While price action has long dominated the cryptocurrency market, attention in 2026 is steadily shifting toward the technical foundations of blockchain networks. With Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche preparing for some of their most ambitious protocol upgrades to date, Coinbase’s layer-2 network Base activated its Beryl hard fork just last Friday. In contrast, Bitcoin developers remain deadlocked over several contentious proposals and have yet to reach consensus.
Focus shifts from speed to resilience
Tim Sun, a senior researcher at Hong Kong-based asset manager HashKey Group, explained that previous protocol upgrades have typically prioritized adding new features, speeding up transactions and boosting capacity. However, Sun observed that by 2026, the industry’s priorities are tilting towards more predictable governance, greater reliability and the development of robust, enterprise-scale infrastructure to support widespread financial use cases.
Tim Sun stresses that, looking ahead to 2026, simply adding more features is no longer the main concern; instead, reliability and institution-grade infrastructure are taking center stage.
Spotlight on Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade
Among Ethereum’s key roadmap milestones, the Glamsterdam upgrade stands out as one of this year’s most pivotal steps. Currently being tested on developer networks, it is expected to roll out to the mainnet in the second half of 2026. Planned changes include improved scalability, reinforcement of the layer-1 base, and a streamlined user experience aimed at simplifying network usage.
Sun noted that the upgrade could enable higher transaction throughput, expand data capacity, and reduce database bloat. The overarching goal is to make Ethereum a more favorable environment for stablecoin settlements and on-chain use of real-world assets.
Holly Atkinson, chief product and technology officer at 1inch, described Glamsterdam as Ethereum’s most significant upgrade since The Merge in September 2022. One highlight is ePBS—short for enshrined proposer builder separation—a structure aimed at making block creation and proposal processes more transparent. However, RuleSpark founder Pavan Kaur cautioned that while this step might help, it will not eradicate maximal extractable value (MEV) issues altogether, as some harmful practices may simply adapt and persist in new forms.
Mini glossary: ePBS stands for enshrined proposer builder separation. It aims to clarify the distinction within the protocol between validators who propose blocks and entities that build their content, with the objective of minimizing concentration in transaction sequencing.
Solana and Base aim for lightning-fast confirmations
On the Solana front, the Alpenglow upgrade is the year’s most significant development. After receiving strong backing in governance votes in September 2025, Alpenglow is still under development and slated for release in the latter half of 2026 alongside the Agave 4.1 validator client. This system will replace the current TowerBFT mechanism with an innovative voting component named Votor.
One of the most concrete impacts is a dramatic reduction in transaction finality time. The goal is to bring finality down to between 100 and 150 milliseconds under optimal network conditions, compared to the present average of approximately 12.8 seconds. The upgrade also targets reducing network load by removing on-chain voting operations, ultimately improving validator communication efficiency.
| Network | Upgrade | Key objective |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum | Glamsterdam | Scalability and stronger layer 1 |
| Solana | Alpenglow | Cut finality time to 100–150 ms |
| Base | Beryl | Reduce withdrawal time from 7 to 5 days |
| Avalanche | Post-Etna L1 model | Lower custom chain setup cost by over 99% |
Elsewhere, Base deployed its Beryl hard fork following a brief sequencer outage that paused block production for about two hours due to an invalid block. Jesse Pollak, one of Base’s co-founders, emphasized that users’ assets remained unaffected by the disruption, but acknowledged the downtime was unacceptable and added that lessons learned will help reinforce Base as a round-the-clock global financial platform.
Jesse Pollak underscores that user funds were secure during the incident, but says Base recognizes the network pause was not acceptable and is using this experience to guide technical improvements.
According to Base documentation, the Beryl hard fork introduces the B20 native token standard, shortens withdrawal finality from seven days to five, and implements the Reth V2 integration. These updates are expected to decrease node storage requirements and enhance execution efficiency.
Avalanche goes institutional, Bitcoin debates persist
On Avalanche, there is less focus on a single named hard fork and more on sweeping changes to attract enterprise users and boost performance. According to Sun, the Etna hard fork replaced the legacy subnet model with a system of sovereign Avalanche L1 chains, slashing the startup cost for launching a private blockchain by over 99%. He also highlighted that Progmat, which he says represents about 63% of Japan’s security token market, recently moved more than $2 billion in tokenized assets to a dedicated Avalanche L1 chain.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, stands apart from rival networks. Its main challenges in 2026 are not scheduled upgrades but debates over whether to make the protocol more programmable or to strengthen it against quantum computing threats. Proposals like OP_CAT, CTV and Lightning-focused LNHANCE—each associated with covenants and programmability—remain under discussion but lack an agreed activation path. Proposals such as BIP 360 and similar efforts to ease the shift to quantum-resistant spending methods are also still on the table without a clear consensus.
