Solana's Active Validators Decline to 2021 Levels

Solana's daily active validator count has fallen below 800, reaching levels last seen in 2021. According to Odaily, this marks a significant decrease of over 65% from the peak of approximately 2,500 validators at the beginning of 2023. The volume of validator voting transactions has also dropped from around 300,000 per day to 170,000, representing a 40% decline. The primary reason for the loss of validators is attributed to changes in economic incentives, including the gradual reduction of voting cost support and staking matching policies provided by the Solana Foundation Delegation Program. Despite the contraction in validator numbers, non-voting transactions initiated by users, such as DApp interactions and token transfers, have remained stable at about 100 million transactions daily.