Staking

On Avalanche Mainnet

• The minimum amount that a validator must stake is 2,000 AVAX

• The minimum amount that a delegator must delegate is 25 AVAX

• The minimum amount of time one can stake funds for validation is 2 weeks

• The maximum amount of time one can stake funds for validation is 1 year

• The minimum amount of time one can stake funds for delegation is 2 weeks

• The maximum amount of time one can stake funds for delegation is 1 year

• The minimum delegation fee rate is 2%

• The maximum weight of a validator (their own stake + stake delegated to them) is the minimum of 3 million AVAX and 5 times the amount the validator staked. For example, if you staked 2,000 AVAX to become a validator, only 8000 AVAX can be delegated to your node total (not per delegator)

A validator will receive a staking reward if they are online and response for more than 80% of their validation period, as measured by a majority of validators, weighted by stake. You should aim for your validator be online and responsive 100% of the time.

You can call API method info.uptime on your node to learn its weighted uptime and what percentage of the network currently thinks your node has an uptime high enough to reveive a staking reward.

You can get another opinion on your node's uptime from Avalanche's Validator Health dashboard. If your reported uptime is not close to 100%, there may be something wrong with your node setup, which may jeopardize your staking reward.

Note that only checking the uptime of your validator as measured by non-staking nodes, validators with small stake, or validators that have not been online for the full duration of your validation period can provide an inaccurate view of your node's true uptime.