Solana Blockchain Resumes Operations After Major Outage

Solana's blockchain has resumed processing transactions following a significant disruption that halted operations for approximately five hours on Tuesday, according to a network status report.

The outage commenced around 9:52 AM GMT when the network ceased producing transaction blocks.

Promptly acknowledging the issue, the Solana team announced that engineers were actively working on restoring service.

In order to bring the network back online, developers deployed a new software patch designed to address the problem, successfully restarting operations around 2:47 PM GMT. The network reboot coincided with the progress bar on the dashboard reaching the 80% threshold, signaling a resumption in gossip between active validators—a key aspect of Solana's communication protocol utilized for data transmission when the blockchain is functioning normally.

The Solana Beach dashboard, which provides insights into Solana metrics, also confirms that the network is once again operational.

Regarding the cause of the outage, it has not been publicly disclosed as of yet.

"Core contributors are currently investigating the root cause, and a report will be issued upon completion," stated the Solana team via its official X account. Notably, Solana's native coin SOL experienced a 4% dip during the network downtime.

While Solana has encountered various network issues over the past three years, today's disruption interrupted an almost year-long streak of uninterrupted service for the blockchain.

The previous network pause occurred on February 25, 2023, lasting nearly two days due to a surge in transactions associated with a viral NFT mint that overwhelmed the network.

Tuesday's outage coincides with a significant resurgence for Solana, with its DeFi market size increasing fivefold to $1.7 billion since October of the previous year.

This growth has largely been fueled by speculation surrounding airdrops and meme coins, leading to a substantial migration of liquidity from other blockchains, including Ethereum.