Solana Has Finally Rolled Out Fix for Congestion Issue, SOL Bounces 8%

Solana users have not enjoyed the smoothest of experiences in the past few weeks. The network, which prides itself on being one of the fastest and most performant blockchains, has faced a surge in user demand and bot transactions. This development clogged Solana, leading to more than half of user transactions ultimately failing.

However, the Solana developer community has now rolled out a fix that addresses the ongoing congestion issue. Recall that in the past week, a version containing the proposed fixes was launched on testnet. Fast forward to the present; the newly released Solana v1.17.31 is now being recommended for use by validators on the network.

The v1.17.31 release is now recommended for general use by MainnetBeta validators. This release contains enhancements which will help alleviate the ongoing congestion on the Solana Network.

— Solana Status (@SolanaStatus) April 15, 2024

Notably, the new release was only recommended for release under an hour to press time. Hence, most validators still run the older Solana versions, as data from Solana explorer, Solscan shows. Precisely, over 84% of validators still run version v1.17.28 and must now upgrade their nodes for the recently released patches to go into effect.

Solana (SOL) Recovers 8%

The price of Solana has dropped over 15% in the past week. While the drop has largely coincided with a broader market sell-off, overall sentiment is that the network’s congestion woes have limited economic activity on the network. The issue may also have created fear and uncertainty about the network’s future in the minds of investors.

However, following news of the rollout of a solution, the price of Solana has bounced back, albeit also aided by improved market conditions. In the past 24 hours, Solana has gained over 8%, recovering from daily lows of around $134 to as high as $148 at the time of writing. Earlier in the day, the coin peaked at around $152.

It is worth mentioning that the current trading value evidently remains well below the coin’s yearly high, which stands at around $210. However, the quick recovery would raise hopes in the minds of Solana investors, including the possibility of a comeback after losing ground on a close rival, Binance coin (BNB).

While Solana (SOL) had previously overtaken BNB as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency, the latter has since bounced back strongly and now has a market cap that is over $18 billion higher than SOL at the time of writing.