As crypto markets head into the new year, investors are yet again asking a familiar question: what could trigger the next altcoin season?

From the NFT boom in 2021 to Donald Trump winning the presidential election in 2024.

Every cycle has had its fair share of catalysts and Solana's new upgrade may be the next.

Solana ranks among the top five largest altcoins by market cap and this year "the largest Solana Protocol change ever" is expected to take place in Q1 of 2026.

On May 19th, Anza, a Solana Labs spin-out, announced the Solana protocol upgrade: Alpenglow.

In the X post, Anza claims "transaction final latency is coming down to 100-150ms (100x reduction)".

"At that speed, Solana would match or surpass the responsiveness of Google searches, which average around 200 milliseconds," according to MEXC.

An Anza blog claims the upgrade will make Solana "compete with Web2 infrastructure in terms of responsiveness".

Speeds that traditional payment processors like Visa run on, potentially positioning Solana as a blockchain-based alternative for existing traditional financial (TradFi) systems, likely opening the door for wider institutional adoption.

At a time when blockchain-based fintechs, such as Ripple, are expanding their operations into TradFi, Alpenglow may become Solana's golden ticket into the industry.

The upgrade also proposes replacing Proof of History and Tower BFT, its existing voting mechanism for reaching consensus, as per Coindesk.

In September, 2025, Alpenglow has been approved by network validators and a mainnet release is "planned for Q1 2026," according to Decrypt, although an exact date is yet to be announced.

DL News reports "Alpenglow has been compared to the Merge," Ethereum's 2022 upgrade that saw it transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

But this comparison is flawed as both upgrades serve two different purposes.

The Merge's primary goal was to transition its consensus mechanism from PoW to PoS, while Solana's Alpenglow aims to drastically increase transaction speed to a Web2 standard.

Many thought Ethereum's upgrade would improve speeds or reduce costs, but Will Harbone, founder and CEO of the rhinofi protocol, told CoinDesk:

"For end users or developers there should be no noticeable difference between Ethereum before and after the Merge".

Unlike Solana's Alpenglow which is set for a hundredfold transaction speed improvement.

Though The Motley Fool warns "the biggest risk for investors is that the Alpenglow upgrade doesn't go as planned and causes a network outage."

"Or that it introduces new, unknown security issues."

The Merge took place on the 15th of September, 2022, and arrived as the crypto market transitioned into a bear so as a result its price impact was negligible.

Ethereum's price "moved less than 1% to $1,605 during the first few minutes after the Ethereum Merge," and "down 15.5% on the month," reports Coindesk.

"According to multiple industry sources, altcoin season in 2021 began in earnest around late March to early April," according to Bitget.

Meaning Ethereum's upgrade was badly timed, from an opportunistic perspective.

Compared to the current crypto climate, as Bitcoin enters consolidation, Solana's Q1 Alpenglow upgrade could grow both retail and institutional investor confidence as the market starts to rotate into alts.

Especially if the upgrade garners institutional interest, partnerships and investment from major TradFi players.

If timings align, Solana's historic Alpenglow upgrade may be the much-needed catalyst for a 2026 altcoin season.

As crypto markets head into the new year, investors are yet again asking a familiar question: what could trigger the next altcoin season?

From the NFT boom in 2021 to Donald Trump winning the presidential election in 2024.

Every cycle has had its fair share of catalysts and Solana's new upgrade may be the next.

Solana ranks among the top five largest altcoins by market cap and this year "the largest Solana Protocol change ever" is expected to take place in Q1 of 2026.

On May 19th, Anza, a Solana Labs spin-out, announced the Solana protocol upgrade: Alpenglow.

In the X post, Anza claims "transaction final latency is coming down to 100-150ms (100x reduction)".

"At that speed, Solana would match or surpass the responsiveness of Google searches, which average around 200 milliseconds," according to MEXC.

An Anza blog claims the upgrade will make Solana "compete with Web2 infrastructure in terms of responsiveness".

Speeds that traditional payment processors like Visa run on, potentially positioning Solana as a blockchain-based alternative for existing traditional financial (TradFi) systems, likely opening the door for wider institutional adoption.

At a time when blockchain-based fintechs, such as Ripple, are expanding their operations into TradFi, Alpenglow may become Solana's golden ticket into the industry.

The upgrade also proposes replacing Proof of History and Tower BFT, its existing voting mechanism for reaching consensus, as per Coindesk.

In September, 2025, Alpenglow has been approved by network validators and a mainnet release is "planned for Q1 2026," according to Decrypt, although an exact date is yet to be announced.

DL News reports "Alpenglow has been compared to the Merge," Ethereum's 2022 upgrade that saw it transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).

But this comparison is flawed as both upgrades serve two different purposes.

The Merge's primary goal was to transition its consensus mechanism from PoW to PoS, while Solana's Alpenglow aims to drastically increase transaction speed to a Web2 standard.

Many thought Ethereum's upgrade would improve speeds or reduce costs, but Will Harbone, founder and CEO of the rhinofi protocol, told CoinDesk:

"For end users or developers there should be no noticeable difference between Ethereum before and after the Merge".

Unlike Solana's Alpenglow which is set for a hundredfold transaction speed improvement.

Though The Motley Fool warns "the biggest risk for investors is that the Alpenglow upgrade doesn't go as planned and causes a network outage."

"Or that it introduces new, unknown security issues."

The Merge took place on the 15th of September, 2022, and arrived as the crypto market transitioned into a bear so as a result its price impact was negligible.

Ethereum's price "moved less than 1% to $1,605 during the first few minutes after the Ethereum Merge," and "down 15.5% on the month," reports Coindesk.

"According to multiple industry sources, altcoin season in 2021 began in earnest around late March to early April," according to Bitget.

Meaning Ethereum's upgrade was badly timed, from an opportunistic perspective.

Compared to the current crypto climate, as Bitcoin enters consolidation, Solana's Q1 Alpenglow upgrade could grow both retail and institutional investor confidence as the market starts to rotate into alts.

Especially if the upgrade garners institutional interest, partnerships and investment from major TradFi players.

If timings align, Solana's historic Alpenglow upgrade may be the much-needed catalyst for a 2026 altcoin season.