Cryptocurrency

Solana Beat Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP Over the Month and Lost to All Three This Week. One of Those Streaks Is About to End.

Solana dominated its rivals over the past month but got crushed the same week its biggest upgrade went live. Two competing streaks cannot both survive October, and the clock is running out for one of them.

By Sam Daodu
Published October 12, 2026, 1:00pm ET · 3 min read

The Crypto Desk desk. Editor: Sam Daodu.

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Solana (SOL)
© Rcc_Btn / Shutterstock.com

Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) showed impressive growth over the past 30 days, gaining 9.9%. This outperformed Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) at 8.0%, XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) at 2.6%, and Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) at 1.1%. However, the situation reversed over the past week. Solana fell 8.2%, the largest drop among the four, while XRP fell 7.7%, Ethereum 6.4%, and Bitcoin 3.2%.

Solana trades at $111, up 1.9% in the past 24 hours. While these figures overlap significantly, they reveal contrasting trends. Which trend is more reliable, and which may change first?

Solana’s Network Upgrade Gave Holders a Talking Point

Solana SOL stablecoin cryptocurrency golden coin in hand abstract concept

Skorzewiak / Shutterstock.com

Many holders credit Solana’s strong month to a recent network upgrade. On October 10, Solana reduced its block times to just 200 milliseconds, making it the fastest major blockchain. Block time refers to how quickly the network adds new entries to its ledger, the official record of all transactions. Faster block times let trades and payments settle more quickly for exchanges, payment apps, and trading bots on Solana.

While this upgrade is a major talking point for holders, price increases still require ongoing buyer demand; faster block times alone cannot create it. The upgrade’s timing and the monthly gains overlap but do not necessarily indicate a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

Additionally, Solana’s 9.9% monthly gain is only modestly ahead of Bitcoin’s 8.0% gain. Although it outperformed Ethereum and XRP by a wider margin, the competition with Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by trading volume, is tight. Overall, the crypto market trended slightly upward, with Solana leading this month but only by a small margin.

Solana Fell Hardest the Same Week Its Upgrade Went Live

A glowing white Solana logo, featuring three horizontal bars above the text 'SOLANA', is centered on a dark blue and purple abstract background. A bright, wavy white line, representing a financial graph, surges upwards from the lower left to the upper right, terminating in a prominent upward-pointing arrow.

Creativa Images / Shutterstock.com

Notably, Solana posted the largest drop among the four major cryptocurrencies during the week of its network upgrade. Holders who anticipated the upgrade still saw their investment decline relative to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP.

Recent fund flows suggest the selling may have come from more than just small traders reacting to the news. Solana funds, which let investors gain exposure to SOL without buying the coin directly, saw outflows on six of the seven trading days in October. This consistent trend suggests a more deliberate pullback rather than sporadic selling.

Liquidity Explains Both of Solana’s Trends

Viewed from behind, a man with dark hair, glasses, and a blue collared shirt sits at a desk in a dim office. He is focused on two computer screens; a large desktop monitor and a laptop display vibrant, detailed financial charts with line graphs showing market fluctuations and extensive data. The setting suggests late-night or early-morning trading, emphasizing diligent market observation.

insta_photos / Shutterstock.com

Both Solana’s recent streaks can be traced back to liquidity, which measures how easily large orders can be executed without affecting the price. Compared to Bitcoin, whose market has a deeper pool of buyers, Solana has less liquidity. When buyers pull back, Solana’s price drops more sharply because fewer bids are available to support it. Conversely, when buyers return, Solana’s price can rise faster for the same reason. This dynamic explains why Solana outperformed Bitcoin in a rising market but fell harder when the market turned.

For context, Solana is currently 62.0% below its all-time high and would need to multiply by 2.6 to reach that peak again. The latest month’s gains and recent drops have only slightly changed the distance from its all-time high.

Which Solana Trend Is Likely to Change First?

Currently, Solana’s 30-day lead over Bitcoin seems most likely to end. The lead is narrow, and the recent poor performance now factors into the 30-day calculations, while earlier gains will soon drop off as the timeframe progresses. Furthermore, significant outflows on six of the seven trading days suggest the money supporting Solana’s lead is exiting. The recent 1.9% bounce in 24 hours is too small to suggest a significant turnaround.

If Bitcoin maintains its stronger performance, as suggested by a 3.2% drop over the past week, Solana’s lead could diminish. The critical observation period ends on October 31. If Solana’s 30-day performance still surpasses Bitcoin’s by then, and inflows return to Solana funds in the remaining days of October, we may need to rethink our view and treat the recent downturn as a temporary pause. However, if outflows continue, the monthly lead is likely to fade along with them.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

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Sam Daodu

Sam Daodu is a crypto analyst who's spent nearly a decade making blockchain understandable—no easy task when most whitepapers read like fever dreams. He writes for 24/7 Wall St., covering Bitcoin, altcoins, and crypto market analysis for investors. Before crypto, he was a tech writer (back when explaining "the cloud" was peak innovation). Since 2018, he's written for CoinTelegraph, Yahoo Finance, The Block, Cryptonews, Zypto, Rain, and more—basically anywhere people want crypto news without the headache. Sam runs MacLabs Marketing, a content agency for crypto brands tired of sounding like AI wrote their website. He also publishes free crypto education on his site for Web3 enthusiasts who think "gas fees" is a typo. When he's not writing or staring at charts, Sam's either: - Watching anime (currently convinced One Piece has better tokenomics than most altcoins) - At the gym sculpting himself into a Greek god - Listening to the music your mum warned you only bad boys listen to Connect: LinkedIn | Email | MacLabs Marketing

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