Solana Announces New Validator Policy

Solana’s governance arm, Solana Foundation, has unveiled a new policy for its Delegation Program.

The Solana Foundation Delegation Program (SFDP) was first rolled out in 2020. Since then it has been working to sustain a highly secure, decentralized, and performant validator network for its ecosystem. The program helps new validators participate in its network without substantial SOL holdings.

However, given the decline in Solana Foundation’s total network stake, it has now made certain changes to remove non-compliant nodes.

What is Solana’s New Validator Policy

Ben Hawkins, Head of Staking Ecosystem at the Solana Foundation, has announced the criteria to remove certain non-permormant validators uder the newly minted policy.

According to the new policy, for every single new validator that earns a seat via community stake, three long-standing validators will be removed from the Foundation’s delegated list.

This “three-for-one” swap marks one of the most aggressive steps taken by Solana to date. It is aimed at balancing its rapid growth with robust network health.

According to Dan Smith, Data Analytics Manager at Blockworks Research, this new policy can see delegations of around 150 validators removed.

What is the Criteria for Validator Removal

At the core of the new Validator policy lies a simple yet stringent criteria. There are two contingent things:

1. any validator that has held Foundation delegation on mainnet for at least 18 months and,

2. has accumulated less than 1,000 SOL of self-owned stake outside that delegation slot

On fulfilment of these two criterias, three validators would be removed with the addition of new validator. But new entrants must demonstrate both technical reliability and the ability to attract external delegations.

Why is Solana Bringing New Validator Policy

The move is explicitly aimed at curbing “validators in name only” that rely wholly on subsidized stake rather than genuine community support.

Ben framed the initiative as a vital recalibration. “We’re committed to fostering a self-sustaining, competitive validator community,” Hawkins said.

“Removing nodes that haven’t proven their commitment to Solana. Both in uptime and personal, stake will prompt all operators to invest in their own infrastructure and stake outreach”.

The Solana Foundation’s delegated SOL stake is the key “currency” by which it on-boards and now removes validators.

It has historically supplied as much as 30% of the total staked SOL. As of Epoch 775 (April 2025), around 40.54 million SOL has been actively delegated to validators.

However, as the ecosystem matures, the Foundation’s share has shrunk from 30% at inception to about just 10%  today.

Bullish For SOL?

Industry observers and validator operators have largely welcomed the change as a logical evolution.

Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius Labs – one of Solana’s top community validators – described the policy as “bullish for SOL” on social media.

In Mert’s X post, he cites the expectation that it will drive higher quality node operations and more robust community engagement.

As of writing, SOL Price is targeting $150 with the SOL Strategies raising $150M funds for boosting its SOL treasury.

The new policy is now tying the fate of Foundation-delegated stake to tangible performance metrics. Indeed, the policy can create a live testing ground for validator resilience and community trust.

Underperforming validators incur ongoing operational costs. This includes vote fees, hardware upkeep, monitoring – that the Foundation has traditionally shouldered. This is due to the pruning validators that fail to reinvest in themselves.

The new policy can reallocate its limited delegation resources towards participants who amplify network value and represent genuine network backers.

Solana’s daily transaction volumes has been regularly eclipsing 20 million and fee revenue surpassing $1 million. Preserving decentralization without compromising performance has become paramount now.

Thus, the “three-out, one-in” mechanism can serve as a means to institutionalize best practices for validator uptime.

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