This October, capital flows appear to favour Bitcoin, even amidst the prevailing risk-off sentiment. Technically, this indicates that capital is not flowing into altcoins as the conventional fear rotation would imply. Ethereum dominance declined by 5% this month, while Bitcoin dominance rose by 2.5%, indicating a distinct shift in market preference toward BTC. Then, what does this suggest about the momentum between SOL and ETH? The ratio experienced an increase exceeding 11% over the past two months; however, it has since declined by more than 2.3% in the current month. Thus, Solana appears to struggle in making substantial progress against Ethereum, even in light of the latter’s relative weakness. Moreover, the ratio currently faces resistance at the pivotal level of 0.05. That said, on-chain data presents a contrasting narrative. Data indicates that Ethereum has recorded approximately 28 million transactions this month, in contrast to over 6 billion transactions on Solana.
The primary conclusion to draw from this analysis is as follows: Solana is averaging nearly 1,500 transactions per second in 2026, which is almost 8 times BNB Chain’s throughput and around 60 times Ethereum’s, underscoring the network’s edge in transaction throughput. Notably, this divergence is starting to manifest in social sentiment. Data indicates that Solana has surpassed Ethereum in terms of social engagements, recording 29.7 million engagements in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum garnered 28.91 million. Furthermore, Solana has surpassed Ethereum in terms of Creator Activity, boasting 24.4k creators in contrast to Ethereum’s 23k. This indicates an increasing social interest in SOL, despite its relatively weak price momentum compared to ETH. The key question is: Why is the market still betting on the SOL/ETH setup despite capital flows favouring Bitcoin and ETH demonstrating better price momentum than Solana? High transaction activity can generate fees, providing an economic dimension to the comparison of such activities.
Solana’s Monthly Fees have approached approximately $20 million in recent months, with October already documenting $15 million. Ethereum generated approximately $8 million in fees over the comparable October period. However, the supply implications necessitated a more thorough examination. Solana has executed a burn of fifty percent of its Base Fees, with validators retaining the entirety of the Priority Fees. Higher total fees, therefore, presented an incomplete supply picture. The accompanying Blockworks chart indicates that Solana’s Burn Rate stands at 2.2%, marking its peak since early 2025. That reading alone did not demonstrate that SOL’s supply was contracting or that burns surpassed new issuance.
Meanwhile, the staking dynamics of Ethereum are adding another layer to the SOL/ETH setup. ValidatorQueue reports that ETH’s entry queue has decreased from 3 million in early May to 1.23 million. Simultaneously, the exit queue has escalated from approximately 103,000 to more than 1 million, indicating a decline in demand for new staking deposits and a notable increase in the number of validators poised to unstake their ETH. In summary, the SOL/ETH ratio indicates a divergence characterised by a constricting supply juxtaposed with a prudent market demand. If this trend persists, Solana’s escalating burn rate alongside Ethereum’s expanding staking exit queue may enhance SOL’s relative performance and potentially pave the way for a breakout above the 0.05 threshold.
