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The RealValidator Team Editorial team

Helius and Jito Labs both run on TeraSwitch AS20326 with identical infrastructure exposure, but diverge on every economic and brand axis at epoch 971: Helius carries 14,348,055 SOL of active stake to Jito Labs's 303,469 SOL — a roughly 47x gap — Jito Labs charges 8% Jito MEV commission to Helius's 0%, and the two sit at opposite ends of Stakewiz's quality distribution at 20.42 vs 77.67 (per Stakewiz).

At a glance

Metric Helius Jito Labs
Active stake 14,348,055 SOL — 0.93% of network (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 303,469 SOL — 0.020% of network (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
Wiz Score 20.42 (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 77.67 (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
30-day trailing skip rate 0.04% — vs 0.14% network median (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 0.00% — vs 0.14% network median (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
Base commission 0% (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 4% (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
Jito MEV commission 0% (jito_commission_bps: 0, epoch 971) 8% (jito_commission_bps: 800, epoch 971)
Total APY estimate 6.02% — 5.89% staking + 0.13% Jito MEV (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 5.76% — 5.64% staking + 0.12% Jito MEV (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
ASN + city AS20326 TeraSwitch — Frankfurt, Germany (Stakewiz, epoch 971) AS20326 TeraSwitch — Singapore (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
Software version 4.0.0-beta.7 — version_valid: false (Stakewiz, epoch 971) 4.0.0-rc.1 — version_valid: true (Stakewiz, epoch 971)
SFDP eligibility Above 1,000,000 SOL external-stake ceiling — Foundation residual and matching withdrawn (per solana.org/delegation-criteria) Stake 303,469 SOL within the matching range; 4% base commission under the 5% SFDP cap, 8% Jito MEV commission under the 10% cap; enrollment status not surfaced in Stakewiz cache (per solana.org/delegation-dashboard)

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 hosted on AS20326 (TeraSwitch) — the same ASN, which carries 29.21% of network stake at Helius's Frankfurt vantage and 32.5% at Jito Labs's Singapore vantage per Stakewiz asn_concentration, epoch 971. The ASN concentration is the dominant decentralization penalty on both validators' Wiz Scores.
  • Both post sub-network-median skip rates (0.04% Helius, 0.00% Jito Labs) against a 0.14% network median — leader-side performance is at or near the directory ceiling on both nodes.
  • Both report 99.55% vote success and a 99.7% credit ratio under Timely Vote Credits at epoch 971 per Stakewiz — voter-side performance is effectively identical.
  • Both are not delinquent at the epoch 971 snapshot, with uptime of 100% (Stakewiz uptime probe, epoch 971).

Where they diverge

Stake position. Helius carries 14,348,055 SOL versus Jito Labs's 303,469 SOL — a 47x gap that places Helius among the directory's largest stake positions while Jito Labs sits inside the matching-eligible bracket. Helius receives a 0 stake_weight_score and a -20 superminority penalty; Jito Labs receives a 13.19 stake_weight_score with no superminority penalty (Stakewiz components, epoch 971). For stakers prioritizing Nakamoto-coefficient diversification, the 47x gap is the most consequential single difference.

Jito MEV commission policy. Helius retains 0%; Jito Labs retains 8%. On the Stakewiz jito_apy estimate at epoch 971 (0.13% Helius, 0.12% Jito Labs), the absolute APY gap is small, but the structural meaning is different: a Helius staker receives the full Jito tip flow that reaches the validator, a Jito Labs staker receives 92%. Jito Labs is the operator that builds and runs the Jito Block Engine and charges a non-zero Jito MEV commission on its own validator — internally consistent (the operator is paid for Block Engine work), though stakers comparing operators on raw MEV pass-through see 100% vs 92%.

Base commission. Helius is at 0%; Jito Labs is at 4%. The combined stack (0%/0% vs 4%/8%) produces the 0.26 percentage-point total APY estimate gap (6.02% vs 5.76%, Stakewiz, epoch 971) — about 2.6 SOL/year on a 1,000 SOL delegation before MEV variability.

Wiz Score composition. Helius's 20.42 reflects penalties for ASN concentration (-8.97), Frankfurt city concentration (-8.68), invalid software version (-20 fixed-magnitude for 4.0.0-beta.7), and superminority (-20). Jito Labs's 77.67 reflects the same ASN penalty (-9.98, slightly higher because Singapore-side TeraSwitch concentration is higher) with no city, version, or superminority penalty. The score gap is a composite-penalty gap driven by Helius's stake size, version status, and city — not a performance gap.

Software version status. Helius runs 4.0.0-beta.7, flagged outside Stakewiz's currently-recommended list (a -20 score component). Jito Labs runs 4.0.0-rc.1, flagged valid. The Wiz weight on this single field is large; for stakers using Wiz Score as a filter, version freshness is one of the most score-significant operational decisions an operator makes.

Identity. Helius is operated by Helius Labs, the Solana-focused RPC and developer-infrastructure company; the validator is one staking endpoint of a broader API portfolio. Jito Labs is the team behind the Jito client and the Jito Block Engine — running its own validator is part of MEV infrastructure work, not a developer-platform sideline. The two operate in adjacent infrastructure layers (RPC vs MEV).

Infrastructure

Both validators are hosted on AS20326 (TeraSwitch), placing them on the same ASN despite the different cities. Helius runs from TeraSwitch's Frankfurt facility (50.11°N, 8.68°E) at TPU IP 64.130.57.215; Jito Labs runs from TeraSwitch's Singapore facility (1.36°N, 103.87°E) at TPU IP 202.8.11.168 (Stakewiz, epoch 971).

The shared-ASN exposure is the dominant cross-validator infrastructure signal here. AS20326 carries 29.21%–32.5% of network stake depending on the per-validator concentration field — both above the 25% SFDP ASN-concentration threshold effective May 1, 2026. A correlated TeraSwitch outage affects both validators irrespective of city; the Frankfurt/Singapore split mitigates city-specific risk but not ASN-level risk.

Neither validator runs Frankendancer at epoch 971; the Firedancer/Frankendancer hybrid carries roughly 26% of staked SOL as of May 2026 per Stakewiz.

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 — the validator does not receive Foundation stake regardless of commission. First epoch with stake: 595 (Stakewiz, epoch 971).

Jito Labs's 303,469 SOL sits inside the bracket where Foundation residual delegation and 1:1 matching (capped at 100,000 SOL match) apply — provided enrollment status and infrastructure rules are met. The 4% base commission is under the 5% SFDP cap and 8% Jito MEV is under the 10% cap, so commission thresholds are met. Enrollment is not surfaced in the Stakewiz cache used here; verify at solana.org/delegation-dashboard. First epoch with stake: 325, spanning approximately 646 epochs at epoch 971.

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 net APY pass-through on Stakewiz's estimate (6.02% vs 5.76% total APY, epoch 971) → Helius.
  • A staker prioritizing Wiz Score as a quality composite (77.67 vs 20.42, Stakewiz, epoch 971) → Jito Labs.
  • A staker prioritizing Nakamoto-coefficient diversification away from the largest stake holders (0.020% vs 0.93% of network) → Jito Labs.
  • A staker prioritizing a software-version version_valid: true flag in Stakewiz (4.0.0-rc.1 vs 4.0.0-beta.7) → Jito Labs.
  • A staker prioritizing 100% Jito MEV pass-through (0% vs 8% Jito MEV commission, epoch 971) → Helius.
  • A staker treating ASN exposure as the binding constraint — both validators sit on AS20326 above the 25% SFDP concentration threshold; this is not a discriminator within this pairing.

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.