Marinade CEO: Solana Alpenglow Upgrade Could Reduce Validator Onboarding Barrier

BlockBeats News, October 26th, Marinade Labs CEO Michael Repetny stated that the Solana ecosystem is preparing for an upgrade at the end of this year or the beginning of 2026. The future plans include lowering the validator admission threshold after the Alpenglow upgrade, increasing bandwidth, and reducing latency.

Currently, running a Solana validator costs about $5000 per month, with $4000 (80%) of that cost allocated to paying the voting fee. The Alpenglow upgrade will significantly reduce these voting fees, allowing more participants to afford operating a validator node.