Institutional flows, ramping DAT adoption, and Solana’s on-chain upgrades drove price action, lifting SOL 4.06% versus ETH’s -5.68% in September.
A breakout above 0.055 could retest Q2 highs, with SOL’s dominance and sector-leading flows keeping its Q4 outperformance story intact.
September marked a predominantly bearish month for the crypto market.
VanEck reported that out of the 35 major native blockchain tokens tracked, 23 experienced a decline in value, representing a 65% share of tokens falling during the month. However, Solana [SOL] bucked the trend.
$2 billion in new stablecoins ($14.3 billion total), 60% share in tokenized stocks, and major upgrades like Alpenglow and Firedancer, fueled SOL’s strength versus Ethereum [ETH]. But can Q4 keep the momentum going?
September saw digital asset treasuries (DATs) continue their growth.
While Bitmine Immersion (BNMR) still leads with $11 billion+ in ETH, Solana is slowly catching up. In September, Forward Industries ($1.5 billion) and Helius ($500 million) went live, pushing SOL demand.
In fact, Solana DATs are now estimated to hold 2.5% of total SOL supply, with more rumored to be forming. Technically, that’s a 233%+ jump in SOL treasury holdings, up from 4.2 million at the start of September.
Ethereum DATs, by comparison, grew just 35% to 4.2 million.
Technically, Solana’s accumulation was roughly six times that of Ethereum. Still, ETH treasuries represent 3.56% of supply, which is 42% higher than SOL’s, thanks to ETH’s tighter 120.7 million supply vs. SOL’s 542 million.
This divergence matters. Tokenomics may be muting SOL’s price punch for now, but under the hood, it’s giving ETH a real run, with September clearly ramping this trend and hinting at similar outperformance in Q4.
Both Solana and Ethereum are deep in the upgrade season.
Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade passed with 99% approval, cutting block finality from 12 seconds to 150 milliseconds, while the Firedancer upgrade will remove the maximum compute unit limit per block.
It looks like institutional flows are already front-running the on-chain impact of these upgrades. Solana’s RWA sector is up 40% in the last 30 days, about 3x Ethereum’s growth, signaling growing competitive pressure.
Meanwhile, Ethereum’s scaling roadmap is entering its next phase.
The planned Fusaka upgrade in December 2025 is designed to improve Layer-2 blockchain scalability, lowering costs and supporting broader L2 adoption, which is a core part of Ethereum’s ecosystem.
But will Solana’s 2026 Alpenglow upgrade throw a wrench in the works? Right now, it’s looking likely, with SOL outperforming, RWA flows surging, and DAT adoption ramping, putting real pressure on ETH’s dominance.
Despite Solana’s inflated supply, it still outpaced Ethereum.
This shows that institutional flows and on-chain dominance are directly translating into price action.
Backing this, SOL closed September up 4.06% vs. ETH’s -5.68% dip, marking its first outperformance since the April FUD.
The result? SOL/ETH closed at 10.6%, signaling capital rotation from ETH into SOL as traders chase alpha. The 0.05 support held firm, with two higher lows forming, keeping the breakout structure intact.
No doubt, a breakout above 0.055 could send SOL/ETH back to Q2 highs.
However, with institutional flows piling into Solana and its dominance outpacing Ethereum across key sectors, the setup looks strong, keeping SOL’s Q4 outperformance versus its biggest L1 rival very much in play.
