The final 200-millisecond block time upgrade since August on the Solana blockchain, reducing it from 250 milliseconds, is scheduled to take effect at epoch 1053, expected around 15:00 UTC on Friday, October 9, 2026, according to developer Anza

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Solana scheduled an upgrade to replace the network's legacy Tower BFT consensus mechanism on Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Solana's October 2026 upgrade replaces on-chain vote transactions with direct validator-to-validator certificate bundling

Solana scheduled the App and Glow upgrade for October 14, 2026 to reduce network transaction settlement times to 150 milliseconds

In an advisory sentiment vote, 99.9% of 180 million Starknet (STRK) tokens voted in favor of transitioning Starknet into a Layer 1 blockchain

Plasma operates a dedicated Layer-1 blockchain specifically designed for stablecoin payments.

BNB Chain and Solana are actively chasing tokenized equity activity alongside Robinhood Chain

Robinhood Chain secured a 42% share of on-chain equity volume in September 2026, positioning it against competing networks including BNB Chain and Solana

Robinhood built Robinhood Chain on Arbitrum Orbit to maintain direct control over settlement while remaining connected to Ethereum liquidity and infrastructure

Robinhood Chain operates as an Ethereum Layer-2 network built on the Arbitrum Orbit stack, utilizing ETH for gas fees and featuring block times under 100 milliseconds

Transitioning to a standalone Layer 1 would require Starknet to maintain its own network security backed by the market capitalization of STRK, which stood at $580.24 million on October 15, 2026

Autheo launched its mainnet on May 14, 2026, as a Layer-0 operating system with an integrated Layer-1 blockchain supporting validator staking and transaction fees.

The Citrini report's proposed portfolio allocates 8% to Solana (SOL)

Solana is the only Layer 1 blockchain included in the Citrini report's portfolio

The Alpenglow upgrade, scheduled for October 21, 2026, targets block transaction finality of approximately 150 milliseconds on the Solana network, depending on network conditions

Under the Alpenglow upgrade scheduled for October 21, 2026, Solana validators exchange votes directly off-chain and aggregate approvals into a certificate that finalizes blocks after one or two voting rounds

The targeted 150-millisecond finality under the Alpenglow upgrade aims to provide faster irreversibility guarantees for merchants accepting payments and cross-chain bridges releasing funds on Solana

Off-chain validator voting is an acceptable tradeoff for faster transaction finality on Solana

Current Layer 1 (L1) blockchains are several orders of magnitude away from the throughput required for widespread agentic commerce

Moving validator votes off-chain under the Alpenglow upgrade scheduled for October 21, 2026 is expected to significantly reduce Solana's reported on-chain transaction count without reflecting a decline in actual user trading activity

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