It’s normal to see a small number of inactive validators when staking natively with Marinade.
Why do some validators show as inactive?
Marinade continuously monitors validator performance and rebalances stake each epoch to keep delegation healthy and well-distributed. As part of that process, Marinade can move (redelegate) up to 5% of stake per epoch.
Because stake is rotating and being reassigned in the background, it’s expected that a few validators in your set may appear “inactive” at any given time (often around a couple out of every 100).
Do inactive validators affect rewards?
On Solana, staking rewards depend on a validator’s vote credits / voting behavior (commonly used as a proxy for uptime). If a validator is not voting (for example, it’s delinquent or offline), it earns fewer vote credits and delegators can receive reduced rewards, or even zero rewards for that epoch.
How Marinade mitigates this
Automatic rebalancing: Marinade evaluates performance and shifts stake over time to maintain optimal delegation.
Protected Staking Rewards (PSR): For Marinade stake that is covered by PSR, validators post a SOL bond designed to compensate delegators for losses caused by prolonged downtime and certain validator-side changes.
There is 1% downtime not covered
If uptime is 50%–99%, the validator bond is designed to cover 100% of lost rewards
If uptime is below 50%, PSR’s design shifts coverage to Marinade
Instant withdraw note
Depending on what you’re seeing in the UI, validators shown as inactive may be associated with stake that is not currently earning (or is being rotated), and it may be possible to withdraw instantly from that portion if needed.
We’re improving clarity
We know this can look confusing in the interface, and we’re working on making the validator status and stake movement easier to understand. In the meantime, seeing a few inactive validators is expected and is part of how Marinade keeps stake secure and well-managed.