Solana is set to activate the final stage of a network upgrade cutting its target block time to 200 milliseconds on Friday, Oct. 9, doubling block production frequency. The change arrives as SOL trades near $110, with technical indicators showing mixed momentum.
Solana developers plan to activate the last stage of a network upgrade that cuts the network's target block time to 200 milliseconds on Friday, Oct. 9. According to Anza, the developer behind Solana's Agave validator software, the reduction from 250 milliseconds is scheduled for epoch 1053, expected around 15:00 UTC. The change lets Solana target five block production opportunities per second, twice its original 400 millisecond configuration.
Solana completes a staged slot-time rollout
The network began reducing target slot times on Aug. 21, moving from 400 milliseconds to 350 milliseconds, then to 300 milliseconds on Aug. 28 and 250 milliseconds on Sept. 18 under proposal SIMD-0525. Friday's change completes that sequence.
A validator is assigned a slot to process transactions and propose a block, and validators currently produce blocks across four consecutive slots — a 1.6 second window at 400 milliseconds per slot that shrinks to 800 milliseconds once 200 milliseconds takes effect. The network will also cut the compute limit per block from 37.5 million compute units to 30 million, intended to keep overall processing capacity roughly unchanged even as blocks arrive more often.
Faster blocks raise validator and transaction demands
The shorter slots push validators onto a tighter schedule: at 200 milliseconds, those voting on every slot would need to submit votes twice as frequently, potentially raising operating costs. Transactions also carry a recent blockhash that prevents replay and remains valid for only a limited number of blocks, so faster slots shorten the real time available to submit a transaction — tightening deadlines for transfers that need manual authorization or multiple signatures.
Developers have deployed the configuration on testnet and devnet, but Solana Compass data from recent epochs showed average slot durations of approximately 266 to 269 milliseconds under the previous 250 millisecond target, so mainnet activation depends partly on validator block skip rates. Separately, Solana's Alpenglow consensus upgrade, aimed at cutting transaction finality from about 12.8 seconds to around 150 milliseconds, has reached devnet and testnet without a confirmed activation date.
SOL price shows mixed momentum ahead of the upgrade
Solana's native token was trading near $110.30 on Friday, down approximately 1.96% over the previous 24 hours and 7.16% over seven days. Technical indicators showed mixed momentum, with eight bullish signals, eight bearish signals and six neutral readings, and the 14-day relative strength index stood near 44, below the neutral midpoint of 50.
SOL was trading below its 20-day exponential moving average near $115.14, while remaining above its 50-day EMA at approximately $107.31 and 200-day EMA near $97.07. Institutional demand has also been a factor, as U.S. Solana ETFs attracted approximately $800,000 during the preceding week, compared with $188.1 million in the week before.
Source: crypto.news
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