Solana Alpenglow upgrade tests reduce finality to 150ms
Solana (SOL)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
tradersunion.com reports that Solana is extending tests of its Alpenglow upgrade across both public test networks ahead of a live rollout. The upgrade aims to sharply reduce transaction finality times from roughly 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds. This faster settlement window could reduce delays for exchanges releasing deposited funds and for payment applications confirming merchant sales.
Developers utilize devnet to test applications with valueless tokens, while testnet is used to stress-test network software and validator operations. Alpenglow changes how validators reach agreement by exchanging votes directly instead of writing them as transactions inside blocks. This design allows agreement to take one or two voting rounds, which is expected to cause transaction totals to decline even if user activity remains unchanged.
The Foundation has instructed data providers to adjust their comparisons to account for these structural changes. No firm launch date has been announced, though Anza's software schedule tentatively allows feature activations to resume on Sept. 28. The 150-millisecond figure remains a simulation-based target rather than a result proven under live-market conditions. Infrastructure and data services must keep rival candidate blocks separate until the network chooses one to ensure accurate records.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for SOL, measured when this story was written up on 26 September 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
Solana is currently trading at $122.15 with a 24-hour spot volume of $481,769,970. Short-term buying pressure appears to be fading, as the 1-hour buy ratio stands at 38.6% and the 4-hour ratio is 47.4%, both lower than the 55.6% recorded over the last day. This shift is reflected in negative volume deltas of -$1,840,566 for the hour and -$1,826,804 for the four-hour period, indicating that sellers are currently outpacing buyers in the immediate term. However, the 24-hour volume delta remains positive at +$53,965,933, showing that net buying has dominated the broader daily session. The cumulative volume delta closed at +$45,307,793, with net buying occurring in 16 of the last 24 hours. This suggests that while intraday momentum has weakened, the daily trend still favors accumulation.
The latest daily buy ratio of 48.8% sits at the 27th percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 50.0% - weaker buying than most days.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for SOL, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
Over the preceding week, the buy ratio averaged 50.0%, making today's 24-hour ratio of 55.6% an unusual day with 5.6 percentage points more buying activity than the weekly norm. Trading volume was also elevated at 1.29 times the average, supporting the higher buy ratio. The coin saw a price increase of 8.4% over the eight-day period, accompanied by a total volume delta of +$73,198,444. Net buying occurred on 3 of the 7 days in the preceding week. This recent performance indicates a period of sustained accumulation that contrasts with the lighter buying pressure seen in the most recent hourly data.