Solana (SOL) climbed above $110 this week, breaking a resistance level that had constrained the coin for several weeks. The cryptocurrency reached $120 during its latest rally, marking Solana’s highest price point in roughly eight months and reinforcing renewed bullish sentiment around the project.
Next resistance and support levels
Following the breakout, technical analysts have identified $133 as the next significant resistance zone for SOL. Market participants are watching this level closely as a potential target, contingent on both continued momentum in Solana and a sustained recovery in Bitcoin‘s price.
Relative to Bitcoin, Solana has shown improved strength. Technical reviews highlight that the SOL/BTC pair still has room to appreciate before facing notable resistance.
The nearest support areas for SOL now stand at $111.06 and $107.40. Defending these levels is critical to maintaining the current bullish structure. If Solana falls below $107.40, this could indicate that the recent rally has peaked, potentially shifting the trend downward.
| Level | Price | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate resistance | $133 | Next upside target |
| Support | $111.06 | Short-term defense |
| Critical support | $107.40 | Bullish structure at risk below |
Analyst commentary and technical signals
Ash Crypto, a prominent market analyst, assessed on X (formerly Twitter) that SOL’s technical setup is among the strongest in the broader altcoin sector. He underscored that Solana has reclaimed its 200-day moving average on the weekly timeframe and achieved a price of $120 for the first time in eight months, with a weekly golden cross pattern emerging in charts. A golden cross occurs when a shorter-term moving average crosses above a long-term moving average, often viewed as a bullish indicator.
According to Ash Crypto, the combination of these signals indicates Solana could have completed its bear-market bottom, although he did not specify short-term price targets.
Analysts maintain that $133 remains the key zone to monitor. If SOL sustains its momentum and overcomes this barrier, the rally that began after clearing $110 could extend further.
Alpenglow upgrade enters public testnet
Alongside recent market gains, Solana’s network is progressing with a major protocol enhancement called Alpenglow. This upgrade is designed to cut transaction finality times from approximately 12.8 seconds to only 150 milliseconds—a significant step in enhancing blockchain transaction efficiency.
Transaction finality refers to the point at which a blockchain transaction is permanently and irreversibly confirmed, ensuring network security against reversal or double-spending.
Alpenglow replaces Solana’s current TowerBFT consensus mechanism with a new system known as Votor, allowing validators to confirm blocks after just one or two voting cycles. This contrasts with the previous protocol, which required multiple on-chain voting rounds to reach finality.
The new mechanism has already undergone over four months of stress-testing on a separate network and has now entered Solana’s public testnet stage for broader evaluation.
Participating validators are required to use Agave 4.3, the latest main Solana client software. Developer group Anza recommended mainnet validators prepare for this upgrade on September 21. At present, the Firedancer and Frankendancer validator clients do not support Alpenglow testing, so testnet activities center exclusively on the Agave client.
Anza’s current roadmap suggests September 28 as a potential date to activate Agave 4.3 on mainnet. However, this does not guarantee an immediate Alpenglow deployment, as further public testing will continue.
Mini dictionary: Alpenglow, a network upgrade for Solana, aims to boost transaction speed by reducing finality times to under one second using a new voting protocol called Votor, replacing the former TowerBFT system.
