Crypto industry advances with blockchain upgrades and expanding institutional Bitcoin adoption

Ethereum is preparing its largest upgrade since The Merge, dubbed Glamsterdam, slated for the second half of 2026. The update will increase transaction throughput, improve data handling and introduce enshrined Proposer‑Builder Separation to curb centralisation. Solana aims to roll out the Alpenglow upgrade, revamping its consensus mechanism to cut transaction finality to roughly 100‑150 ms and eliminate on‑chain voting. Base, the Coinbase‑backed layer‑2, has already deployed the Beryl upgrade, adding the B20 token standard and improving node efficiency. Avalanche is targeting institutional users with its Streaming Asynchronous Execution technology, lowering costs and speeding up processing after the earlier Etna upgrade, and has already attracted over $2 billion in tokenised assets.

At the same time, large financial firms that once dismissed Bitcoin are now generating revenue from crypto products. BlackRock launched a spot Bitcoin ETF (iShares Bitcoin Trust) after former CEO Larry Fink previously called Bitcoin a money‑laundering tool. Citadel’s founder Ken Griffin admitted his earlier skepticism and his firm is now exploring crypto trading. Other banks and asset managers are developing blockchain‑based services for institutional clients, reflecting growing demand for crypto exposure.