The Firedancer validator client on Solana is finally live on mainnet after months of testnet and partial launch testing. Firedancer aims to improve transaction speeds on Solana and increase the chain’s potential to run fast decentralized apps.
Firedancer is now live on mainnet, announced by the Solana team. The new validation software has a significant impact on Solana’s transaction speed. This update has been anticipated for several months after being rolled out on testnet and adopted by a limited number of validators. Firedancer arrives after three years of development and slow rollout, and is expected to continue expanding in the coming months.
Jump Crypto’s Kevin Bowens announced the release of Firedancer during the Solana Breakpoint event in Abu Dhabi. Firedancer validators have already gained significant influence over the network’s set of validators.
BREAKING: After 3 years of development, Firedancer is now live on the Solana mainnet, running for 100 days on a small number of validators and successfully generating 50,000 blocks 🔥💃 pic.twitter.com/Y0WxxEj2WL
— Solana (@solana) December 12, 2025
Jump Crypto worked on Firedancer as an independent validator client software that is believed to help decentralize the network. Currently, validators can run the default Agave client as well as Frankendancer, Jito, Mithril, Sig, and Tinydancer.
Firedancer is our most ambitious validator, achieving up to 1 million transactions per second in our test environment. The Solana network is still awaiting the Alpenglow upgrade, which is also expected to improve consensus among validators.
Firedancer becomes the most influential Solana client
As of December 2025, Firedancer is Solana’s most influential alternative client. Most nodes still use the traditional Agave client, but the Firedancer expansion already reflects a soft launch in 2025.
Firedancer was released in a complete version and extended to validators running an incomplete Frankendancer version. |Source: Blockworks
In December 2025, we transitioned from Frankendancer to a full Firedancer client, representing over 20% of our validators.
Solana networks are currently supported. 841 The number of validators has decreased from its initial peak of more than 1,300 people. These client users include small validators as well as influential platforms like Jito, which collect a significant share of staked SOL.
Fire Dancer could spark a betting war in 2026
On Solana, validators are already competing for SOL staking, offering the best passive income terms. Solana staking is gaining importance not only to network insiders but also to traditional finance holders.
Staked SOL has the potential to provide passive income for digital government bonds. Staking ETF.
While Firedancer has seen some initial adoption and growth through early Frankendancer versions, the Solana community is expecting more drastic changes in validator selection.
Fire dancers have also been adopted with a high level of satisfaction. solana supporter And it may become one of the top stories in the coming months.
Following the news of the full mainnet launch, the SOL token barely reacted. The Firedancer client has already become one of Solana’s main stories over the past two years and has largely lost its impact on market prices.
SOL is trading at $137.61 after the recent market downturn and has yet to recover significantly.
