Solana (SOL) and Chainlink (LINK) are gaining traction as institutions diversify beyond Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP (XRP), according to Altcoin Daily. Solana regained the top spot in daily tokenized equity trading volume with a 34% market share, surpassing BNB Chain. The network also secured a partnership with Samsung to enable USDC (USDC) transfers on 82 million US Galaxy devices starting late October. Austin Federa, a former Solana Foundation executive, noted that transaction finality times have already improved significantly, with the upcoming Alpenglow upgrade aiming to reduce finality time to as low as 150 milliseconds by year-end or early next year.
Chainlink (LINK) reported 40 new integrations across 24 partners in September, including Coinbase (COIN), Infosys (INFY), Paxos, and Circle (CRCL). This steady, institution-friendly growth aligns with what large allocators tend to favor over flashier projects. Ethereum (ETH) also received a major signal when Swift, which processes hundreds of millions of transactions daily, chose it to build a tokenized ledger using Hyperledger Besu, a permissioned private version of Ethereum. Although this doesn't directly benefit ETH holders yet, Altcoin Daily sees it as an early step toward deeper integration.
Altcoin Daily also highlighted Bittensor (TAO), noting Grayscale's filing for a spot Bittensor ETF late last year, and Hyperliquid as a platform designed for high-throughput trading of financial assets on-chain, unlike Solana's general-purpose design. Regarding the broader market, Altcoin Daily’s bear case for the next cycle sits around $6 trillion, with a base case of $10 to $12 trillion. Under this scenario, Bitcoin could take 50% to 70% of total market share, implying a price range of $180,000 to $250,000, with altcoins absorbing the rest.