Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) Funds Lose $1.25 Billion in Five Sessions

U.S. spot funds for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) shed $1.25 billion over five trading sessions, as separate network and custody milestones come into focus for October.

The five U.S. trading sessions from Oct. 5 through Oct. 9 produced $678.9 million in withdrawals from Bitcoin funds, $542.2 million from Ether funds and $25.0 million from Solana funds. Together, the figures equal $1.2461 billion, or $1.25 billion rounded. The Solana result extends earlier coverage of October withdrawals from Solana ETFs. The period tracks trading sessions, not five consecutive calendar days.

Alpenglow is Solana’s consensus upgrade, changing how validators agree on blocks and mark them final. Its stated aim is to bring transaction finality to roughly 150 milliseconds, compared with about 12.8 seconds under TowerBFT. Finality marks the point at which a block is treated as settled; the upgrade focuses on consensus while transaction execution, programs and fees remain unchanged. Mainnet activation remains pending, so the 150-millisecond figure is a target rather than a recorded result.

Chainlink (LINK) rolled out CCIP 2.0 on Sept. 28, adding configurable options for cross-chain transfers. Users can set up independent transaction verifiers, adjust confirmation requirements and apply compliance controls. The features can be configured individually, so the available safeguards need not be identical for every transfer.

On Oct. 12, Standard Chartered announced that its institutional custody service for Ripple USD (RLUSD), a stablecoin issued on the XRP Ledger, was live through its DIFC branch. The Dubai Financial Services Authority regulates the branch. Standard Chartered, Ripple and LMAX Group have also planned an arrangement that would make RLUSD eligible collateral for certain products. That arrangement remains dependent on documentation, testing, legal and regulatory requirements, internal approvals and jurisdictional readiness.

Waqar Chaudry, Global Head of Digital Assets, Securities Services, Transaction Services at Standard Chartered, said the broader ecosystem should help clients “access liquidity and deploy collateral efficiently within trusted frameworks.” The next dated milestone is Solana’s expected Alpenglow mainnet activation Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 11 a.m. ET (15:00 UTC).