28-8-2025 – Solana has climbed 3% to $211 today as its proposed Alpenglow consensus protocol enters the community voting phase, driving trading volumes up 43% and pushing retail sentiment to an 11-week high.
The Alpenglow upgrade, designated as SIMD 0326, aims to slash block finality times from the current 12.8 seconds to approximately 150 milliseconds by replacing Solana’s Proof of History mechanism and Tower BFT consensus system. Developed by Anza, a Solana Labs spinoff, the proposal requires a two-thirds majority across epochs 840-842 to pass. Early voting shows 9.76% support from a 9.87% turnout, according to official tracking data.
The technical enhancement would position Solana for high-frequency applications including real-time finance, gaming, and social platforms while potentially boosting institutional adoption. However, some community members express concerns about network reliability given Solana’s history of outages and questions about maintaining decentralization.
Market momentum has lifted SOL’s weekly gains into double digits, outperforming most major altcoins despite broader crypto market consolidation. Santiment data shows retail sentiment reached its most bullish level in 11 weeks, with 5.8 positive comments for every negative one. Futures open interest jumped 6.78% to over $13 billion as SOL retests February resistance levels around $212.
The voting process continues through the remaining epochs, with market participants watching whether the upgrade approval can sustain SOL’s momentum above the $200 threshold.
