Solana upgrade Alpenglow could arrive as soon as next quarter, potentially giving the network a faster settlement layer.
Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, says the network’s long-awaited Alpenglow upgrade could arrive as soon as next quarter, putting a rough Q3 timeline on one of the chain’s biggest technical changes.
During a fireside panel at Consensus Miami 2026, Yakovenko said that the Alpenglow release is “basically due sometime this year, I think next quarter,” adding further that the upgrade is an “exciting step in the evolution of the protocol.”
Read also: Solana Price Prediction 2026: Can SOL Overtake Bitcoin?
What is Solana Alpenglow Upgrade
Alpenglow is a rebuild of Solana’s consensus system, the mechanism validators use to agree on which transactions are final. The upgrade is meant to help apps on Solana settle transactions much faster, bringing the network closer to the speed users expect from traditional payment platforms.
- As of press time, Solana’s finality stays at about 12.8 seconds under its current setup. Alpenglow aims to cut that to about 100 to 150 milliseconds.
The upgrade would also replace Solana’s old Proof-of-History and TowerBFT consensus design with a newer structure centered on Votor, the voting and finalization system.
Rotor, the data-spreading part of the broader Alpenglow design, is expected to come later under a separate proposal.
Amid the news, SOL▼$68.84 rose about 6% on May 6 and traded around $89, pushing Solana’s market capitalization to roughly $51.5 billion, according to CoinGecko.
Read more: Top Solana Updates in 2026: Network Upgrades, Ecosystem Growth, and Institutional Adoption Trends
