The Solana (SOL) network has a series of upgrades coming that could provide a catalyst for the price of the native SOL cryptocurrency. Higher speed, more transactions per block and near-instant consensus are expected with the Firedancer and the Alpenglow updates. Should the upgrades execute without a hitch, how high could SOL rally?

Firedancer is a Solana validator client developed by the Jump Crypto team, with the goal of boosting the existing infrastructure. The Firedancer validator code is a third-party client, currently in advanced testing and limited mainnet use. The goal of Firedancer is to make the Solana network run on diverse validator clients, reducing the risk of failures and network outages.

Meanwhile, the Alpenglow protocol was first announced in May 2025, and redesigns Solana’s approach to coordinating validators. Alpenglow employs Votor, a lightweight voting protocol that finalizes blocks using a single or dual-run voting process. The mechanism reduces latency to milliseconds while eliminating gossip between validators. Both upgrades if successful, could provide a boost to a Solana SOL rally, as the coin is trading near 1-year lows.

At press time, Solana SOL is trading in the $140 range, after crashing 26% in the past 30 days. However, bullish flags are emerging. A major Solana treasury firm has just unveiled a $50 million share buyback, a move that signals strong confidence in a long-term Solana price prediction even as the market faces heavy selling. This past Thursday, Upexi, which previously allocated $300 million into Solana, confirmed that its Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase program to be executed at the timing, manner, and price the management team believes is most advantageous.

“We view the repurchase program as an additional tool to enhance shareholder value and will deploy it only when management believes the repurchase represents an attractive return on capital without compromising our ability to pursue strategic growth or maintain a strong treasury position,” said company head Allan Marshall. Furthermore, by reducing the number of shares in circulation, Upexi would effectively increase the amount of SOL tokens that each share represents, which should result in a higher return on investment (ROI) down the road if Solana recovers, which is expected.