In an April 15 post on X, Solana’s Status said:

“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.”

Notably, this development marks the initial step in a series of upgrades to alleviate the network’s congestion woes.

Lately, Solana has experienced a surge in transaction failures. Analysts attribute these problems to the blockchain’s growing popularity and intense network activity, which is driven by automated bots seeking arbitrage opportunities.

The update

Anza, a Solana-focused devshop, said the update “contains enhancements which will help alleviate some of the ongoing network congestion and will be followed by further enhancements in v1.18.”

The firm added that validators should upgrade to the latest patch only when there is less than a 5% delinquent stake on the network.

An image shared by Rex St John, the head of developer relations at Anza, showed that version 1.17.31 introduces several network enhancements, including improved visibility into staked versus non-staked packets, refined treatment of super low staked nodes in streamer QOS, and enhanced minimal streams per 100 ms for staked nodes.

SOL rises 10%

Following news of the upgrade, Solana’s native SOL token rebounded from its previous rut to print a 10% gain during the early trading hours.

Data from CryptoSlate shows that the digital asset rose to as high as $156 before slightly correcting to $152 as of press time. This marks a stunning reversal for a digital asset whose price had tanked to around $120 during the weekend amid a broader market decline.