Solana FAQ
Answers to some of Solana's most frequently asked questions.
Q: Is there a way to check my eligibility for Solana airdrops?
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Q: How do I unwrap my wrapped Solana?
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Q: My transactions keep failing due to too much slippage. How do I fix this?
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Q: This strange coin/NFT appeared in my wallet. Is it a scam? What should I do with it?
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Q: Is there a way to track my entire portfolio across multiple wallets in one place?
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Q: What is the best way to go about staking my Solana?
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Q: My tokens are stuck on Portal (Wormhole) bridge. What should I do?
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Q: Is there a way to check my eligibility for Solana airdrops?
Yes! You can use this free Solana Airdrop Checker here.
You'll need to sign up with your email address to use it. Once signed up, you can paste up to five wallet addresses (one per line) into the address box. Then click "check."
You'll see the results of the check below.
The Solana Airdrop Checker is a great tool for ensuring you don't miss an airdrop. Thank you to the developers who created it! If you like this checker, consider tipping the devs or upgrading to the paid service.
Q: How do I unwrap my wrapped Solana?
Sometimes, Solana users accidentally wind up with wrapped Solana in their wallets. This can happen when using dapps, when there are incomplete transactions, etc. Wrapped Solana can't be used to pay transaction fees on the blockchain, so you'll need to unwrap it for it to be usable again. Fortunately, unwrapping your wSol is easy. Here are two methods:
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SolFlare Wallet
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If your wrapped Solana is inside a SolFlare wallet, you can unwrap it right inside your wallet from the main Portfolio tab. Just click on the three vertical dots and select UNWRAP.
Step Finance
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Your second option is to use Step Finance to swap wSol for Sol. Remember, you'll need a small amount of non-wrapped Sol already in your wallet for gas fees.
Q: My transactions keep failing due to too much slippage. How do I fix this?
Trading slippage refers to the difference between a trade's expected price and the price at which it is actually executed. If there is insufficient liquidity at the current bid or ask price to cover an order, the price will "slip" to find more willing buyers or sellers.
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Exchanges limit the amount of allowable slippage to prevent you from accidentally losing a lot of money. The default slippage is typically 0.3%, but a lot more is needed to execute a transaction if you are trading meme coins.
Meme coins are highly illiquid, so you'll need a high slippage rate to complete the transaction. Meme coin trading tools like Photon and Telegram bots usually default to about 25%, but most exchanges and meme coin trading apps allow you to customize the slippage in the settings.
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Once you've increased your slippage, your transactions should start executing.
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If you continue to see slippage errors, there might be another issue. Sometimes, meme coin creators remove all the liquidity from the coin's automated market maker. If a coin has no liquidity, selling any amount of it will drop the price by 99%, so even a 25% slippage rate will result in an error. If a meme coin has no liquidity, it generally means it has no value.
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Here are some meme coin trading tools that will help you protect yourself against future rug pulls.
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Jupiter recently added a new feature called Dynamic Slippage that helps people execute trades with the lowest amount of slippage possible. When turned on, Dynamic Slippage automatically calculates the optimal slippage amount so your trade goes through with the best price. You can turn on this feature by clicking the Slippage Options button in the top right of the token swap screen.
Q: This strange coin/NFT appeared in my wallet. Is it a scam and what should I do with it?
If you receive suspicious coins or NFTs, there is a strong possibility they are scams, but don't panic. The tokens can't hurt you just by sitting in your wallet.
The scam works like this. Scammers send you NFTs that look like free airdrops or giveaways in hopes that the allure of free money will entice the unsuspecting wallet owner to try to claim the reward. These tokens often have a website written on them, like this:
If someone connects their wallet to this fake reward website, no reward will materialize, and instead, the smart contract will drain their wallet.
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But remember, you'll be safe if you don't interact with the website. You can keep the tokens in your wallet or send them to another wallet without risking losing your crypto.
Not every token you receive is a scam, however. A few are legit airdrops from projects trying to drum up publicity, like Seal Wif Hat. Most will never be worth anything, but a few manage to appreciate in value. Bonk was first distributed as an airdrop in December 2022, and when it appeared in people's wallets, most had no idea what it was.
So, what should you do with suspicious tokens?
Solana wallets have added many features to help you manage spam tokens. They enable you to hide or burn them. Sol Spotlight recommends that you hide most spam tokens and only burn the ones you are 110% sure are scams.
If you can't figure out how to burn spam tokens in your wallet, you can use Sol Incinerator.
Q: What is the best way to go about staking my Solana?
There are a few ways to stake your Solana. You can stake with a validator directly through your wallet or buy liquid staked $SOL.
In traditional staking, tokens are often locked up for a period of time, limiting your control over them. However, liquid staking offers a more flexible approach. It issues a derivative token in exchange for the staked asset that you hold in your wallet, giving you the freedom to sell at any time, thereby empowering you to manage your investments more effectively.
Sanctum is a protocol that works with various validators and issues liquid staking tokens. For example, you can earn one of the highest staking APYs by buying JupSOL (Jupiter Staked Solana) or some extra BONK by buying BonkSOL.
Staking with Sanctum will also help you qualify for season 2 of Sanctum's airdrop.
Q: I sent tokens to my Phantom wallet's Ethereum address, but I don't see them in the wallet. What should I do?
Don't panic; your coins are safe. Usually, when you can't see your tokens in Phantom, it is because they were sent on a blockchain that Phantom does not currently support.
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Many blockchains use Ethereum's wallet standard, such as Binance Smart Chain and Avalanche, and all Ethereum layer 2 rollups, such as Base and Arbitrum. Your wallet address is the same across all these chains.
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Phantom, however, does not support all of these chains. The wallet only supports Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Bitcoin. So, if you send tokens on a different chain, they will not appear in your Phantom wallet.
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Accessing your tokens is simple. You just need to install a wallet that supports the blockchain on which they are located — such as Metamask — and import your Phantom wallet's 12-word seed phrase. Here are the steps:
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1) Install Metamask
2) Click "import an existing wallet" and input your Phantom's seed phrase.
The next step is to add the blockchain your tokens reside on to your new Metamask wallet.
3) Click the Ethereum symbol in the top left corner of the wallet.
4) Click "add network."
5) Select the blockchain where your tokens reside.
Hopefully, the blockchain you need is listed under "Popular custom networks." If not, click "Add a network manually" and enter the chain's details. This Coindesk article will help guide you.
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Now, you should see your tokens in your new Metamask wallet. To transact on this blockchain, you'll need a small amount of its native token to pay gas fees.
Here are some options if you'd like to bridge your tokens to Solana.
Q: My tokens are stuck on Portal (Wormhole) bridge. What should I do?
Sometimes, tokens get stuck on Portal mid-bridge and need a little nudge to finish the transaction. All you have to do is click "Resume Transaction."
Then, input the "source chain transaction hash."
If you don't know your transaction hash, you can find it by pasting your wallet address here: https://wormholescan.io/
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If you still don't have your tokens after clicking "Resume Transaction," it may be time to contact Wormhole customer support. You can make a support ticket on Wormhole's Discord server.
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For more information about bridging tokens to Solana, check out this page.