Solana’s Alpenglow consensus upgrade went live on public testnet on September 24, 2026, recording a 54-millisecond median block-finalization time against its 100-150 millisecond design target and replacing TowerBFT with Votor. The result is roughly 237 times faster than the approximately 12.8-second average previously recorded on mainnet; Solana’s virtual machine, transaction formats and fee structures remain unchanged. Alpenglow also operates on devnet, while mainnet activation remains tied to the Agave 4.3 release and unresolved testing outcomes. The upgrade is being evaluated as SOL trades near $120, with U.S. spot Solana ETFs attracting approximately $188 million during September 21-25 before roughly $12.5 million in net redemptions on September 30.