The Solana Foundation has capped membership in its Validator Delegation Program at 12 months and 100 validators. Validators must also leave once their external stake exceeds 300,000 SOL. Existing participants who already break these limits will be retired in weekly tranches.
Solana Foundation rules for its Validator Delegation Program, known as SFDP, now limit membership to a maximum of 12 months.
The program will also support no more than 100 validators at a time. Any validator that attracts more than 300,000 SOL in external stake has to leave.
What changed in the delegation program
The new guidelines took effect on November 6, 2026. Existing participants who already break these limits will not be cut loose overnight. They will be retired in weekly tranches, and they may apply again under the new criteria.
Validators process transactions and keep the Solana network running, and they earn rewards based on how much SOL is staked with them. The SFDP has tried to help newcomers by lending Foundation stake to promising operators.
The program also covers vote costs during a participant's first 12 months, on a tapering schedule. Coverage starts at 100% and steps down to 0% after that period.
Commission and concentration requirements
Participants must meet a broader set of requirements. Validators can charge a maximum 5% commission, the cut they take from staking rewards before passing the rest to delegators.
They must also meet software requirements, and they face limits on concentration in data centers and ASNs. The concentration limits are meant to spread the risk that a single outage knocks out a big chunk of the network.
A shrinking footprint, by design
As of Epoch 1077, 337 validators were participating in the SFDP. Together they held approximately 23.74 million SOL of Foundation stake, about 5% of total staked SOL on the network.
At the program's inception, the Foundation's share was nearly 44%. The new 100-validator cap sits well below the current headcount of 337, which helps explain the weekly tranche approach.
Source: Crypto Briefing
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
