The Protocol: Solana Community Approves Alpenglow Upgrade

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Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly wrap of the most important stories in cryptocurrency tech development. I’m Margaux Nijkerk, a reporter at CoinDesk.

In 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

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 history. According to Solana Status on X, 98.27% of SOL stakers that voted approved the proposal, with only 1.05% voting against and 0.36% abstaining. In total, 52% of the network’s stakers participated in the vote. The upgrade introduces a new consensus protocol designed to dramatically improve transaction finality and network efficiency. At 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 validators. Alpenglow will overhaul both systems. Votor 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 gaming.With approval secured, Solana is now preparing to implement the upgrade, a milestone expected to unlock greater speed, resilience, and scalability across its ecosystem. — Margaux NijkerkRead more.

EF 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 donations. According 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 X.The 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 long-term. The 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 proofs. The Bitcoin blockchain, if OP_CAT was re-enabled, would be as programmable as Ethereum or Solana, said Liu. "OP_CAT is not new code. It was never deleted, just commented out and disabled. We 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 ReynoldsRead more.

HOLESKY 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 service.The 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 support. Fusaka is set to make Ethereum rollups cheaper and faster by spreading out the “data storage work” more evenly across validators. Holesky went live in 2023 to stress-test Ethereum’s proof-of-stake machinery at scale. It quickly became the largest public testnet, providing thousands of validators with a platform to trial upgrades before they were deployed on the mainnet. Major 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 aged. Holesky 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 exit. The result was months-long queues that made it impractical to test the full validator lifecycle. For developers needing fast feedback loops, Holesky had become more of a roadblock than a tool. — Shaurya Malwa Read more.

In Other News

• Digital asset investment firm Galaxy Digital (GLXY) is bringing its stock onto blockchain rails as equity tokenization gains steam.The 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 platform. The arrangement preserves the full rights of SEC-registered equity while allowing investors to hold and transfer shares on-chain, the firms said. Tokenization 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 regulations. Unlike 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 wallets. This approach seeks to combine compliance with blockchain features such as fast settlement, transparency and around-the clock-availability, the firms said. — Kristzian SandorRead more.
• Ondo Finance launched its tokenized equity platform dubbed Ondo Global Markets, offering non-U.S. investors access to more than 100 U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on-chain. The 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 said.The offering includes crypto token versions of Apple (AAPL), Nvidia (NVDA) and the QQQ ETF among others. Investors in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa and Latin America can mint and redeem shares around the clock during trading days, with access to underlying exchange liquidity. The service is not available for U.S. users. The tokens are designed to move freely between wallets, exchanges and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. The firm has also partnered with BitGo, Ledger, Chainlink and other infrastructure providers to support the rollout.— Kristzian Sandor Read more.

Regulatory and Policy

• European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde urged European Union (EU) lawmakers to impose stringent requirements and safeguards on foreign stablecoins.
• Lagarde 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 Frankfurt. The 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 before. Banking 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 More.
• The U.S. government has begun using blockchains to disseminate key economic data, starting with the U.S. Department 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 data. In 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 announcement. The agency said it also sent the data through Chainlink and Pyth and noted that exchanges Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken helped out.— Jesse Hamilton Read more.

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