How Solana Validators Earn: Transaction Fees, Staking, and Jito MEV (2025)

Introduction

Solana has become one of the fastest and most scalable blockchains, attracting both users and infrastructure operators. But how do Solana validators earn money and is it profitable to run one?

In this article, we break down the validator earning model in 2025, including staking rewards from inflation, transaction fee payouts, and Jito MEV tips. You'll also learn about validator costs, delegator mechanics, and how much you can realistically earn with a 10,000 SOL stake.

Where Do Solana Transaction Fees Go?

We all know Solana is speedy and has low transaction fees. Every time you make a transaction on Solana, like sending SOL or using a dApp, you pay a small fee.

But Solana doesn't keep the fees for itself. Instead:

• 50% of the fee is burned (permanently removed from supply).

• 50% is paid to validators - individuals or companies that run Solana nodes and keep the network running. Validators are compensated for their work and infrastructure.

Why Solana Burns 50% of Transaction Fees

Solana has an inflationary model, which means that with each epoch (about every 2–3 days), new SOL is created and distributed as rewards to validators and stakers. This increases the total supply of SOL over time.

To help offset this inflation, Solana burns 50% of all transaction fees. Burning means those tokens are permanently removed from circulation.

So, while more SOL is added every epoch through inflation, some are also destroyed through fee burning — this helps slow the rate of total supply growth and can support the value of SOL over the long term.

Think of it like this:

Inflation adds SOL → validators and stakers are rewarded.

Fee burning removes SOL → the supply doesn't grow too fast.

It balances between rewarding participants and protecting the token's value.

Why Doesn't Solana Keep Transaction Fees?

This design aligns economic incentives with decentralization, ensuring that validators, not a centralized foundation, are rewarded for operating the network.

At the same time, it's important to note that the Solana Foundation and Solana Labs hold a significant portion of the total SOL supply (reportedly 10–15% combined across various wallets). This means they benefit indirectly from network growth and token appreciation, rather than fee capture. As network usage increases, SOL demand rises, and the value of their holdings grows — aligning their long-term interests with ecosystem health rather than extracting short-term profit from user activity.

In short, Solana doesn't take a cut of transaction fees — it profits from network growth, not network rent.

What Is a Solana Validator?

A Solana validator is a person or entity that runs a server and validates Solana transactions. In return for their participation, they receive rewards.

While this may sound simple, running a Solana validator comes with high entry costs and responsibilities.

Validators confirm transactions, produce blocks and maintain consensus. Each validator pays about 0.5 - 1 SOL per day in vote fees, totaling around 15 - 30 SOL per month, to participate in transaction processing. In addition, a validator requires a powerful server with high system requirements. Operational costs such as hardware and bandwidth often reach $1,000 per month.

How Much Can a Solana Validator Earn?

A Solana validator earns staking rewards at the end of each epoch, which occurs roughly every 2–3 days. These rewards come from newly minted SOL under the network's inflation schedule and are calculated based on the amount of SOL staked and validator uptime performance.

Let's say you are a Solana validator, run a server, and staked 10,000 SOL. You can expect to receive ~5 SOL per month.

Validator Stake – Monthly Epoch Rewards (Est.):

10,000 SOL – ~5 SOL/month

How Much Can Validators Earn from Vote Fees?

Secondary income comes from vote fees - the 50% of transaction fees Solana pays out to validators.

Vote fee income varies based on:

• How many slots does your validator vote in

• How many transactions are in those blocks

• Overall network activity

• How much SOL have you staked

Stake Amount – Approximate Vote Fee Rewards / Month:

10,000 SOL – ~1 SOL/month

What Is Jito MEV and How Do Validators Benefit?

Jito is Solana's implementation of MEV (Maximal Extractable Value). Ordering certain transactions profitably generates extra income. Unlike chaotic MEV on Ethereum, Jito uses a fair auction system where validators earn tips from "searchers" who want to include high-value transactions in the next block.

It's like buying a VIP pass for your transaction to be included first; the validator earns that VIP fee.

The more SOL you have staked, the more often you become a block leader, and the more you can earn from Jito MEV tips.

Validator Size – Leader Slots/Month – Jito MEV Reward Estimate:

10,000 SOL – ~0.5 SOL/month

Delegators and Staking: How Validators Scale Their Earnings

As we continue exploring the role of a Solana validator, one key principle becomes clear: the more SOL you stake, the more SOL you can earn.

But staking millions of SOL by yourself isn't realistic for most individuals. That's where delegators come in.

Delegators are SOL holders who don't want to run a validator node but still want to earn staking rewards. They delegate their SOL to a validator and, in return, earn around 7–8% APY on their stake.

Example:

You're a validator.

A delegator stakes 10,000 SOL with you.

The network pays ~7% APY, so the total yearly reward is 700 SOL.

You charge a 5% commission, which means:

You earn 35 SOL/year from that delegation.

Your delegator keeps 665 SOL/year.

This system benefits both parties:

Delegators earn passive income, while validators grow their total stake and increase their earnings from epoch rewards, vote fees, and Jito tips.

How Much Can You Earn Running a Solana Validator with 10,000 SOL?

If a private individual decides to run a Solana validator with a self-stake of 10,000 SOL, here's what they can realistically expect to earn:

Staking Rewards: Paid every epoch (~2–3 days) from Solana's inflation schedule. ~5 SOL/month with consistent uptime.

Vote Fee Rewards: Earned from 50% of transaction fees on voted blocks. ~1 SOL/month, depending on network activity and slot participation.

Jito MEV Tips: The validator can earn tips from high-priority transactions by installing Jito-Solana and participating in MEV auctions. ~0.5 SOL/month, based on block leadership frequency.

Estimated Total Earnings:

~6.5 SOL/month (inflation + vote fees + Jito)

Expenses:

~15 SOL in vote fee costs

1000 USD/month for server

More calculations can be run on the Validator Profit Calculator

Summary:

Running a Solana validator with a self-stake of 10,000 SOL may seem substantial, but it's not enough to generate meaningful profit in practice. Despite the appearance of scale, the validator's actual influence on the network remains minimal due to how Solana's consensus and reward systems are designed.

Solana's entire reward structure is stake-weighted — larger validators are assigned more leader slots, earn more from Jito MEV auctions, and capture a higher share of vote-based rewards. With only 10,000 SOL (~0.0025% of the total active stake), a validator receives very few leader slots, low voting power, and earns only a small fraction of the network's inflation and fee rewards.

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