Solana's Alpenglow Upgrade Looms: Can It Break $120?

Solana's highly anticipated Alpenglow upgrade is just three days away, and investors are eagerly awaiting its potential impact on the cryptocurrency.

The update aims to significantly improve Solana's transaction agreement process by replacing the existing TowerBFT system with a new voting method called Votor, resulting in improved efficiency for validators, the computers that confirm transactions on the network.

Currently, Solana's finality, the time it takes for a transaction to become permanent, averages about 12.8 seconds, but Alpenglow targets reducing this to roughly 150 milliseconds, which is crucial for real-time applications like payment systems and tokenized finance.

Solana has seen a significant influx of funds in recent weeks, with SOL ETFs (exchange-traded funds) posting 12 consecutive weeks of inflows and controlling about 2.5% of the total supply, suggesting strong investor demand rather than purely volatility-driven trading.

However, Solana's price action has been hindered by sellers defending the critical $120 level, with three failed attempts to surpass it in recent days. The upgrade may prompt selling activity instead of celebration, which could impact the cryptocurrency's performance.