Creating Solana Validators With Sanctum’s White-Label Service

Operating a Solana validator unlocks multiple revenue streams and provides strategic benefits for protocols and institutions. However, running validator infrastructure requires significant technical expertise, 24/7 operations, and continuous maintenance.

Sanctum's white-label validator service removes this complexity entirely. We handle all setup, ongoing maintenance, security, and performance optimization while you maintain full control over your stake.

This article explains how Sanctum's white-label validator service works, and how you can use it to create your own validator.

Solana validators earn through several channels:

• Inflation rewards – Protocol emissions distributed by stake weight
• MEV tips – Value extracted from optimal transaction ordering.
• Block rewards – Slot leaders collect 50% of base fees (rest burned) and 100% of priority fees (per SIMD-0096 update).
• Commission – Validators can set their own commission rates for the inflation rewards they pass on to their delegators, typically ranging from 0% to 10%.

For protocols and applications, stake weight directly impacts performance. Higher stake improves the likelihood of producing blocks that include your transactions, which matters significantly during network congestion.

Running a validator also signals long-term commitment to the Solana ecosystem and provides control over your staking infrastructure.

Validators need approximately 50,000 SOL in stake to become profitable. At this level, combined earnings typically cover operational costs and generate meaningful returns.

Below this threshold, validators often operate at a loss or marginal profitability. Reaching this milestone requires the right strategy and partner.

Launching an LST can be a great way to reach this 50,000 SOL threshold before starting your validator.

Running a production validator requires:

Infrastructure

• High-performance hardware with specific configurations
• Geographic redundancy across data centers
• Significant bandwidth that scales with stake
• Continuous 24/7 monitoring

Ongoing Maintenance

• Frequent client upgrades and security patches
• Vote transaction costs (potentially thousands in USD at scale)
• Performance optimization and debugging
• Security implementations and key management

Specialized Expertise

• Solana protocol knowledge
• DevOps capabilities
• Network operations
• Security best practices

Most teams underestimate the time and resources required to operate validators professionally. The technical overhead diverts engineering resources from core product development.

Complete Infrastructure

• Dual servers across separate geographic regions
• Custom hardware optimized for validator performance
• Instant failovers and zero downtime upgrades
• Support for multiple clients (Jito-Agave, Firedancer, others)
• LST creation and liquidity management (maximize revenue)

Full Operations

• 24/7 monitoring and on-call support team
• All maintenance, upgrades, and security patches
• Performance optimization and issue resolution

LST Creation & Management

• Smart contract implementation
• Liquidity provisioning support
• DeFi integration facilitation
• Guided access to delegation programs

Every validator deployment is tailored to your requirements:

• Regulatory compliance – Reserve standards, audit trails, reporting
• Geographic preferences – Data center selection for jurisdictional needs
• Security specifications – Custom deposit/withdrawal guards, key management, access controls, etc.
• Delegation flexibility – Multi-validator strategies, custom stake allocation

You maintain complete flexibility in delegation decisions. For example, you can allocate 50% of stake to your white-label validator and 50% to other validators you choose.

Solana's delegated proof-of-stake model separates validator operation from stake custody. You maintain:

• Stake authority (control over delegation mix)
• Withdraw authority (control over your SOL)
• Vote authority (validator identity and commission)

Sanctum operates your validator infrastructure but never holds custody of your stake.

The traditional path to validator profitability has a fundamental problem: you need 50,000 SOL in stake, but attracting that stake can take significant time and requires operating at a loss during the ramp-up period.

Sanctum's approach is different. Instead of immediately deploying a validator and struggling to attract stake, you can first launch a Liquid Staking Token (LST).

An LST is a tokenized representation of staked SOL. Users stake through your LST and receive liquid tokens they can use throughout DeFi while earning staking rewards.

Sanctum has helped several leading companies like Jupiter (JupSOL), Bybit (bbSOL), and DFDV (dfdvSOL) create their own LST via our white-label staking product. In total, our LST partners have earned over $5 million in additional revenue from leveraging our service. Starting with an LST is a great way to build up staked SOL profitably on your way to creating a validator.

→ Learn more about how Sanctum bootstraps branded LSTs

Phase 1: LST Launch

Sanctum handles the technical implementation:

• LST smart contract architecture
• Liquidity establishment
• Jurisdiction compliance

Phase 2: Stake Growth

As your LST gains traction, we actively support growth:

• DeFi protocol integrations (lending, borrowing, wallets, etc.)
• Guided access to Solana delegation programs
• Potential strategic delegations from INF’s stake
• Engineering maintenance

Phase 3: Validator Deployment

• We deploy your white-label validator infrastructure
• LST stake begins delegating to your validator
• You earn validator revenue on that stake
• Your LST continues operating as a growth mechanism

The model compounds: your LST keeps attracting stake by providing yield while your validator earns rewards, which contributes to your LST’s yield, which attracts more stake.

We eliminate all upfront and ongoing operational costs:

• Voting fees – Thousands of dollars monthly in vote transaction costs
• Bandwidth – Scaling costs as your stake grows
• Hardware & infrastructure – Servers, storage, network equipment, data centers
• 24/7 operations team – Monitoring, maintenance, and support
• All upgrades – Emergency patches, major version updates, client migrations

Sanctum’s model aligns incentives completely: we only earn when you make money.

• No startup costs
• No monthly operational expenses
• Revenue split negotiated based on your specific situation

Sanctum's white-label validator solution is built for:

Protocols & Applications

• Teams needing stake weight for transaction priority
• Applications with high transaction volume
• Projects building on Solana long-term

Institutions

• Asset managers with large SOL allocations
• Corporate treasuries holding SOL
• Solana-focused Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) firms

User-Facing Platforms

• Exchanges and wallets with staking offerings
• Any platform seeking to capture Solana staking economics

The common requirement: commitment to Solana and either existing SOL holdings or ability to build stake by working with Sanctum to create, maintain, and grow a bespoke branded LST.

Operating a Solana validator provides multiple revenue streams and strategic benefits, but the technical complexity stops many teams from pursuing it.

Sanctum's white-label validator service removes all operational overhead while preserving full custody and control. More importantly, our LST-to-validator pathway helps solve the stake acquisition problem that makes traditional validator launches difficult.

Rather than operating at a loss while slowly building stake, you launch an LST product through Sanctum’s white-label staking service that attracts stake organically through DeFi utility. Once you reach the 50,000 SOL threshold, we deploy your validator infrastructure. Your LST continues growing while your validator captures the full economics.

The model creates compounding value: product adoption drives stake growth, stake growth enables validator profitability, and validator operation reinforces your ecosystem commitment.

Revenue projections and detailed technical specifications are available upon request.

Ready to create your own Solana validator?

→ Contact us to get started

1. How much does it cost to run a Solana validator?

Traditional validator setups require $5,000-15,000 in startup costs plus $2,000-5,000 monthly for infrastructure, voting fees, bandwidth, and operations.

Sanctum eliminates all upfront and ongoing costs. We only earn through a revenue split when your validator is profitable.

2. Do I need technical expertise to operate a validator?

No. Sanctum handles all technical requirements including infrastructure setup, 24/7 monitoring, security patches, client upgrades, and performance optimization.

3. How do I start a validator if I have less than 50,000 SOL to stake?

Taking an LST-first approach with Sanctum solves this. Instead of launching an unprofitable validator and struggling to attract stake, you start by creating a Liquid Staking Token with our white-label solution. Your LST grows organically through DeFi integrations and utility. Once you reach the 50,000 SOL threshold, we deploy your validator infrastructure, turning your LST stake into validator earnings.

4. How do white-label validators work?

White-label validators allow you to run your own branded validator without managing the technical infrastructure. Sanctum provides complete hardware, operations, and maintenance while you maintain full custody and control of your stake. You get all the benefits of validator ownership: revenue streams, stake weight, and ecosystem positioning. All without the operational burden of 24/7 monitoring, upgrades, and specialized expertise.

5. What's the typical process for setting up a Solana validator?

Sanctum uses a three-phase approach:

1. First, we launch your Liquid Staking Token (LST) and establish initial liquidity.
2. Second, we help grow your stake through DeFi integrations and delegation programs.
3. Third, once you reach 50,000 SOL, we deploy your custom validator infrastructure with dual servers, geographic redundancy, and 24/7 support.

6. Will I lose custody of my SOL when running a validator?

No. Solana's delegated proof-of-stake separates validator operations from stake custody. You maintain stake authority, withdraw authority, and vote authority at all times. Sanctum operates your validator infrastructure but never holds custody of your assets.