🥇 Direct Stake Leaders bucket
How the Direct Stake Leaders bucket shares 40% of undirected stake among the top 100 approved validators by direct stake, and where to check your rank.
The Direct Stake Leaders bucket rewards validators whose communities back them with direct stake. It holds 40% of The Vault's undirected stake, and the top 100 approved validators by direct stake share it equally (Figure 7.6).
Figure 7.6: How the Direct Stake Leaders bucket works
Who can receive it
To receive stake from this bucket, a validator must:
- Be approved by the Validator Board and stay on the approved list.
- Rank in the top 100 by direct stake through The Vault.
- Keep meeting the requirements for staying approved: good actor status, a base commission of at most 5%, an MEV commission of at most 10% and uptime of at least 97.5%.
- Keep its Stake-as-a-Service invoices paid.
Direct stake itself needs no approval: any validator that meets the minimum requirements can build it before applying. Stake from the bucket starts only once the validator is approved.
What counts as direct stake
Your rank uses all direct stake through The Vault that points to your validator:
- vSOL in wallets set to your validator on the Direct Stake page, your own and your community's.
- vSOL from those wallets in supported locations, such as Kamino Multiply positions, which count with their leverage.
Stake you delegate to your validator outside The Vault doesn't count. For how a holder sets a wallet, see How to direct stake.
How the ranking works
Validators are ranked by the size of their direct stake, not by when they joined. The validator in position 100 sets the cutoff, called the SOL floor: to enter the bucket, you need more direct stake than that validator. The floor moves as validators add or remove direct stake, so a validator can drop out when others grow (Figure 7.7).
Figure 7.7: The ranking and the SOL floor
How the stake is shared
The bucket's 40% is split equally among the 100 validators in it. Rank 1 and rank 100 receive the same amount: the ranking decides who is in, not how much each one gets.
As an illustrative example, if The Vault manages 1,000,000 SOL of undirected stake, the bucket holds 400,000 SOL and each of the 100 validators receives about 4,000 SOL. Real amounts depend on the size of the pool.
The bucket share comes on top of your direct stake. Your direct stake still goes to your validator, and the bucket adds an equal share of undirected stake, which carries the Stake-as-a-Service fee (Figure 7.8).
Figure 7.8: Direct stake plus the bucket share
Where to check your rank
Validators page
On the validators page, the SOL floor card shows the minimum direct stake needed to rank in the top 100. Tap Direct Stake Leaders to list the validators in the bucket, each with a Directed rank badge (Figure 7.9).
Figure 7.9: The SOL floor and the Direct Stake Leaders filter
In the list, the target breakdown splits each validator's stakebot target. DIR is its direct stake and BON is its share of this bucket (Figure 7.10).
Figure 7.10: The BON column shows the bucket share
Your validator's page
Tap View next to your validator. Under Stake composition, Bonus directed shows the stake your validator receives from this bucket (Figure 7.11).
Figure 7.11: Bonus directed in the stake composition
Discord leaderboards
The Vault Discord posts the ranking in two channels, updated every day at midnight UTC: the top 50 and the bottom 50. The last entry of the bottom 50 is the floor.
Validator Monitor can also project whether a direct stake position would take you into the top 100: see The Vault tab.
When the stake arrives
If you are approved and in the top 100, you don't need to do anything: the stakebot includes you automatically. It updates its targets every three hours, and stake moves over the next few epochs, as Solana's warm-up rules allow. Direct stake data updates about once a day.
Fees
Stake from this bucket carries the Stake-as-a-Service fee: 25% of the earnings on that stake. Your direct stake is not charged. To pay invoices automatically, set up the SaaS payment bot.
What can stop the bucket stake
- Falling below the SOL floor when other validators add direct stake, or when your holders move vSOL away.
- A base commission above 5% or an MEV commission above 10%: even for one epoch, it can block your stake for 10 epochs.
- An invoice that stays unpaid for 20 epochs: the stakebot blocks delegation from this bucket and the Elite Performance bucket until your invoices are settled.
- Removal from the approved list.
Grow your direct stake
- Direct stake your own vSOL to your validator.
- Ask your community to set their wallets to your validator on the Direct Stake page.
- Add directed vSOL minting to your website with the LST Creator Widget or the Direct Stake API.
- Multiply a position with Kamino Multiply, which raises its direct stake by the leverage. Leverage can be liquidated: read the Kamino Multiply risk disclosure first.
For more answers, see the Direct Stake Leaders bucket questions in Delegation FAQs.