What happened?
According to CoinDesk data, bitcoin hovered around the $80,000 mark and added roughly 9% over the past week. Solana rose even more sharply, by about 20% on the week, leading gains among the large tokens (majors). Per CoinDesk, every major token except HYPE strengthened over the past 24 hours. [1]
A small note on the figure: The Defiant reported that bitcoin traded above $80,000 on Thursday, while CoinDesk describes it as holding that level. [1][3] The exact value moved around that mark throughout the day, so treat $80,000 as a rough reference band rather than a fixed closing price.
Why did Solana, Avalanche and Chainlink rally specifically?
The immediate trigger was the Charles Schwab news. The financial giant told clients it would expand the list of tokens available in Schwab Crypto accounts to include Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) and Chainlink (LINK). [3][4]
Schwab only launched direct crypto trading for retail clients in May and until now had offered only bitcoin and ether. [3][4] The expansion thus gives three new tokens access to a large retail brokerage platform. According to The Defiant, this trio of tokens outperformed the rest of the market. [3]
It is a familiar pattern: when an asset comes within reach of a new group of buyers (in this case clients of an established brokerage), the market reacts with a short-term rally. Whether this turns into more lasting demand cannot be determined from today's data.
What is Jackson Hole and why does it matter?
Jackson Hole is an annual economic symposium where central bankers speak. According to CoinDesk, the market was looking ahead to Kevin Warsh's debut at the event. [1] Speeches by central bank heads tend to be a sensitive moment for riskier assets, including crypto, because investors read them for signals about the future direction of monetary policy.
An important distinction: the fact that the market's rise chronologically precedes Warsh's appearance does not mean the appearance will cause it, or that the market reaction will be positive. Neither the content of the speech nor the market's reaction is known yet from the available sources.
The hidden question in the background: does anyone still pay for native tokens?
Running in parallel is a debate captured by CryptoSlate. On August 25, developer Matt Corallo built on his earlier post and pointed to a phenomenon that more and more stablecoin users are seeing: apps that bypass native tokens like ETH and SOL. [2]
A wallet today can let a user receive and send USDC without ever showing a native token balance. [2] But behind that interface, someone still has to pay the network fee (gas) in an asset the network accepts. That could be the app itself, a so-called paymaster, a sponsor or an infrastructure provider. [2]
Why does this relate to today's SOL rally? Because the debate cuts to the core of the matter: if the end user no longer directly needs the native token, it raises the question of who funds operations, manages fee balances and bears the price volatility. [2] A rising price reacts to short-term demand (say, via Schwab), whereas Corallo's question concerns long-term structural demand for the token. These are two different things, and it is only fair not to conflate them.
Overview of the key figures
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin, level | around $80,000 | [1][3] |
| Bitcoin, weekly change | roughly +9% | [1] |
| Solana, weekly change | roughly +20% | [1] |
| New tokens at Schwab | SOL, AVAX, LINK | [3][4] |
| Schwab Crypto launch | May (BTC, ETH) | [3][4] |
What to watch out for with news like this
An announcement about adding a token to a large platform tends to be a short-term catalyst. The open question with this type of news usually remains: exactly when trading will actually go live, under what conditions, and whether the initial rally will hold once the news fades. These details are not yet known from the available sources.