Q3 delegation results, the USDC migration, Ecosystem Growth delegations and RFPs, and Gaia v28 and v29
The following is a recap of the October 14, 2026 Cosmos Hub validator call. These calls occur once per month, and recaps like this one are posted on the Cosmos Hub forums following each call.
The call covered the Q3 delegation results and what validators need for the December 31 snapshot, an update on the USDC migration to Injective, two new Ecosystem Growth delegations and an open RFP, the public v28 releases, and Gaia v29. Last month’s recap is on the forum, and the slides from this call are available to view.
Q3 delegation results: 47 validators qualified
Q3 delegation results were shared with validators last week. The program now follows calendar quarters, with a snapshot at the end of each quarter, and we are working to align the testnet to the same schedule, with the aim of keeping the program simple, repeatable, and predictable.
The Q3 default allocation is 12,952,032.99 ATOM across 47 qualifying validators, or 275,575.17 ATOM per qualifying validator. The number of qualifying validators went from 58 in Round 2 to 47 in Round 3, and governance was the main reason. This was the first round to measure governance participation over a rolling 12-month window rather than going back to cosmoshub-4 genesis in February 2021, so that validators participating in governance today are not penalized for not voting back then. The change brought in some validators who were previously disqualified. Together with the requirement to vote on every proposal, it also excluded some who were close to the 80 percent bar, in the 75 to 78 percent range. Testnet points and uptime were also required this round.
Validators need to vote on every proposal, not only software upgrades or client expirations, and that includes airdrop spam proposals. There is no good technical way to exclude them, and the mechanism for discouraging them is for validators to vote No With Veto.
The full criteria and each validator’s results are in the Q3 results sheet. The Q3 delegations have been submitted to custodians and are expected to go out before the end of the month, with transaction hashes and a results post to follow as they do. Going forward, results will be shared with validators a few days ahead of time so they can check the work and flag anything they notice.
Preparing for the December 31 snapshot
The next snapshot is December 31, and the Q4 default delegation checks three areas.
Governance participation must be above 80 percent over a rolling 12 months, counting proposals while the validator is in the active set. Vote on every proposal, including spam. More than 20 percent ABSTAIN votes halves the delegation.
Mainnet operations must meet every check: uptime above 95 percent over 90 days, in the active set at least 90 of the last 100 days, commission at 10 percent or less, and no disqualifying slashes in 90 days.
Testnet participation requires at least 6 Hypha points across October to December, plus a pass on the quarterly testnet uptime check. The first point of the quarter came with the v29 upgrade on the provider testnet on October 13, for validators signing within the first five blocks after the upgrade restart. There are usually three to four point opportunities a month, though timing varies, so there is still plenty of time. If you are not in the testnet program yet, register through Hypha’s testnet program, or reach out to Dan Bryan for an introduction to the testnet program team. Questions about the point schedule and the next opportunity can go to Dante in the cosmos-hub-testnet channel on Discord.
Check your row in the results sheet before December 31.
USDC migration: over 12 million USDC moved to Injective
As of the morning of the call, over 12 million USDC had been migrated from Noble to Injective, about as expected. The bulk of the remaining USDC is likely to migrate around the end of October or early November. We are on track to have everything migrated by January 12, 2027, when Noble USDC will be wound down.
Ecosystem Growth delegations: InfStones and Solva
A new Ecosystem Growth delegation is going to InfStones to build an institutional ATOM staking API. The plan is to integrate it into the staking offerings of brokerages and custodians, enabling ATOM staking through more traditional channels, with the aim of net-new institutional stake that dilutes exchange concentration. The open-source API, an eight-week build, covers delegate, undelegate, redelegate, and claim rewards plus institutional reporting on balances, rewards, and APY, and the agreement includes active business development for new institutional ATOM stakers. One reason InfStones was chosen is that they already work with many institutional counterparties and are well-positioned to drive new institutional ownership and staking of ATOM.
The agreement starts with an upfront delegation of 597,794 ATOM once it is signed, with later tranches tied to performance milestones: API delivery or a first closed institutional customer, then final delivery plus a closed institutional customer. In order to get all 3 tranches, Infstones must close at least one customer, which would make the delegation more than worth the cost. The proposal is ready to go, and the aim is to have it fully signed and implemented by the end of this week or next, with a forum announcement once it is fully executed.
The other Ecosystem Growth delegation awarded in Q3 went to Solva, 75,000 ATOM for the PebbleDB snapshot RFP posted last month. Cosmos Hub PebbleDB snapshots operated by Solva are available to use now: minimal, pruned snapshots for quickly bootstrapping a node or recovering from database corruption, cut every 12 hours. The target size is expected to be around 8 to 12 GB, and the WASM and light client cache are being removed to make the snapshots smaller.
Open RFP: a sponsored Cosmos Hub endpoint
The active Ecosystem Growth RFPs page shows which RFPs are active and which have been awarded. A new RFP for one sponsored cosmoshub-4 endpoint provider is open for submissions. The scope is a test and developer-subsidized endpoint that early builders can use, with no API key, 99.9 percent availability, and recent data fully indexed. Enterprise and archive services are out of scope, and the full requirements are in the RFP.
Applicants propose the additional delegation needed to meet the requirements and apply privately through the program form, referencing “Cosmos Hub sponsored endpoints,” and Dan reviews each application and follows up. Do not purchase infrastructure or build the service before a provider is selected. Delegation begins in the first quarterly round after the delivered service passes testing against every requirement and runs for four quarterly rounds from there. The RFPs posted on the forum target that one-year term, though there is room to discuss terms case by case.
Gaia v28: the releases are now public
The v28 disclosure period ended September 28, and the source code for the three private builds has been published. v28.1.1 and v28.2.1, public on September 30 and October 1, are the public counterparts of v28.1.0 and v28.2.0. Both are historical versions, so follow their documented upgrade paths.
For the current version, you can keep running the private v28.3.0 binary or optionally switch to the public v28.3.1, and verify that release’s own checksums. Hub Weekly #18 has more background on the disclosure.
Gaia v29: on testnet now, mainnet proposal next
The provider testnet has been running the v29.0.0-rc0 release candidate since the October 13 upgrade. The final release is published and tested before the mainnet upgrade proposal goes up, and the approved governance proposal sets the upgrade height and timing. The mainnet proposal is expected later this week or early next week.
v29 removes the crisis and x/params modules, updates Go dependencies, and removes an obsolete balance migration. Governance remains: module parameters are still updated through each module’s MsgUpdateParams with governance authority, and consensus parameters remain in x/consensus. The legacy ParameterChangeProposal and cosmos.params.v1beta1.Query are removed, so update any queries and proposal builders that rely on them. v29 uses CometBFT 0.38.25 and Go 1.26.7, and multisig senders must set a fixed --gas value instead of --gas auto. The v29.0.0-rc0 release notes and upgrading guide have the version-specific details.
Q&A themes
The customer milestones are specific to the InfStones agreement. Agreements like this are the kind we are excited to make with validators, and any validator with partners like this to bring to the table is welcome to reach out.
Next steps
The next validator call will occur on November 11 at 9:00 AM ET. If you are an active set validator and have not yet joined the channel, message @totalspud or @robomcgobo on Telegram for an invite.