Coinbase Boosts Solana Infrastructure, Cuts Latency 75%

Coinbase has recently announced significant upgrades to its Solana infrastructure, addressing ongoing issues with outages and bottlenecks that have plagued its users throughout the year. The improvements, implemented on April 17, 2025, are aimed at enhancing the speed, resilience, and scalability of Solana (SOL) transfers on both the Coinbase centralized exchange and the Coinbase Wallet.

The upgrades include the ability to process transactions asynchronously, allowing the exchange to handle multiple transaction blocks simultaneously. This change has led to a fivefold improvement in block processing throughput. Additionally, Coinbase has transitioned to using bare-metal machines, which means its infrastructure now runs on dedicated hardware rather than relying on cloud services. This shift has resulted in significant enhancements in latency and network stability, with a fourfold improvement in remote procedure call performance. This performance metric refers to the communication between Coinbase's applications and the Solana blockchain network.

The announcement comes after Coinbase faced backlash from users in January due to technical issues. Multiple users reported slow transaction speeds, with some transactions taking multiple hours to complete. Despite Solana being one of the fastest blockchains, with transactions typically taking seconds, users experienced significant delays. Coinbase's CEO, Brian Armstrong, acknowledged these issues, highlighting the need for infrastructure improvements.

This is not the first time Coinbase has encountered technical difficulties. In February 2024, the exchange faced a major outage due to a surge in volume after Bitcoin reached $64,000. A month later, another technical issue occurred, coinciding with a price surge in Solana. These incidents underscore the challenges Coinbase has faced in maintaining a reliable and efficient trading environment for its users.

The recent upgrades to Coinbase's Solana infrastructure are a direct response to these challenges. By addressing the issues of slow transactions and network instability, Coinbase aims to provide a more seamless and efficient experience for its users. The transition to asynchronous transaction processing and the use of dedicated hardware are significant steps towards achieving this goal. These improvements are expected to enhance the overall performance and reliability of Solana transfers on the Coinbase platform, ensuring a better user experience moving forward.