

Strategy 3: The Conservative Yield Stack

Points earned: Kamino lending points + Jupiter staking/governance points + Jupiter usage credits

Risk: Minimal — no leverage, no borrowing. Lower points but much safer for capital preservation.

Strategy 4: The NFT + DeFi Split

Allocate 70% to DeFi points farming (Kamino/Marginfi loop)
Allocate 30% to Tensor collection bids on blue-chip Solana NFTs
Rebalance between the two based on seasonal point boosts

Points earned: DeFi protocol points + Tensor marketplace points

Risk: NFT market volatility can cause losses on collection bids if floor prices drop after you acquire NFTs.

Capital Efficiency Tips

Track your effective APR. Points don't have a guaranteed dollar value, but you can estimate based on previous seasons. If Season 1 of Protocol X distributed $10M to users who earned 100M total points, each point was worth $0.10. Multiply your points by the estimated value to calculate your effective APR.

Compound your positions. If a protocol pays out rewards in tokens, sell or restake those rewards to grow your farming position over time. Even small regular compounds make a significant difference over months.

Watch for seasonal resets. Many protocols reset multipliers between seasons. If a new season starts with boosted rates, rotating capital quickly can capture the highest early-season multipliers.

Minimize idle capital. Every dollar sitting in your wallet earning nothing has an opportunity cost. Even small amounts should be deployed somewhere earning points. Use Phantom or Solflare staking for SOL that isn't actively deployed in DeFi.

Use referral links. Most points programs offer 5-10% bonus points for referrals. Create your referral link and share it. Also use referral links from other users when signing up for new protocols — the referrer bonus often applies to both parties.

Tracking Your Points

Keeping track of points across multiple protocols is essential. Here's how:

Protocol dashboards: Each protocol shows your current points on their website. Check weekly at minimum.

Portfolio trackers: Step Finance and SonarWatch aggregate your DeFi positions across protocols. Useful for seeing your total capital deployment and yields.

Spreadsheet tracking: For serious farmers, maintain a spreadsheet with:

Capital deployed per protocol
Points earned per day/week
Estimated point value based on comparable airdrops
Effective APR per strategy
Health factors for any leveraged positions

Set calendar reminders for:

Governance votes (missing votes means missing points on Jupiter)
Season end dates (to rebalance before resets)
Health factor checks (daily if running leveraged loops)

Risks and Realities

Points may not convert to meaningful value. Not every points program results in a valuable airdrop. Some seasons pay well, others disappoint. Don't over-leverage or take excessive risk for points that might be worth less than expected.

Smart contract risk compounds. Each protocol you interact with adds a layer of smart contract risk. A bug in any one protocol can result in loss of funds. The more protocols you stack, the more exposed you are.

Liquidation cascades are real. If you're running leveraged loops across multiple protocols and SOL drops 20% quickly, you might get liquidated on multiple positions simultaneously. This can wipe out months of farming profits in minutes.

Sybil detection is improving. Protocols are getting better at detecting farming bots and splitting capital across wallets to game points systems. Stick to legitimate usage from a single wallet to avoid having points clawed back.

Opportunity cost matters. Time spent managing complex farming strategies has a cost. If a simpler strategy earns 80% of the points with 20% of the effort, it might be the better choice.

Getting Started: A Simple First Farm

If this is your first time farming points, start here:

This three-protocol stack requires no leverage, minimal monitoring, and exposes you to points from three of the largest Solana protocols. Scale up to more complex strategies only after you're comfortable with the basics.

Browse more DeFi tools on MadeOnSol's DeFi directory and track yields with our Analytics tools.