Sophon node rewards continue without node operation or delegation

Guardian membership and reward eligibility

Eligibility follows a Guardian membership, represented by an ERC-721 non-fungible token, or NFT, from the 2024 node program. Each NFT represents one membership. Holding liquid SOPH is a separate token position and does not itself establish Guardian membership. The word node survives in the reward name, although the software requirements from the operating-node phase have ended.

What does the 20% Guardian allocation represent?

The 20% figure describes the Guardian program's share of the original 10,000,000,000 SOPH issuance. The original Guardian allocation totals 2,000,000,000 SOPH. Holders share that allocation pro rata, meaning proportionally within the program. Distribution follows the original three-year schedule, expressed as 156 weeks in the Guardian reward terms.

This percentage describes a token allocation, rather than an interest rate on a membership's purchase price. The allocation determines the program's token pool; the market value of distributed SOPH remains a different quantity.

Vesting separates earned rewards from claimable SOPH

An earned Guardian reward can remain unavailable until its vesting conditions release SOPH for claiming. Vesting is the scheduled release of an earned token amount. A cliff delays the start of that release.

The original reward schedule

The published terms distinguish rewards earned before and after the token generation event, or TGE, the token-launch milestone.

Rewards earned before TGE

Rewards earned from January 1, 2025 through TGE had a three-month cliff measured from TGE.

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Weekly rewards after TGE

Each weekly reward after TGE had a three-month cliff from the start of its week, followed by seven-day linear vesting. Linear vesting releases tokens progressively over that period. Different reward weeks consequently have different cliff dates, even within the same membership.

The Ethereum transition preserves the program's original schedule. A total entitlement therefore does not equal the amount available for an immediate claim. Available reward streams and their vesting status determine what a holder can claim.

Retired node duties and provider costs

The retirement of light-node software removes node hosting from the requirements for continuing Guardian rewards. Uptime is no longer an eligibility condition. Delegation is no longer a condition for Guardian rewards. Historical light-node instructions describe an earlier phase, when Sophon used Avail light-client technology for data availability sampling. Paying a provider to deploy or maintain a Sophon light node is unnecessary for this reward entitlement.

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Ethereum settlement and automatic NFT recreation

The transition schedule places Guardian reward accrual and claims on Ethereum after September 29, 2026 at 00:00 GMT. This cutoff changes the settlement network while the three-year program continues. The unified claim portal supports reward activity on both Sophon and Ethereum during the transition.

For memberships, Sophon announced transfer locks on the legacy chain and recreation of the same number of Guardian NFTs on Ethereum. The announced destination is the same holder wallet. This automatic process requires no manual bridge or claim transaction for the NFT itself.

Claiming SOPH remains a separate holder action. An automatic membership transition does not mean every earned reward has vested or reached the wallet. The announcement does not confirm that a particular wallet has received its recreated NFTs.

A reward review before authorizing a claim

For an existing Guardian holder, reviewing available rewards comes before a claim transaction; the selected reward stream determines the compatible settlement network. Reviewing shows whether SOPH is available to claim without committing to a transaction. Claiming requests the available SOPH from that stream.

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• Use the wallet holding the Guardian membership; a liquid SOPH balance alone represents a different position.
• Match the reward stream to its network, including Ethereum reward activity after the scheduled transition.
• If an allocation remains unvested, keep it separate from the SOPH available to claim.
• Before authorizing a claim, confirm its token, amount, and network. Stop if those details do not match the intended reward stream.
• After completion, reconcile the received SOPH with the claim amount on that network, separately from the Guardian NFT count.

Signing or submitting a transaction alone does not establish receipt; a completed claim and the recipient's SOPH balance show the payment outcome.

Claimed SOPH and the legacy-chain exit window

SOPH already claimed on the legacy chain forms a liquid balance requiring withdrawal before the chain's final decommissioning date. Automatic NFT recreation does not withdraw those tokens. SOPH is native to Ethereum, so withdrawing its bridged Sophon representation does not require a replacement-token swap.

New canonical deposits closed on June 25, 2026. The migration guidance estimates chain operation until late 2026, with the final cutoff to be announced in advance. That estimate is not a fixed withdrawal deadline. Outstanding legacy rewards and liquid balances need attention separately from future Ethereum reward activity.

Guardian distributions and other SOPH uses

Guardian membership rewards follow their own allocation, while SOPH staking follows a separate chain-retirement path. Staking remains available while the Sophon Chain operates and ends at decommissioning. Its retirement does not cancel the continuing Guardian schedule. An amount described as staking rewards should therefore remain distinct from the node rewards attached to a Guardian membership.

Sophon's wider business now focuses on consumer applications built on Base. Its announced product-funded buybacks use a portion of product profits to purchase SOPH for permanent burning. Those purchased tokens are not designated for redistribution to holders. This buyback model provides no additional claimable Guardian reward merely because a holder owns an NFT.

Existing Guardian claims and a new node setup

The continuing reward path serves Guardian memberships, while the 2024 node sale and node-operating roadmap belong to the earlier chain model. The sale has concluded. Historical sale tiers are not a current purchase offer. Legacy full-node documentation also no longer provides a path for launching a new Sophon full node.

The old roadmap anticipated full nodes participating as sequencers or validators as ZKsync sequencing decentralized. Sophon has retired that roadmap. Existing Guardian claims continue under the membership program; a new node deployment does not reactivate the former infrastructure opportunity.