Solana is approaching a pivotal moment in its evolution as it prepares for one of the most consequential network upgrades. After a long period recognized for its speed and low fees, the network has also faced criticism around stability, validator performance, and long-term scalability. This upcoming upgrade aims to directly address those concerns that could redefine SOL’s role in the blockchain ecosystem.
Performance Improvements That Matter At Scale For Solana
Solana is preparing for one of its most significant upgrades with Alpenglow, a consensus overhaul that replaces both Tower BFT and Proof of History (PoH) to achieve sub-second finality. In an X post, Delphi Digital revealed that the upgrade will introduce two protocol components.
At the core of this upgrade is Votor, which would replace the Tower BFT’s incremental voting rounds with a lightweight vote aggregation model. Validators can aggregate votes off-chain before committing finality, allowing the block to be finalized in one or two confirmation rounds rather than multiple chained rounds. Due to this, the theoretical finality would drop down to the 100-150 millisecond range, representing roughly a 100-fold reduction from its original 12.8 seconds.
Furthermore, Votor would achieve this through two concurrent finalization paths: Fast Finalization triggers when a proposed block gains 80% or more of the total stake approval in the first round, and instantly finalizes. After, Slow Finalization would kick in when the first round reaches 60 to 80%, which will require a second round to exceed 60% before the block is finalized. Both paths operate in parallel and will ensure finality is achieved even when under partial network participation.
The other core of this upgrade is Rotor, which has been redesigned to rework the SOL block propagation layer. Meanwhile, the original Turbine gossip network relied on multihop relays with variable latency. Rotor will introduce stake-weighted relay paths that would prioritize bandwidth-efficient propagation, meaning high-stakes validators with reliable bandwidth will become the key relay points.
In simulation, block propagation can occur in as low as 18 milliseconds under typical bandwidth conditions. This upgrade is expected to roll out gradually, with initial activation anticipated in early to mid-2026.
How Solana Emerges As The Leading On-Chain Trading Hub
The Kobeissi Letter has reported that the Solana on-chain spot volume reached $1.6 trillion in 2025, officially overtaking all off-chain exchanges except Binance. According to data from Jupiter Exchange, SOL on-chain volumes have surged from 1% of total volume to a massive 12% since 2022.
In 2025, SOL officially surpassed Bybit, Coinbase Global, and Bitget in total trading volume. Meanwhile, the Binance share has declined from 80% to 55% since 2022. This shows that the crypto activity is rapidly moving on-chain.
