Solana has introduced a new update, v1.17.31, for its mainnet beta validators to tackle the current congestion issues on the Solana network. This update has resulted in a surge in SOL price and open interest.

Solana Network Faces Congestion Woes

The Solana network has experienced recent congestion issues, causing 75% of transactions to be delayed or unsuccessful. This has negatively impacted the prices and sentiments of Solana ecosystem tokens.

Solana Releases Update to Resolve Network Congestion

On April 15, Solana Status announced the release of v1.17.31 for the Solana network's mainnet update. Mainnet Beta validators must install this update to prevent further congestion issues. This stable release includes enhancements to alleviate the ongoing congestion on the Solana Network.

Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana's co-founder, mentioned that a major release typically takes around 30 patch releases.

Key Changes in the Update

The mainnet update includes several changes, such as displaying staked vs nonstaked packets sent and throttled, using smallvec to aggregate chunks for QUIC, a BankingStage Forwarding Filter, and tightening the minimal streams per 100ms for staked nodes. Additionally, the update treats super low staked nodes as unstaked in the streamer QOS and sets the default staked client in LocalCluster.

Anza, a Solana-focused devshop, has also deployed v1.18.11 to devnet to address recurrent congestion issues on the Solana chain. The primary concern identified is the QUIC implementation and the behavior of the Agave validator client. Anza plans to release v1.18 for further enhancements to address congestion issues.

SOL Price and Ecosystem Tokens' Prices Rebound

Following the updates, SOL price has increased by 15% from its 24-hour low of $133.79 to a high of $156. Solana has recovered nearly 35% from $116 during the crypto market crash last week. Trading volume remains low, suggesting possible buying from whales and big investors.

Solana futures open interest has also jumped by more than 6% in the last 4 hours and over 3% in 1 hour, indicating massive buying by derivatives traders. The total SOL futures open interests across exchanges have risen to $2.14 billion.

Whales Withdraw Solana from Binance

On-chain platform Lookonchain reported that whales withdrew nearly $3 million worth of Solana from Binance to buy Solana meme coins MEW and SLERF as the broader crypto market shows signs of recovery.