TL;DR
- Solana lost 68% of its active validators, dropping from 2,560 nodes in March 2023 to 795 this week.
- Each validator must vote on blocks daily and pays up to 1.1 SOL per day. The first year requires at least $49,000 in SOL to participate.
- The exit of nodes reduced the Nakamoto coefficient from 31 to 20 and concentrated stake.
Solana recorded a 68% drop in the number of active validators over the past three years. The network went from a peak of 2,560 nodes in March 2023 to 795 active validators this week, according to data from Solanacompass. The reduction occurred steadily and coincided with higher operating costs and changes in the protocol’s incentive structure.
Validators play a central role in Solana. They propose blocks, validate transactions, and participate in consensus by submitting vote transactions. Each vote carries a cost in SOL. According to the technical documentation, daily spending can reach up to 1.1 SOL per day in voting fees alone.
Excluding hardware and servers, an operator must commit at least $49,000 in SOL to cover the first year of operation. That amount is driven mainly by the costs associated with participating in consensus. The fee structure directly impacts smaller validators, which rely on commissions and delegations to cover expenses.
Part of the decline reflects the removal of inactive nodes, known as “zombie validators.” However, active operators said that factor does not explain the scale of the drop. Independent validators reported that competition from large operators offering zero-commission services compressed margins to levels incompatible with continued operation.
The Solana Network Is Becoming Unviable for Small Validators
The decrease in the number of validators had a direct impact on network concentration metrics. Solana’s Nakamoto coefficient fell by 35% over the same period. The indicator dropped from 31 in March 2023 to 20 today. The coefficient measures the minimum number of independent entities required to compromise the network.
The decline in the coefficient reflects a higher concentration of stake and validation capacity within a smaller group of operators. As smaller validators exit the system, the relative weight of large nodes increases within the consensus.
Despite the reduction in the number of validators and the pressure on independent operators, Solana’s onchain activity continued to grow. The network recorded higher usage, driven by the launch and trading of tokens linked to artificial intelligence. This growth occurred even as Solana declined in the market, with its current price at $123 per token
