The X1 Foundation's new delegation floor is in force. Since epoch 424, which began on October 27 at 21:30 UTC, a validator needs 20,000 XNT of its own stake to receive Foundation delegation. The program's public configuration confirms it: minSelfStake reads 20,000 XNT, last changed in epoch 423.
That is exactly the schedule Nick Pettas of X1 Labs gave validators:
“I'll activate the change in epoch 423. It will take effect in the next epoch, 424.”
The network is now in epoch 425, the second under the new rule. But the floor is only half the story. The number it was taken from, P85, has kept climbing, and it is already far above 20,000.
What P85 is, and why it matters
P85 is the 85th percentile of validator self-stake: the amount that 85% of validators in the delegation program hold less than. Under Project Capybara, the X1 Foundation ties its delegation floor to it. Fall below the floor and you get no Foundation delegation, however well your node runs.
When Jack Levin announced the change on October 19, he said the minimum was “moving to current P85 levels”. Pettas then rounded the live P85 of 22,427 XNT down to 20,000. The floor is a round number set by hand. P85 is a live measurement that moves every epoch.
Where P85 stands now
We read the Foundation delegation program's public API on October 28 at 21:00 UTC, early in epoch 425. It lists 443 validators. The 85th percentile of their self-stake is 26,654 XNT.
| Date | Epoch | P85 of self-stake | Floor |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 7 | - | 11,710 XNT | 5,000 XNT |
| October 20 | 416 | 22,427 XNT | 5,000 XNT |
| October 28 | 425 | 26,654 XNT | 20,000 XNT |
P85 rose 19% in nine epochs, and has more than doubled in three weeks. Other ways of measuring land in the same place. X1's own validator API, which also covers the 12 nodes run by X1 Labs, gives 27,335 XNT. Without those nodes it is 26,378.
Operators topped up to the line
The clearest sign of how validators reacted is the median. On October 20 the middle validator held 10,039 XNT of its own stake. Today it holds 20,010. Of the 443 validators, 75 sit between 20,000 and 20,100 XNT: they added just enough to clear the bar.
| Self-stake | Validators at or above, Oct 20 | Validators at or above, Oct 28 |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 XNT | 259 | 276 |
| 15,000 XNT | 153 | 247 |
| 20,000 XNT (floor) | 112 | 235 |
| 25,000 XNT | 56 | 83 |
| 30,000 XNT | not measured | 41 |
A week ago 112 validators cleared 20,000 XNT. Now 235 do, more than twice as many. 229 validators meet every criterion of the program, and those that also hold delegation have a median of about 896,000 XNT of Foundation stake each.
The other side: 188 validators fail the self-stake rule, by far the most common failure. 116 of them still show Foundation delegation, 11.4 million XNT in total. All 116 fail on self-stake and were updated by the delegation bot in this epoch.
Two kinds of rebalance
“The next rebalance” can mean two different things, and they run on different clocks.
- Delegation is reallocated every epoch. At each epoch boundary the bot checks every validator against the rules and moves stake. Epochs on X1 last about 22 hours, and epoch 425 should end around 17:30 UTC on October 29.
- The floor moves only when X1 announces it. It does not follow P85 automatically. Every change so far has been a separate announcement: 2 XNT before Capybara, 1,000 in April, 3,000 on June 24, 5,000 in September and 20,000 on October 27.
No new floor has been announced. If X1 again sets it near the live P85, today's figure points to somewhere in the high 20,000s. Only 83 validators are above 25,000 XNT today, and 41 above 30,000.
Two details worth knowing
“Self-stake” is wider than it sounds. In the program's current definition it includes community delegations a validator has received, not only XNT the operator staked personally. X1's validator API also publishes a stricter figure, verified self-stake. On that measure P85 is 25,091 XNT, against 26,378 for self-stake on the same set of validators. The Foundation has said the definition may be tightened. If it is, some operators who are above the line today would drop below it.
Ripper Pool runs its own rule. Ripper Pool sets its delegation cutoff from its own P85, separate from the Foundation's.
What validators can do now
The floor is 20,000 XNT, but the field has moved past it. Holding exactly the minimum keeps a validator eligible this epoch. It gives no margin if the floor is reset to the live P85. Operators can check their own position on the official delegation dashboard or on X1 Validator HQ, which reads the same data.
Self-stake is also not the only thing that counts. The Bootstrap Bonus closes on November 1, and community delegators pick validators on commission, uptime and reputation. Our delegation program guide covers the other criteria, the validator setup guide covers the node itself, and the X1 validators page tracks the network.
Data: api.delegation.mainnet.x1.xyz/v1/config and /v1/validators, and api.x1.xyz/v1/validators, read October 28, 2026, 21:00 UTC (epoch 425). P85 uses linear interpolation over all validators listed by the delegation program. Epoch start times from getBlockTime on X1 mainnet.