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The RealValidator Team Editorial team

Helius and Figment are the two largest single-validator stake positions in this wiki's directory at epoch 971 — Figment at 15,439,773 SOL (1.000% of network) and Helius at 14,348,055 SOL (0.93% of network) per Stakewiz — but the two diverge on every axis except stake bucket: Helius is a developer-infrastructure operator at 0% base / 0% Jito MEV commission on TeraSwitch AS20326 Frankfurt with a 20.42 Wiz Score, while Figment is an institutional staking-infrastructure operator at 7% base / 7% Jito MEV commission on OVH Canada AS16276 Toronto with a 46.67 Wiz Score.

At a glance

Metric Helius Figment
Active stake 14,348,055 SOL — 0.93% of network (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 15,439,773 SOL — 1.000% of network (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
Wiz Score 20.42 (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 46.67 (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
30-day trailing skip rate 0.04% — vs 0.14% network median (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 0.028% — vs 0.14% network median (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
Base commission 0% (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 7% (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
Jito MEV commission 0% (jito_commission_bps: 0, epoch 971) 7% (jito_commission_bps: 700, epoch 971)
Total APY estimate 6.02% — 5.89% staking + 0.13% Jito MEV (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 5.48% — 5.36% staking + 0.12% Jito MEV (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
ASN + city AS20326 TeraSwitch — Frankfurt, Germany (Stakewiz, epoch 971) AS16276 OVH Infrastructures Canada — Toronto, Canada (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
Software version 4.0.0-beta.7 — version_valid: false (Stakewiz, epoch 971) Agave 3.1.14 — version_valid: true (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
SFDP eligibility Above 1,000,000 SOL external-stake ceiling — Foundation residual and matching withdrawn under current SFDP parameters (per solana.org/delegation-criteria) 7% base commission exceeds the 5% SFDP cap; 15.44M SOL external stake above the 1,000,000 SOL ceiling — Foundation residual and matching withdrawn (per solana.org/delegation-criteria)

Where they're similar

  • Both run the Jito client (is_jito: true at epoch 971 per Stakewiz) and route MEV through the Jito Block Engine.
  • Both are above the 1,000,000 SOL SFDP external-stake ceiling at which Foundation residual delegation and 1:1 matching are withdrawn — neither receives Foundation stake regardless of commission status.
  • Both sit above Stakewiz's above_halt_line marker — the concentration bucket where further stake imposes score-level cost — and both receive a 0 stake_weight_score (Stakewiz components, epoch 971).
  • Both carry a Stakewiz superminority_penalty of -20, applied to validators whose individual stake position contributes to the network's superminority risk threshold.
  • Both post sub-network-median 30-day trailing skip rates (0.04% Helius, 0.028% Figment) against a 0.14% network median per Stakewiz at epoch 971.
  • Both are large enough to count toward the top-20 Nakamoto coefficient cohort — at roughly 1% of stake apiece, both validators contribute to the minimum-node threshold for one-third Byzantine assumptions.
  • Neither is delinquent at the epoch 971 snapshot.

Where they diverge

Operator type. Helius is operated by Helius Labs, a Solana-focused RPC and developer-infrastructure company; the validator is one staking endpoint within a broader API portfolio. Figment is an institutional staking-infrastructure operator with multi-chain coverage — Solana is one network within Figment's staking-as-a-service business. For stakers evaluating operator focus, Figment's primary product is staking; Helius's is not.

Commission stack. Helius retains 0%/0%. Figment retains 7%/7% (700 bps Jito MEV). The total APY estimate gap is 0.54 percentage points (6.02% vs 5.48%, epoch 971) — approximately 5.4 SOL/year on a 1,000 SOL delegation before MEV variability.

Wiz Score composition — why the same stake bucket produces a 26-point gap. Helius's 20.42 reflects penalties for TeraSwitch ASN concentration (-8.97), Frankfurt city concentration (-8.68), ASN+city joint (-6.61), software version (-20 for 4.0.0-beta.7), and superminority (-20). Figment's 46.67 reflects a far smaller decentralization stack — 2.79% OVH Canada ASN (-0.86), 0.17% Toronto city (-0.07) — plus a 6/20 commission drag from the 7% rate and the same -20 superminority penalty. The 26-point gap is a composite-penalty gap driven by Helius's location-and-version stack versus Figment's commission stack, not a performance gap.

ASN profile. Helius is on AS20326 (TeraSwitch), which carries 29.21% of network stake at the Frankfurt vantage per Stakewiz — above the 25% SFDP ASN-concentration threshold that entered force on May 1, 2026. Figment is on AS16276 (OVH Canada), which carries 2.79% — well within the same threshold. For stakers prioritizing ASN diversification, the two validators land on opposite sides of the SFDP-defined concentration line.

City profile. Helius is in Frankfurt (22% city concentration per Stakewiz city_concentration); Figment is in Toronto (0.17%). Frankfurt is the directory's most concentrated city; Toronto is among the least. For stakers using city as a decentralization proxy, the gap is roughly 130x.

Software version status. Helius runs 4.0.0-beta.7, flagged version_valid: false (a fixed -20 component). Figment runs Agave 3.1.14, flagged version_valid: true with no penalty. Version status alone accounts for 20 of the 26-point Wiz Score gap.

Operator self-description. Helius's Stakewiz description is populated ("Crypto's #1 developer platform. Exclusively on Solana.") with website: helius.dev. Figment's description and website are unpopulated; the operator publishes off-chain at figment.io. The disclosure asymmetry is observable but does not affect the staking metrics.

Infrastructure

Helius is on AS20326 (TeraSwitch) in Frankfurt (50.11°N, 8.68°E) at TPU IP 64.130.57.215, running Jito client 4.0.0-beta.7. TeraSwitch hosts multiple other large validators in this directory, producing the 29.21% ASN concentration reading.

Figment is on AS16276 (OVH Canada) in Toronto (43.65°N, 79.38°W) at TPU IP 72.251.11.24, running Agave 3.1.14. OVH Canada is sparsely populated relative to TeraSwitch, Hetzner, or AWS.

Neither validator runs Frankendancer at epoch 971. The version-status gap (version_valid: false vs true) is the single largest Wiz Score component difference between the two.

Stake-pool inclusion and SFDP

Helius's 14,348,055 SOL exceeds the 1,000,000 SOL ceiling at which Foundation residual delegation and 1:1 matching are withdrawn under current SFDP parameters — no Foundation stake regardless of the 0%/0% commission. First epoch with stake: 595, spanning approximately 376 epochs at epoch 971.

Figment is outside SFDP eligibility on commission grounds (7% > 5% cap) and stake-position grounds (15.44M SOL > 1,000,000 SOL ceiling). First epoch with stake: 80, spanning approximately 891 epochs at epoch 971 — among the longest-tenured validators in the directory.

Stake-pool inclusion across Marinade SAM, the Jito Stake Pool, and SolBlaze is governed by each pool's independent selection criteria — Stakewiz does not surface pool inclusion in the API fields used here.

Trade-offs for stakers

  • A staker prioritizing the highest Stakewiz total APY pass-through (6.02% vs 5.48%, epoch 971) → Helius.
  • A staker prioritizing Wiz Score as a composite (46.67 vs 20.42, Stakewiz, epoch 971) → Figment.
  • A staker prioritizing ASN diversification away from the 29.21%-concentrated AS20326 TeraSwitch — versus 2.79% on AS16276 OVH Canada → Figment.
  • A staker prioritizing city diversification away from Frankfurt (22% city concentration vs 0.17% in Toronto, Stakewiz, epoch 971) → Figment.
  • A staker prioritizing a version_valid: true software status (4.0.0-beta.7 vs Agave 3.1.14, Stakewiz, epoch 971) → Figment.
  • A staker prioritizing 0% commission stack across both base and Jito MEV (0%/0% vs 7%/7%, epoch 971) → Helius.
  • A staker prioritizing operator focus on a staking-infrastructure-first business (Figment is staking-as-a-service; Helius is RPC/developer-infra with a staking endpoint) → Figment.
  • A staker for whom Nakamoto-coefficient diversification away from ~1%-of-network stake positions is the binding constraint — both validators sit in the same superminority-penalty bucket; the pairing does not change exposure to top-N concentration risk.

Metrics sourced from Stakewiz cache at epoch 971, snapshot 2026-05-15. Skip rate, commission, and APY values update at epoch boundaries; verify against the live Stakewiz profile when citing for current decisions.