Polkadot passes Referendum 1966: only 500 validators from Tuesday

Polkadot has approved the first cut to its validator set. On Sunday morning at 6:49 a.m. German time (CET), Referendum 1966 was confirmed with 99.92 percent of the weighted votes. On Tuesday morning, at around 11:20 a.m., the change will be enacted on the blockchain. From the next election after that, the network will award only 500 seats in the active validator set instead of 600. Anyone who nominates their own DOT and has picked validators at the bottom of the ranking may then end up without rewards.

What is documented: the result, timings and vote counts come from the referendum itself, the stake figures from our own query of the staking data on Asset Hub on Sunday around midday, and the prices from CoinGecko and Kraken. Our assessment follows further down in a separate, clearly marked paragraph.

The price offers no tailwind. On Sunday around midday, DOT trades at $0.90 or €0.81 according to CoinGecko, barely changed from the previous day but 5.1 percent lower than a week ago and 22.5 percent lower than a month ago.

Referendum 1966 approved: 48.1 million aye votes after five days

The proposal was submitted at midday on Tuesday, November 3. The decision phase on the "Whitelisted Caller" track began the same evening. Polkadot uses this route for changes that the Technical Fellowship has reviewed and cleared in advance. It is shorter than the "Root" route but still requires the approval of DOT holders.

The confirmation phase started on Sunday at 6:39 a.m., and ten minutes later the proposal had passed. In the end, 48.14 million votes were cast in favour and 36,388 against. Votes are weighted by lock period: anyone who locks their DOT longer for the vote counts several times over, while anyone who does not lock at all counts for only a tenth. The amount of approval actually committed, known in Polkadot jargon as "support", came to 152.9 million DOT. Measured against the total supply of around 1.68 billion DOT, that is 9.1 percent.

In substance, the proposal does three things. It sets the number of active validators at 500. It lowers, in the same proportion, the share of the issuance budget from which validators are paid on top of their commission. And it adjusts two Relay Chain parameters that govern how many validators per core check the work of the connected networks.

What has changed since Friday: support up from 1.8 to 152.9 million DOT

On Friday we presented the referendum in our article Polkadot today: Referendum 1966 aims to cut 100 of 600 validator seats. At the time the proposal was still in the decision phase, and November 10 was a planned date. Three things have changed since then.

First, turnout. On Friday morning, around 8.9 million weighted votes backed the proposal, and support stood at 1.8 million DOT. By Sunday, approval had risen to 48.1 million votes and support had grown eighty-five-fold. Large holders therefore only voted in the last two days, mostly with a short lock or none at all, since support is three times higher than the weighted vote count.

Second, the timing. With the confirmation, block 33,814,400 of the Relay Chain is fixed as the enactment point. On Sunday at 1:46 p.m., the Relay Chain was at block 33,787,047. At six seconds per block, that leaves just over 27,000 blocks, or around 45.5 hours.

Third, the price. On Friday, DOT traded at $0.92, and the $0.89 to $0.92 range had held twice during the week. On Saturday, according to Kraken, the price fell as low as $0.879 and closed at $0.897. That was the lowest daily close since September 3.

Enactment on Tuesday: block 33,814,400 and the first election with 500 seats

Anyone who wants to understand when something changes in their own staking has to keep two clocks apart. The first is the block at which the decision is executed, around 11:20 a.m. on Tuesday. The second is the era. On Polkadot an era lasts 24 hours; the current era 2348 began on Sunday at 12:36 p.m. For each era, the network elects in advance which validators are active and which nominators are entitled to their rewards.

According to the proposal text, the new number applies in the first era after enactment. Whether that is already the era starting on Tuesday at midday or only the one starting on Wednesday at midday depends on whether the election for Tuesday has already run at the time of enactment. Since staking moved to Asset Hub, Polkadot computes this election over several blocks. What is certain is that 500 seats will count from Wednesday midday at the latest.

You can change your nomination at any time. The new selection applies to the next election, not retroactively. Anyone who switches by Tuesday morning will in any case be in time for the first election with 500 seats.

Our own analysis: how closely bunched the 600 validators are

Which validators will survive the cut is not published anywhere in advance. The backing in the current era offers a guide. On Sunday around midday, we queried how many DOT stand behind each of the 600 active validators, own stake and nominations combined. The basis is the "ErasStakersOverview" storage of the staking pallet on Polkadot Asset Hub for era 2348.

The result is a remarkably flat distribution. The best-backed validator has 2.21 million DOT, the weakest 1.38 million. The validator in 500th place stands at 1.420 million DOT, the one in 600th place at 1.376 million. Only 3.1 percent therefore separates the new cut-off from the current last place. For the third step with 320 seats, the cut-off would today be 1.472 million DOT, barely higher.

The reason lies in the election method. Polkadot uses nominated proof of stake with an allocation based on the Phragmén method. It distributes nominators' DOT so that the elected validators are backed as evenly as possible. That is why there is no long tail of weak validators, but a dense field in which small shifts decide who is in and who is out.

From the same query: in total, 916.8 million DOT stand behind active validators in this era, just over 54 percent of all DOT. The 100 validators ranked 501 to 600 account for 140.9 million of them. There are more candidates than seats: 721 accounts are registered as validators, and 28,144 accounts nominate. From Tuesday, 721 candidates will therefore compete for 500 seats instead of 600.

One caveat belongs here. The ranking in the current era does not predict the next election. If 100 seats disappear, the method redistributes the DOT of the remaining nominations, and a validator in 480th place can end up in 520th after the election if its nominators also picked other candidates. A rank close to 500 is therefore not a verdict, but it is a warning sign.

Nominating on Polkadot yourself: up to 16 validators and a minimum amount

Holders who nominate their DOT directly are the most affected. They select up to 16 validators. Rewards are only paid for eras in which at least one of them is active and their own DOT are assigned to it. For direct nomination, the network currently requires at least 250 DOT. Holders with less can still nominate, but their DOT only count if they exceed the minimum amount of the respective election. In the last election it was 191.28 DOT.

You can check your own selection in the Polkadot staking dashboard or in the wallet you used to nominate. If it says "inactive" or "waiting", your DOT are currently earning nothing. It helps to look at the backing of your selected validators: if you have only chosen candidates with just over 1.4 million DOT, you are close to the new cut-off. A broader selection across all 16 slots lowers the risk that none of them is active in a given era.

Switching validators has cost little since the summer. With Referendum 1910, Polkadot abolished slashing for nominators and shortened the unbonding period for unstaking from 28 days to at most two eras. Anyone who wants to exit completely therefore gets their DOT back within about two days.

Nomination pools and exchange staking: the provider makes the choice

A nomination pool bundles the DOT of many holders, from as little as one DOT. The pool operator selects the validators, so after the cut it is the operator who has to adjust, not you. It is still worth checking the list of the pool's validators: a pool whose selection sits at the bottom of the ranking will at times earn less after Tuesday.

If you stake DOT through an exchange or broker, you see none of this. The platform spreads holdings across its own or third-party validators and passes on a yield. Whether it adapts its selection to the smaller set shows up in the yield paid out, usually with a few days' delay. Our comparison of staking providers shows which providers offer DOT staking, on what terms and with what unbonding period.

Mathematically, the cut changes little for stakers' returns. The proposal only trims the pot from which validators receive extra pay. According to the calculation in the forum thread on the roadmap, this share of the issuance budget falls in step one from 22.6 to 18.8 percent, while the stakers' share stays at 45.2 percent. Spread across fewer validators, the reward per nominated DOT may even rise slightly, provided your own validator stays active.

DOT price on Sunday: lowest daily close since September 3

On Sunday around midday, DOT trades at $0.9005. Over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, the range was between $0.881 and $0.906, with DOT worth just under $49 million traded. With a market capitalisation of around $1.5 billion, Polkadot ranks 57th.

Saturday shifted the picture. At $0.897, DOT closed on the Kraken exchange at its lowest level since September 3. The $0.89 to $0.92 range, which still counted as support on Friday, was breached during the day; it held only narrowly on a closing basis.

On the downside, the next level is the October 30 low at $0.867. Below that there is no tested level until the year's low: on August 18, DOT closed at $0.751, its lowest in two years. On the upside, the average of the last 20 daily closes is $1.00 and the 200-day average $1.02. Both lines sit a good eleven percent above the current price.

The validator cut itself is not a direct price driver. It changes neither the supply of DOT nor the issuance of new DOT; it only shifts who receives part of it. How DOT issuance and distribution work is explained in our background piece Polkadot (DOT): the network behind 2.1 billion tokens.

Steps two and three: 400 and 320 validators need their own referendums

Referendum 1966 is explicitly "Step #1". The roadmap posted in the Polkadot forum on October 16 foresees three steps about a week apart: 500, then 400, and finally 320 active validators. Each step requires its own referendum. On Sunday around midday, no proposal for step two had yet been submitted in the list of ongoing votes.

Two votes affecting staking are running in parallel. Referendum 1967 is meant to register Parity's staking miner again as the preferred submitter of election results. The account had lost this role because of a bug that has since been fixed; according to the text, the proposal changes no other parameter. Referendum 1968 brings runtime version 2.5.3 to all of Polkadot's system chains. Both are in the decision phase.

Polkadot staking and German tax: the €256 exemption limit applies per year

In Germany, staking rewards are classed as other income under Section 22 No. 3 of the Income Tax Act. What counts is their euro value on the day they are received. If all income of this kind stays below €256 a year in total, it is tax-free. The limit is an exemption threshold: if the total exceeds it, the entire amount is taxable.

Switching validators or pools does not trigger a sale. As long as DOT are not exchanged for euros or another token, no private disposal arises. On a later sale, the one-year holding period under Section 23 of the Income Tax Act applies to each tranche; staked DOT do not extend it. Whether the tax-free holding period will survive is politically open; our page on the crypto holding period reform summarises the state of play.

With small holdings the exemption limit easily drops out of view, all the more so at prices around €0.81. But anyone staking several coins can easily exceed it with many small inflows. A tax tool that records inflows at the daily price then saves the arithmetic; the common programs are listed in our comparison of crypto tax tools.

Polkadot validator reduction: our assessment

Our assessment: the decision is manageable for investors, but it demands attention this week from everyone who nominates themselves. In its favour are the clear result of 99.92 percent with 152.9 million DOT of support, the quick release when unstaking and the unchanged return for stakers with an active validator. Against it is the density of the field. Our query shows a gap of only 3.1 percent between rank 500 and rank 600; anyone who has nominated therefore cannot know for sure before the election whether their validator stays in. With 320 instead of 600 validators, Polkadot will also be less broadly distributed, and the rules for the stronger nodes, which the roadmap calls "metanodes", are still open in the forum. We do not derive a buy recommendation from this: the price has slipped further since Friday, and as with any coin, a total loss is possible with DOT.

Polkadot validators: below 1.42 million DOT of backing, it gets tight

1. Review your selection: By Tuesday morning, check which validators you have nominated and how many DOT stand behind them. If they are all close to 1.42 million DOT, spread your nomination more widely. If you would rather let a provider decide, you will find the terms in our comparison of staking providers.
2. Check your status after the election: From Wednesday midday, the staking dashboard shows whether your DOT are active. If it says "inactive", choose again; the change takes effect from the next era. If you hold DOT through an exchange, check its staking terms and compare them with the MiCA-regulated crypto exchanges.
3. Record your inflows: Note your rewards at the daily price so that you keep the €256 exemption limit in view. A tool from our comparison of crypto tax tools does this automatically.

(As of November 8, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)