# Solana Validators With 20.3% of Stake Flagged Before Alpenglow

By Simon Yoon

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/technology/35835
Published: 2026-10-20T17:56:21.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-20T17:56:21.000Z
Section: Technology

> A Tuesday snapshot counted 151 validators. Epoch 1064 is estimated to begin Wednesday, with the consensus handoff scheduled 5,000 slots later.

Solana validators representing 20.3% of staked SOL were flagged as unprepared in a Tuesday snapshot, raising a readiness concern ahead of Alpenglow’s scheduled consensus transition Wednesday.

The snapshot counted 151 validators as of 6:59 a.m. ET (10:59 UTC) Oct. 20. It is a point-in-time tally that may change as operators complete setup, and it does not establish how much stake will remain unready at the transition.

Epoch 1064 is estimated to begin Oct. 21 at about 9:20 a.m. ET (13:20 UTC). The consensus handoff is scheduled for slot 459,653,000, 5,000 slots after the epoch begins. The estimated clock time may shift with the network’s pace.

Preparation calls for version 4.3.2 of an Agave-based client, a registered BLS public key and at least 0.8 SOL above the rent-exempt minimum in the vote account. Validators without a registered BLS key are already excluded from consensus. The first admission fee is charged at the start of epoch 1064 for participation in epoch 1065.

Alpenglow will replace TowerBFT’s voting system and targets transaction finality near 150 milliseconds, compared with about 12.8 seconds under the current system. The 150-millisecond figure is a target, not a measured result from the mainnet transition.