Ethereum and Solana: Recent Gains and Upcoming Changes In September

Ethereum and Solana both surged last week, but one cryptocurrency is heading into a major network upgrade while the other is still waiting on a test run. The gap between their roadmaps could determine which rally has real staying power.

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Last week, both Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) and Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) posted strong gains, with Ethereum up 10.2% and Solana up 15.5%. As of September 25, Ethereum is trading at $2,694, while Solana is at $117. However, both cryptocurrencies are still down for the year, with Ethereum down about 9% and Solana down by approximately 5%. With these recent rallies, the question arises: which cryptocurrency has stronger support behind its gains?

Solana’s Alpenglow Upgrade Is Scheduled for Mainnet on September 28

Solana’s upcoming upgrade, called Alpenglow, is set for September 28. This upgrade will revamp how Solana’s validators—the computers that confirm transactions—achieve consensus on block finality. Alpenglow will replace the current protocol, TowerBFT, with a new voting protocol called Votor.

This change aims to reduce transaction finality time from around 12.8 seconds to about 150 milliseconds. These speed improvements will let payment and trading applications treat transfers as nearly instant.