The Protocol: Solana Community Approves Alpenglow Upgrade

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at ￰0￱ this issue: Solana Set for Major Overhaul After 98% Votes to Approve Historic 'Alpenglow' Upgrade Ethereum Foundation to Unload Another 10K ETH Following SharpLink Deal ‘OP_CAT Isn’t My Invention. It’s Satoshi’s,’ Says Bruce Liu as OPCAT_Labs Pushes to Reboot Bitcoin’s Code Ethereum to Close Its Largest Testnet, Holesky, After Fusaka Upgrade Unknown block type "divider", specify a component for it in the `components. types` option Network News ALPENGLOW APPROVED BY SOLANA COMMUNITY: The Solana community voted overwhelmingly in favor of the long-awaited Alpenglow upgrade, bringing the network one step closer to the most significant technical transformation in its ￰1￱ to Solana Status on X , 98.27% of SOL stakers that voted approved the proposal, with only 1.05% voting against and 0.36% ￰2￱ total, 52% of the network’s stakers participated in the ￰3￱ upgrade introduces a new consensus protocol designed to dramatically improve transaction finality and network ￰4￱ the heart of Alpenglow are two new components, Votor and Rotor, which will replace Solana’s existing systems, Proof-of-History and TowerBFT.

Currently, Proof-of-History timestamps transactions to preserve their order without slowing the network, while TowerBFT handles the voting process among ￰5￱ will overhaul both ￰6￱ will slash transaction finality times from over 12 seconds to around 150 milliseconds, delivering near-instant confirmation for users. Rotor, scheduled for a later rollout, will minimize data transfers between validators, a crucial improvement for high-demand applications such as decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain-based ￰7￱ approval secured, Solana is now preparing to implement the upgrade, a milestone expected to unlock greater speed, resilience, and scalability across its ecosystem. — Margaux Nijkerk Read ￰8￱ TO SELL 10K ETH OVER NEXT FEW WEEKS: The Ethereum Foundation (EF) shared in a post on X on Tuesday that it plans to sell 10,000 ETH through centralized exchanges over the next several weeks to support work toward research & development, ecosystem grants and related ￰9￱ to CoinMarketCap , the ETH will amount to roughly $43 million at Tuesday’s prices.

“Conversions will take place over multiple smaller orders, rather than as a single large transaction,” the EF wrote in the post on ￰10￱ news follows the EF’s rollout of a new treasury policy in June that caps annual operational spending (opex) at 15%, establishes a multiyear reserve buffer and sets a gradual pace toward even leaner spending ￰11￱ foundation sold an additional 10,000 ETH to SharpLink Gaming in July, making the online casino marketing firm the first publicly traded company to buy ETH from a key firm in the network’s ecosystem. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more . A CHAT WITH BRUCE LIU ON OP_CAT: Without OP_CAT, Bruce Liu says Bitcoin is as "useful as a jumbo jet without wings" capable of much more than it’s allowed to do, but stuck on the ground while Ethereum and Solana soar.

Liu, the founder of OPCAT_Labs, says a single opcode, OP_CAT, could transform bitcoin from static digital gold into programmable money that rivals other layer-1 chains. OP_CAT is a long-disabled opcode in Bitcoin’s code that, if re-enabled, would allow developers to concatenate data in scripts and unlock new possibilities, from vaults and covenants to decentralized exchanges and zero-knowledge ￰12￱ Bitcoin blockchain, if OP_CAT was re-enabled , would be as programmable as Ethereum or Solana, said Liu. "OP_CAT is not new ￰13￱ was never deleted, just commented out and ￰14￱ are not adding my opcode or somebody else’s. It’s Satoshi’s,” Liu told CoinDesk during an interview on the sidelines of BTC Asia in Hong Kong. — Sam Reynolds Read ￰15￱ SUNSET IS COMING AFTER FUSAKA UPGRADE: A fresh slate of Ethereum testnets is replacing Holesky , the once-massive staging ground now set for shutdown after two years of ￰16￱ wind-down will occur two weeks after the Fusaka upgrade is finalized later this year, at which point client and infrastructure teams will cease providing ￰17￱ is set to make Ethereum rollups cheaper and faster by spreading out the “data storage work” more evenly across ￰18￱ went live in 2023 to stress-test Ethereum’s proof-of-stake machinery at ￰19￱ quickly became the largest public testnet, providing thousands of validators with a platform to trial upgrades before they were deployed on the ￰20￱ milestones, such as the Dencun and Pectra upgrades — which lowered transaction costs and upgraded validator efficiency, among other features — were run through Holesky first.

However, cracks began to appear as the network ￰21￱ encountered “inactivity leaks” after Pectra’s activation in early 2025, a term referring to validators going offline in large numbers, which created a significant backlog for those attempting to ￰22￱ result was months-long queues that made it impractical to test the full validator ￰23￱ developers needing fast feedback loops, Holesky had become more of a roadblock than a tool. — Shaurya Malwa Read ￰24￱ block type "divider", specify a component for it in the `components. types` option In Other News Digital asset investment firm Galaxy Digital (GLXY) is bringing its stock onto blockchain rails as equity tokenization gains ￰25￱ Nasdaq-listed company is working with blockchain firm Superstate to make its Class A common stock available as tokens on the Solana network through Superstate’s Opening Bell ￰26￱ arrangement preserves the full rights of SEC-registered equity while allowing investors to hold and transfer shares on-chain, the firms ￰27￱ of traditional assets has gained traction across the financial sector as firms experiment with moving equities, bonds and money-market funds onto blockchain infrastructure.

A slew of tokenized equity products hit the market in the past few months predominantly for EU investors, including by Robinhood , Gemini with Dinari and xStocks by Kraken and Backed Finance. However, some offerings drew concerns such as limited shareholder rights and fragmented ￰28￱ synthetic or wrapped tokenized stocks that operate without issuer involvement, Galaxy’s shares are issued directly on-chain and tracked by Superstate as a transfer agent, recording changes to the shareholder register instantly as tokens move between verified ￰29￱ approach seeks to combine compliance with blockchain features such as fast settlement, transparency and around-the clock-availability, the firms said. — Kristzian Sandor Read ￰30￱ Finance launched its tokenized equity platform dubbed Ondo Global Markets, offering ￰31￱ access to more than 100 ￰32￱ and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ￰33￱ tokenized equities, first announced in February, have gone live on Ethereum and are backed by securities held by U.

S.-registered broker-dealers, the firm ￰34￱ offering includes crypto token versions of Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA) and the QQQ ETF among ￰35￱ in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and Latin America can mint and redeem shares around the clock during trading days, with access to underlying exchange ￰36￱ service is not available for ￰37￱ tokens are designed to move freely between wallets, exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) ￰38￱ firm has also partnered with BitGo, Ledger, Chainlink and other infrastructure providers to support the rollout.— Kristzian Sandor Read ￰39￱ block type "divider", specify a component for it in the `components. types` option Regulatory and Policy European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde urged European Union (EU) lawmakers to impose stringent requirements and safeguards on foreign ￰40￱ argued they should comply with the bloc’s regulatory standards before operating on EU soil, she said in a speech at a European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) conference in ￰41￱ ECB president cautioned that during a stablecoin run, investors would be more likely redeem in jurisdictions with stronger protections, such as the EU, where Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation prohibits redemption fees, potentially depleting local reserves.

"The risk of liquidity mismanagement across jurisdictions is one we have seen ￰42￱ groups, for example, are already required to ensure that reserves are available in the part of the group where and when they are needed," Lagarde said. — Jamie Crawley Read ￰43￱ ￰44￱ has begun using blockchains to disseminate key economic data, starting with the ￰45￱ of Commerce's release of gross-domestic product (GDP) numbers, which was described as a "proof of concept" for doing more in the future. "We are making America’s economic truth immutable and globally accessible like never before, cementing our role as the blockchain capital of the world," Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in a statement that announced the new approach to distributing the ￰46￱ a deliberate effort not to pick blockchain favorites, the department put out last week's data on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, TRON, Stellar, Avalanche, Arbitrum One, Polygon PoS and Optimism, identifying the transaction hashes for each in its ￰47￱ agency said it also sent the data through Chainlink and Pyth and noted that exchanges Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken helped out.— Jesse Hamilton Read ￰48￱ block type "divider", specify a component for it in the `components.

types` option Calendar Sept. 22-28: Korea Blockchain Week , Seoul Oct. 1-2: Token2049 , Singapore Oct. 13-15: Digital Asset Summit , London Oct. 16-17: European Blockchain Convention , Barcelona Nov. 17-22: Devconnect , Buenos Aires Dec. 11-13: Solana Breakpoint , Abu Dhabi Feb. 10-12, 2026: Consensus , Hong Kong Mar. 30-Apr. 2: EthCC , Cannes May 5-7, 2026: Consensus , Miami