When every number in your portfolio is green, almost any coin can look brilliant. But when the floor collapses, only a few assets keep their footing long enough for investors to see the difference between story and substance, and that’s exactly what the Oct. 10 crypto flash crash did.

A tariff headline turned into the fastest crypto market catastrophe on record, and, as always, the market’s weak spots were what snapped first. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC 1.93%), Ethereum (ETH -0.03%), and Solana (SOL -0.11%) dipped but largely held strong. Here’s why that’s a new reason to buy them.

Image source: Getty Images.

This stress test clarified the pecking order

On Oct. 10, new tariff rhetoric triggered a cascade that sent Bitcoin down roughly 12% at the lowest point, with Ethereum and Solana dropping by 15% to 30% and altcoins faring far worse, with drawdowns in excess of 70% in many cases. The move was the largest notional crypto deleveraging event ever, with more than $19 billion in leveraged positions wiped in about 24 hours.

Whereas many altcoins were shown to be nearly worthless under stress, particularly when market makers temporarily stopped supporting their liquidity, Bitcoin’s relative strength and quick stabilization afterward reflected a familiar pattern. When confidence is low, capital crowds into the asset with the strongest claim on durability, which, in this case, was Bitcoin. While its performance stopped short of being a genuine safe harbor during the flash crash, as it’s still beneath its prior highs, it’s undeniable that investors identified it as an asset with value in a time of turmoil.

Ethereum’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, meanwhile, acted like a shock absorber for the chain. Its on-chain decentralized exchanges (DEXs) absorbed massive position unwinds, while weekly DEX volume set a new record near $177 billion as risk transferred efficiently between counterparties.

To put it another way, Ethereum’s DeFi platform demonstrated value, despite the potential for significant losses within its DeFi sector. Moreover, the main Ethereum chain didn’t go down during the crash because it was overloaded, although at least one of its Layer-2 (L2) chains did. However, this isn’t a reflection on Ethereum, but rather on the L2s’ individual throughput capabilities, as they function independently.

Similarly, Solana’s performance during the collapse was even better, as its impressive throughput was put to the test. The chain stayed online while handling extraordinary load, handling thousands of transactions per second (TPS) throughout Oct. 10 and 11 to as much as six figures of TPS during the minutes at the apex of the crash. In short, Solana remained usable at the exact moment usability mattered most — and when others were buckling under the load and failing entirely.

Together, these signals indicate that these three coins are here to stay and that no matter what happens next, investors who hold them will have something that’s proven to be valuable.

How the same lesson points to the same strategy

The big new reason to buy these coins on the dip is not a new narrative so much as it is operational proof of their resilience and a validation of their chosen roles within the crypto sector.

Bitcoin’s investment thesis, namely that it’s a store-of-value, depends on retaining most of that value when fear spikes. The crash delivered that. Ethereum’s investment thesis leans on deep, interlocking DeFi markets that can self-correct under strain. Record DEX flows are exactly the fingerprints of a system doing its job. Solana’s thesis is that its throughput holds up in intense periods. The network’s behavior under maximum load was a live-fire demonstration, and it went perhaps even better than what was to be expected.

So, if you are building a position to hold for years in these assets, the allocation logic is even clearer after this test, because all three are likely undervalued at the moment. Accumulate Bitcoin on weakness as the anchor for your portfolio. Add Ethereum for its market infrastructure and cash-flowing protocols that harness activity spikes rather than fear them. And buy Solana as the high-performance growth asset.

Assuming that macroeconomic policy shocks continue to come and go, as they probably will for the next three years at a minimum, the assets that kept working under stress are the ones most likely to keep attracting the flows that matter the next time the lights flicker. Buy dips in things that did their job when it counted, then don’t let go of them the next time they’re available for cheap.