General Validators:

• 100+ epochs of activity
• Consistent performance and network presence

New Validators (Up to 35% pool allocation):

• Minimum 5,000 SOL self-stake OR verifiable ecosystem work
• 30+ epochs of history
• ≥99% uptime, <10% skip rate
• Up to 15,000 SOL in delegation (held for 100 epochs)

Because every giant validator today started small.

And sometimes, it only takes a single epoch to surge from underdog to leader.