Solana Network Under Pressure as SOL Tests $100 During Selloff

Solana is going through a real-time infrastructure stress test as its native token SOL struggles to hold the psychologically critical $100 level. What started as a sharp price correction has quickly turned into a deeper technical conversation about whether the network, in its current state, can handle extreme transaction volume without upgrades going live fast enough.

Over the last 24 hours, SOL has dropped roughly 12-15%, with intraday volatility spiking to its highest level in more than six weeks. On-chain data shows transaction attempts surged by nearly 30% during peak selling hours, a pattern typically seen during panic-driven exits. Instead of focusing purely on charts, validators and developers are now zeroed in on infrastructure risk specifically the urgency of the Alpenglow protocol and its Votor/Rotor upgrade path.

SOL Price Action Signals Structural Stress

SOL briefly dipped below $100 during heavy sell pressure before attempting a rebound, but order book data shows thin liquidity between $95 and $102. This gap has made price movements sharper and more reactive to large market orders.

Analytics from major RPC providers indicate failed transaction rates climbed from a normal 1-2% range to nearly 6% during peak congestion windows. While not a full outage, this increase is enough to disrupt high-frequency traders, liquidations, and decentralized exchange arbitrage  all of which amplify volatility.

Historically, similar spikes in failed transactions have coincided with short-term price drawdowns of 8–20%, suggesting infrastructure performance directly impacts market confidence.

Why Alpenglow Is Suddenly the Center of Attention

Alpenglow is Solana’s next-generation consensus overhaul designed to dramatically reduce block finality times. Its two core components  Votor and Rotor  aim to bring deterministic finality down to roughly 150 milliseconds, compared to current effective finality that can stretch beyond 400-600 milliseconds during congestion.

Recent validator simulations circulating among node operators suggest that without Votor/Rotor enabled, the network becomes more vulnerable to transaction backlog during sudden volume surges. In simulated panic-selling scenarios, block propagation delays increased by up to 35%, while confirmation times doubled for lower-priority transactions.

Validator Upgrade Lag Raises Red Flags

One of the biggest concerns right now is uneven validator readiness. Rough estimates from validator telemetry channels show that fewer than 60% of stake-weighted validators are running the latest recommended test configurations aligned with Alpenglow assumptions.

If that number doesn’t rise quickly, analysts warn the network could experience partial congestion events  not full halts, but slowdowns severe enough to impact user experience and market execution. Even a 200-300 millisecond increase in finality can significantly affect liquidations, MEV strategies, and large swaps during high-volume periods.

Network Metrics Show Early Warning Signs

During the most intense three-hour window of selling today:

• Transaction throughput peaked near 65,000 transactions per second attempts

• Effective confirmed throughput fell closer to 45,000 TPS

• Median confirmation times rose by approximately 40%

• RPC error rates doubled compared to weekly averages

What Traders and Developers Are Watching Now

For traders, the $100 level remains the immediate battlefield. A clean hold could restore short-term confidence, while a decisive break risks accelerating sell pressure toward the low-$90s.

For developers and validators, the focus is firmly on rollout speed. Upgrade adoption rates, real-time finality metrics, and validator participation percentages will likely matter more than price charts over the next 24-48 hours.