Notes on Methodology
This report covers Figment’s main Solana validator and its activity through April, May, and June 2026 (Epochs 949–994). On Solana, Figment is one of the largest independent protocol staking providers. Unless otherwise stated, all data is sourced from Figment’s internal analytics.
We distinguish between metrics within Figment’s operational control and metrics subject to external factors:
- Within Figment’s control: Voting Effectiveness and Voting Latency.
- Subject to external factors: Skip Rate – a lagging indicator influenced by whether previous leaders delay when our validator sees a previously confirmed block. Skip rate is best evaluated by comparing operators over the same time period, not by comparing individual validators over brief windows, given transaction fee volatility and stake weight differences.
Q2 Metrics
- ~68% of SOL total supply staked
- 6.96% share of staked SOL held by Figment validators
- Figment’s median gross Q2 2026 Staking Rewards Rate (SRR): 6.24% (vs. network average SRR of 6.16%)*
- Skip Rate: 0.06% – the percent of leader slots in which a validator fails to produce a confirmed block
- Voting Effectiveness: 99.39% – the percentage of correct votes, modulated by latency
- Voting Latency: 1.01 slots – time between a slot landing and our validator’s vote (≤2 slots is optimal)
*Median Gross SRR represents validator-level performance before commission and fee structures and reflects inflation rewards, Jito MEV tips, and priority fees. Individual delegator rewards vary based on staking arrangement.
The State of Solana Staking Rewards, Mid-2026
At the institutional tier, performance has been converging over time across staking providers: Leading operators who run modern schedulers, optimize networking, and operate with discipline, now cluster within a few basis points of one another on gross SRR.
Staying in that cluster requires continuous engineering effort: client migrations, scheduler tuning, and networking upgrades. This work shows up as consistent, strong staking rewards performance, rather than a visible gap in SRR.
Gross SRR is now a qualifying credential: it confirms a validator’s operational excellence, but it no longer strongly differentiates which one to choose.
What increasingly separates validators is what sits underneath the headline SRR and what they actually deliver to customers: Two validators with the same gross SRR can deliver meaningfully different net outcomes depending on reward mix and distribution.
Inflation rewards: still the majority of staking rewards, are distributed by stake weight. Assuming no downtime, they will be within several basis points across well-operated validators. These rewards are also on a fixed, disinflationary schedule: issuance declines 15% annually toward a terminal rate of 1.5%.
Variable streams, such as MEV tips and priority fees, carry a growing share of validator economics, andhey reach delegators very differently: MEV tips through Jito are distributed on-chain to a delegator’s stake accounts, net of the validator’s published commission. Priority fees are paid directly to the block-producing validator and, across most of the network today, are not shared. In-protocol priority-fee sharing (SIMD-0123) is approved and will activate as part of the feature schedule in Agave 4.2, SIMD-0123 is not yet live.
Where Q2 Rewards Came From
Figment’s median gross SRR for Q2 was 6.24%, against a network average of 6.16%. The figure combines all three reward streams: inflation rewards, Jito MEV tips, and priority fees (gross of commission; individual delegator rewards vary by staking arrangement).
With issuance on its fixed disinflation path, MEV is a growing share of validator economics. Figment’s validator captures MEV tips through Jito’s block engine via the Rakurai client, adopted in March 2026. MEV contributed approximately 3.39% of total staking rewards in Q2.
Looking Forward: Alpenglow
Solana’s Alpenglow consensus upgrade is targeted for late August 2026. Alpenglow replaces the current Tower BFT + Turbine architecture with Votor and Rotor – a new consensus and data dissemination protocol designed to dramatically reduce finality times (targeting sub-second confirmation).
Notably, Alpenglow will eliminate the economic incentive for timing games among validators, leveling the reward-capture playing field and making performance more about infrastructure quality than latency optimization.
For Figment’s delegators, Alpenglow should be a net positive: it rewards consistent, well-operated validators rather than those gaming block timing which can harm overall network health.
Infrastructure and Risk Management
Figment operates a non-custodial validator model on Solana. We do not custody client assets, control withdrawal authority, or operate signing wallets on behalf of delegators. Stake authority remains with the delegator at all times.
We apply a “Safety Over Liveness” philosophy: long-term stake protection takes priority over marginal performance gains or aggressive configuration changes. Validator updates, client releases, and protocol upgrades are deployed only after rigorous testing. If the Rakurai scheduler were ever disabled, our validator automatically falls back to the standard Agave-Jito client with no interruption to staking.
That risk posture extends to physical and network architecture. Figment operates Solana validators across 6 countries and 10+ data center locations with support for multiple validator clients, so localized outages, provider failures, or client-specific issues do not materially impact delegated stake. On the networking layer, Figment is a Phase 1 operator on DoubleZero, a dedicated fiber network purpose-built for Solana validators. Routing traffic over DoubleZero instead of the public internet lowers and stabilizes latency, which means fewer late or missed votes and a stronger inflation-reward component of SRR.
Stake SOL with Figment
Figment operates one of the largest non-custodial Solana staking infrastructures, serving institutional clients including asset managers, exchanges, wallets, foundations, and custodians.
What Figment offers for Solana staking:
- Leading rewards: A dedicated Solana infrastructure team delivering consistently leading rewards boosted by MEV
- Figment App: Stake, unstake, view positions in real time, track portfolio across networks, and download detailed reward reports
- Rewards reporting: Per-epoch statements in multiple formats, with inflation and MEV rewards broken out
Staking rewards are variable and not guaranteed. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Staking involves risk, including potential loss of rewards due to slashing or validator downtime.
To discuss Solana staking with Figment: Schedule a meeting.
