A 68% Drop in Validators: The Side of Solana No One Talks About

There is a page on SolanaCompass that tracks decentralization metrics for the Solana network. One of the charts on that page has a great title: "How have the number of validators grown over time?"

What makes this chart so great? Despite the title, it clearly shows that over the past three years the number of validators has not grown at all. On the contrary, it has been steadily declining. From its peak in early 2023, the validator count has dropped by roughly 68%.

Even more interesting is the caption under the chart, which states: "In the last 2 years Solana has grown from ~381 staked validators to 796 today." The approximation "~381" is doing a lot of work here. To be precise, the chart shows 1,737 validators exactly two years ago, on January 29, 2024.

In short, validators are consistently leaving the network. And I suspect it is only a matter of time before a prominent opinion leader draws broader attention to this trend. We have already seen many times how sensitive the SOL price is to shifts in community sentiment.

So maybe the question is worth asking: is it time to swap SOL for something more reliable? You can find the best exchange rates at rabbit.io.