REPORT 003
JUNE 2026 · CROSS-SUBNET AUDIT · 128 SUBNETS
The common advice is to pick a specialized validator for each subnet you stake on. The data says the opposite. We measured all 25 top validators across all 128 subnets and found that four validators win 91 percent of the network, and the same names that lead on root lead almost everywhere. There is no best validator for a subnet. There are just the best validators.
91% of subnets won by 4 validators
52% won outright by one validator
96% top-5 rate of the leader
1.12x median best-vs-median capture
REPORT 002
JUNE 2026 · 365-DAY DATA AUDIT · 25 VALIDATORS
Nominators pick validators on the advertised take rate. We pulled a full year of daily on-chain yield for the 25 largest root validators and ranked them by what nominators actually earned. The gap between best and worst is 4.41 points of yield, and take rate explains less than half of it. The rest is performance nobody publishes.
8.86% best realized root APY
4.45% worst realized root APY
4.41pp best-to-worst spread
$2,205 worst-case annual cost / $50k
REPORT 001
JUNE 2026 · 90-DAY DATA AUDIT · 128 SUBNETS
A common pitch claims subnet alpha staking at 50%+ APY is superior to root staking at single-digit yields. We tested it against 90 days of on-chain data across 128 subnets, with validator yields measured rather than modeled and pool prices cross-verified against a self-operated mainnet node. The claim does not survive contact with the data.
54% median marketed APY
-7.2% median realized 30d return
73% of subnets lost money
24% beat root staking