Staking

Platform CLI provides commands to add validators and delegate stake on the Avalanche primary network.

Requirements

Network	Validator Min	Delegator Min	Min Duration
Local	1 AVAX	1 AVAX	24 hours
Fuji	1 AVAX	1 AVAX	24 hours
Mainnet	2,000 AVAX	25 AVAX	14 days

Adding a Validator

All validators require a BLS proof of possession. You can provide this manually (recommended) or auto-fetch from a node endpoint.

Manual BLS Mode (Recommended)

platform validator add \
  --node-id NodeID-BFa1paAAAA... \
  --stake 2000 \
  --duration 336h \
  --delegation-fee 0.02 \
  --bls-public-key 0x1234... \
  --bls-pop 0x5678... \
  --key-name mykey \
  --network mainnet

Auto-Fetch BLS from Node

platform validator add \
  --node-id NodeID-BFa1paAAAA... \
  --stake 2000 \
  --duration 336h \
  --delegation-fee 0.02 \
  --node-endpoint http://validator.example.com:9650 \
  --key-name mykey \
  --network mainnet

Get BLS Credentials

Use node info to retrieve BLS credentials from a running node:

platform node info --ip validator.example.com:9650

Node ID:        NodeID-BFa1paAAAA...
BLS Public Key: 0x1234567890abcdef...
BLS PoP:        0xfedcba0987654321...

Delegating Stake

Delegate AVAX to an existing validator:

platform validator delegate \
  --node-id NodeID-BFa1paAAAA... \
  --stake 100 \
  --duration 336h \
  --key-name mykey \
  --network mainnet

Delegation Fees

Validators charge a fee as a percentage of delegator rewards:

`--delegation-fee` value	Percentage	Meaning
`0.02`	2%	Validator keeps 2% of delegation rewards
`0.05`	5%	Validator keeps 5% of delegation rewards
`0.10`	10%	Validator keeps 10% of delegation rewards

Timing

Start Time

--start now          # Default: 30 seconds from submission (5 minutes with --ledger)
--start 2026-02-01T00:00:00Z   # RFC3339 format

Duration

Duration uses Go format (hours):

Value	Period
`336h`	14 days (minimum on mainnet)
`720h`	30 days
`2160h`	90 days
`8760h`	365 days

Reward Address

By default, rewards go to your P-Chain address. Specify a different address with:

--reward-address P-avax1xyz789...