Solana’s Alpenglow launches on mainnet, targets 99% faster finality

Solana's Alpenglow consensus upgrade has launched on mainnet, marking the network's first major consensus overhaul. The upgrade targets a 99% reduction in transaction finality time, aiming to deliver near-immediate settlement and more responsive applications for users. Faster finality could strengthen Solana's competitive position against other layer-1 chains and improve its appeal for latency-sensitive use cases like trading and payments, making it a modestly positive development for SOL sentiment.