diff --git a/config_test.go b/config_test.go
index 1efa196..a9edaa9 100644
--- a/config_test.go
+++ b/config_test.go
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ func TestDefaultForMode_ValidatorDisablesServices(t *testing.T) {
 	if cfg.API.REST.Enable {
 		t.Error("validator should have REST API disabled")
 	}
-	if cfg.API.GRPC.Enable {
-		t.Error("validator should have gRPC disabled")
+	if cfg.API.GRPCWeb.Enable {
+		t.Error("validator should have gRPC-web disabled (no current consumer; raw gRPC carries the price-feeder + cosmos-exporter traffic)")
 	}
 	if cfg.EVM.HTTPEnabled {
 		t.Error("validator should have EVM HTTP disabled")
@@ -48,6 +48,14 @@ func TestDefaultForMode_ValidatorDisablesServices(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestDefaultForMode_ValidatorEnablesGRPC(t *testing.T) {
+	cfg := DefaultForMode(ModeValidator)
+
+	if !cfg.API.GRPC.Enable {
+		t.Error("validator should have gRPC enabled (parity with sei-infra canonical EC2 deploy; price feeder + cosmos-exporter dial localhost:9090)")
+	}
+}
+
 func TestDefaultForMode_SeedHighConnections(t *testing.T) {
 	cfg := DefaultForMode(ModeSeed)
 
diff --git a/defaults.go b/defaults.go
index da8f80a..79c3f58 100644
--- a/defaults.go
+++ b/defaults.go
@@ -259,7 +259,6 @@ func applyValidatorOverrides(cfg *SeiConfig) {
 	cfg.Network.P2P.AllowDuplicateIP = false
 
 	cfg.API.REST.Enable = false
-	cfg.API.GRPC.Enable = false
 	cfg.API.GRPCWeb.Enable = false
 	cfg.Storage.StateStore.Enable = false
 
diff --git a/version.json b/version.json
index c00f127..d5373c9 100644
--- a/version.json
+++ b/version.json
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 {
-  "version": "v0.0.14"
+  "version": "v0.0.15"
 }