Jito has upgraded its Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM) on Solana, reducing bundle submission delays by approximately 50 milliseconds. Early results from the upgrade, announced October 13, 2026, show a 72% increase in average rewards for each successful bundle submitted to the network.
Technical adjustments behind the upgrade
A bundle is a package of transactions submitted together for inclusion in a block, typically with a tip attached for the validator who includes it. BAM serves as the marketplace where bundles compete for block space.
The upgrade came in response to Solana's reduction of target slot times to 200 milliseconds at Epoch 1053 on October 9, 2026. BAM tightened its auction intervals from 25 milliseconds to 20 milliseconds to align with the network's accelerated pace.
Jito has also addressed performance issues over recent weeks, fixing kernel delays that previously ranged from 90 to 330 milliseconds. These improvements contributed to a 15.5% increase in BAM tips per block.
BAM's expansion on Solana
BAM launched on mainnet on September 25, 2025, as a modular and verifiable block-building framework using Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs)—isolated hardware zones designed to run code privately and verifiably.
By the end of Epoch 1050, BAM had attracted 385 validators and 164 million SOL in delegated stake, representing approximately 37% of Solana's total stake. FireBAM added roughly 7.3 million SOL from 12 additional validators.
Upcoming maintenance period
Solana's Alpenglow consensus upgrade is expected in mid-to-late October 2026. BAM nodes will enter maintenance mode ahead of the upgrade, during which bundle processing will continue but validators will temporarily revert to the traditional Jito-Agave Block Engine. Features including Multi-Packet Processing and Dynamic Block Incentives will be paused during the transition.
Implications for validators and the network
Higher average rewards per successful bundle and the 15.5% increase in tips per block mean greater revenue for validators using BAM infrastructure. With approximately 37% of Solana's stake running through BAM and FireBAM combined, the framework now exerts significant influence over transaction ordering on the network.
Key metrics to watch include how quickly BAM nodes resume operations after the consensus upgrade, whether the 72% reward improvement persists under new consensus rules, and whether validator and stake participation continue climbing beyond Epoch 1050 levels.
