Solana at 200 ms, Alpenglow upgrade set for 21 October

Solana has been targeting one block every 200 milliseconds since 9 October 2026; until 21 August the target was 400 ms. Alpenglow, a new consensus protocol meant to make a transaction final in about 150 ms instead of 12.8 seconds, is scheduled for Wednesday 21 October. That date is on the pages of Solana and of developer Anza, but it depends on the validators.

Solana news in short

• 200 ms: the target since 9 October. Measured, it averages 218 ms.
• Alpenglow upgrade date: epoch 1064, which Solana expects on 21 October at about 15:00 UTC (17:00 CEST). That is an estimate.
• Holders and stakers: you do not have to do anything.
• Condition: on 13 October, 83.8% of staked SOL reported the required version; 82% is needed.
• ETFs: US Solana ETFs lost 24.8 million US dollars last week, the first outflow after fourteen weeks.
• Europe: you cannot buy those ETFs here; European exchange-traded products on SOL cost 0% to 2.50% a year.

From 400 to 200 ms in four steps

Proposal SIMD-0525 cut the block time in four steps of 50 ms.

The 200 ms is a target. Using the chain's own timestamps, we worked out how long the first three epochs since then lasted: 26.2 hours per 432,000 slots (a slot is the window for one block), or 218.3 to 218.6 ms on average.

What you will notice: an epoch now lasts just over a day instead of about two, so staking rewards arrive more often and in smaller portions. Annual inflation stays the same, according to the proposal. A signed transaction expires after 30 seconds instead of 60; if you sign with a hardware wallet, you have less time. Capacity per second is unchanged.

Solana Alpenglow: what changes and what does not

Consensus is how validators agree on the order of transactions and on the point after which a transaction can no longer be reversed. Today they send their votes to the chain as transactions and a block is final after about 12.8 seconds. With Alpenglow they send votes directly to each other: if 80% of staked SOL votes in favour in one round, the block is final; otherwise 60% in a second round is enough. Solana calls the 150 ms an expectation, not a constant.

Transactions, programs, fees and wallets do not change. This first phase is called Votor; Rotor, which changes how blocks are spread across the network, follows later and has no date.

When. At the start of epoch 1064, which Solana expects on 21 October 2026 at about 15:00 UTC. For the first 5,000 slots, about eighteen minutes, the network keeps running TowerBFT. After that, blocks briefly carry no user transactions until validators holding 82% of staked SOL have signed the starting block. Anza expects this to take a few hundred milliseconds.

Conditions. Validators must run a client built on Agave 4.3; Firedancer and Frankendancer are not supported during the switch. Our own count on 13 October at 17:41 UTC, through Solana's public RPC: 83.8% of staked SOL reported version 4.3, and 15.9% a Firedancer or Frankendancer version. Anza's activation schedule still lists Alpenglow as pending, with the general rule that activations begin two full epochs after 95% of stake runs the new version.

What you have to do. As a holder, nothing. As a staker, nothing either, but your reward depends on your validator's uptime: a validator that does not switch in time, or holds less than 0.8 SOL in its vote account, does not take part and earns nothing.

Money: ETFs, price and Samsung

US spot Solana ETFs lost 24.8 million US dollars in the week to 9 October, The Block reported, citing SoSoValue data: the first outflow after fourteen weeks.

On 13 October at 17:38 UTC, SOL cost 107.27 US dollars, or 95.86 euros (CoinGecko): 11.2% less than a week earlier and 6.2% more than thirty days earlier. Over those thirty days the price ranged from 96.43 to 124.42 US dollars. You can convert amounts with our converter. We do not publish a Solana price prediction or price target.

Samsung Wallet will get USDC transfers on 82 million Galaxy devices in the United States in the last week of October, Samsung announced on 7 October, with Solana and Sui as networks. Nothing has been announced for Europe.

What can you do with it in Europe?

Solana ETF Europe. As a retail investor you generally cannot buy the US Solana ETFs through a European broker: they have no key information document under the European PRIIPs rules. We explained this in our piece on the 3x bitcoin ETF.

European exchange-traded products. Read on 13 October at four issuers:

The factsheets do not say what share 21Shares keeps. Such a product is not a fund but a debt security of the issuer, with SOL as collateral: if the issuer cannot pay and the collateral falls short, you can lose your entire investment. That is what the key information document of 21Shares says (risk class 7 out of 7).

Buying SOL and Solana staking. At the platforms with a MiCA authorisation that we follow, this is what we saw on 13 October:

• Kraken: SOL/EUR; staking on its pages for EU countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and France, at 2.63% a year flexible or 5.32% bonded.
• Finst: SOL for euros; staking at 2.75% a year. Finst states that this service currently falls outside the MiCA rules.
• eToro: SOL; staking only after you opt in yourself in the EU. You get 45% to 90% of the rewards, depending on your club tier.
• Crypto.com: SOL/EUR; SOL is on the European staking page.
• OKX and Bybit: SOL/EUR on the European site; we could not confirm SOL staking without logging in.

Rates change and are not a promise. Authorisations are in our register of authorisations, costs on our comparison page, and how staking works in our explainer.

What is not certain yet

• The time. 15:00 UTC is an estimate based on an epoch of 26.2 hours. If too few validators move off Firedancer, the 82% certificate does not form at once and transactions wait longer.
• The date. In late September, 28 September circulated as the start date. Anza's release schedule only says ‘Resume feature activation’ for that day: resuming activations in general.
• The risk. A live network is swapping its consensus protocol. Anza says it rehearsed this nine times at scale.

This article is not investment advice. Crypto and exchange-traded products on crypto can fall sharply in value and you can lose your entire stake.

Disclosure: the links to these platforms on our partner pages belong to our partner programmes. If you sign up through one of those links, CryptoCode receives a commission; you do not pay more.

Frequently asked questions

When is the Alpenglow upgrade?

Scheduled for Wednesday 21 October 2026 at about 15:00 UTC, at the start of epoch 1064. That is an estimate, and it depends on the validators.

Do I have to do anything with my SOL?

No. According to Solana, wallets and apps keep working as they do now.

Is there a Solana ETF in Europe?

As a retail investor you generally cannot buy a US ETF here. There are European exchange-traded products on SOL: debt securities of the issuer.

Will staking be worth less?

We found no sign of that. The shorter block time leaves annual inflation unchanged. With Alpenglow, a validator's fixed voting cost goes from about 1 SOL to 0.8 SOL per epoch. You do miss out on rewards if your validator does not take part.

Sources

Read on 13 October 2026.

• Solana: Alpenglow, block time.
• Anza: Alpenglow, release schedule, activation schedule.
• SIMD-0525 and SIMD-0384.
• Our own count through Solana's public RPC, 13 October 2026, 17:41 UTC.
• The Block, 10 October 2026.
• Samsung, 7 October 2026.
• CoinGecko, thirty-day price series.
• Issuers: 21Shares, Bitwise, CoinShares, VanEck.
• Platforms: Kraken, Finst, eToro, Crypto.com.