Eligibility Criteria

Requirements a validator must meet to receive stake from SAM, and how to exit cleanly.

TL;DR: Validators must meet uptime, commission, version, and bond requirements to receive Marinade stake. Losing eligibility stops new allocations and gradually unstakes existing stake. Exit cleanly by withdrawing the bond, not by lowering the bid.

Overview

To receive stake through the Stake Auction Marketplace, a validator must meet the requirements on this page. Eligibility is checked regularly. Once a validator no longer qualifies, they stop receiving new stake and their existing Marinade-delegated stake is redelegated to other eligible validators.

Requirements to Receive Stake

Each item below must be satisfied for a validator to be eligible.

• Not blacklisted: The validator is not running harmful mods or engaging in commission rugs. See Blacklist Policy for full criteria.

• Supported node version: The validator runs a node version within the specified semver bounds.

• Inflation commission: Effective inflation commission to Marinade stakers is 7% or lower. Static bids and MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) commissions can be used to offset a higher on-chain inflation commission. See Offsetting a Higher Inflation Commission below.

• Uptime: Above 80% in each of the last 3 epochs, calculated using the stake-weighted average of vote credits.

• Funded PSR bond: The validator has created and funded its PSR (Protected Staking Rewards) bond. The bond must contain enough SOL for one epoch of downtime (1 SOL per 10k SOL of stake), one epoch of maximum_yield for the amount of stake received, and one epoch of bids.

• Decentralization constraints: Allocation is also subject to per-validator caps and ASO (Autonomous System Organization, the data center or hosting provider) and country concentration limits. These are not strict eligibility gates but can prevent a validator from receiving additional stake. See Stake Distribution and Decentralization Constraints.

Offsetting a Higher Inflation Commission

A validator with on-chain inflation commission above 7% can still qualify by topping up stakers' yield from their bond.

The eligibility check compares the total yield delivered to Marinade stakers (on-chain inflation passed through, plus any static bid paid from the bond, plus MEV) against a threshold calculated as if the validator had a 7% commission. As long as the totals match, the validator is eligible.

Example: A validator with 10% on-chain inflation commission earning 1,000 SOL of inflation per 1,000 SOL of stake delivers 900 SOL to stakers from inflation. To match a 7%-commission validator (who would deliver 930 SOL), the gap is 30 SOL, which the validator can close by setting a static bid (CPMPE, cost per 1,000 SOL of delegated stake per epoch) of 0.03 or higher. The bid is paid from the bond, not from on-chain rewards. The combined yield delivered to stakers is 900 + 30 = 930 SOL, the validator passes the eligibility check.

Static bids deplete bond reserves over time. Validators choosing to offset a higher on-chain commission this way should monitor their bond balance and top up as needed.

Where to Check Eligibility

Three sources help validators verify their status and diagnose issues.

• Marinade validator page: A validator's own profile at app.marinade.finance/network/validators/ shows current Marinade-delegated stake, bond status, and other relevant validator information. It does not show SAM eligibility status directly. Use the PSR dashboard for that.

• PSR dashboard: The PSR dashboard shows eligibility status and surfaces specific reasons for exclusion (e.g. an ASO concentration constraint).

• Auction pipeline outputs: Each epoch's auction inputs and results are published in the ds-sam-pipeline auctions folder. Useful for verifying historical eligibility and seeing exactly what data the auction used.

Validators should also be monitoring uptime and node health from their own infrastructure, as these are the most common eligibility issues.

What Happens After Losing Eligibility

Loss of eligibility is treated as a clean unstake, no penalty is charged.

• No new stake: Once a validator fails any eligibility check, they are excluded from receiving new stake in upcoming auctions.

• Existing stake redelegates: Marinade redelegates the validator's existing Marinade-delegated stake to other eligible validators as soon as possible. There is no fixed timeline. Stake reduces gradually over multiple epochs.

• No penalty: Losing eligibility does not trigger a Bid Reduction Penalty or other charge against the bond.

• Bids still apply during unstake: While stake is being redelegated, the validator continues to be charged bids on whatever Marinade stake remains active that epoch.

• Recovery: Once a validator becomes eligible again, they re-enter the next auction cycle automatically. There is no separate re-application step.

How to Exit SAM

If a validator receives stake from SAM, the only correct way to exit is to request a withdrawal from the bond. This allows Marinade to redelegate stake away from the validator without charging a penalty.

A validator who receives stake from SAM and lowers the CPMPE instead of withdrawing the bond will trigger a bond settlement for the expected yield that will be missed. See Bid Reduction Penalty.

To stop receiving any stake from Marinade entirely, setting maxStakeWanted to zero is not sufficient. The validator must fully withdraw the bond. Remaining bonded means the validator continues to participate in auctions and may receive stake if their bid wins. See maxStakeWanted Parameter for more on this setting.

Stake reduces gradually over multiple epochs after a withdrawal request. There is no fixed timeline.