Solana activates Alpenglow upgrade, cutting finality to 200ms
Solana has activated its Alpenglow upgrade, reducing transaction finality from 12 seconds to 200 milliseconds and lowering validator costs by 70%. The technical improvement positions the network to compete for on-chain trading of tokenized equities, though analysts note current demand for block space remains low.
Solana has activated its Alpenglow upgrade, which modifies the consensus algorithm to make transaction finality approximately 85 times faster. The update reduces finality time from 12 seconds to 200 milliseconds. Additionally, the cost to run a validator has decreased by about 70%, lowering the daily fee from approximately 2 SOL to a flat 0.8 SOL. The network also passed improvement proposals that reduced the issuance of SOL by 50%.
The upgrade is viewed as a long-term bullish development for attracting developers and businesses, particularly in the growing market for tokenized equities. Solana currently holds $635 million in circulating supply of tokenized equities, leading in volume but not capital compared to competitors such as Ethereum, Base, and Robinhood Chain. Analysts believe the technical improvements position Solana to compete effectively in this sector, although they caution that the upgrade may not immediately impact token prices due to current low demand for block space. The market for these assets remains small, but the infrastructure enhancements aim to support future growth in on-chain trading.