On October 10, 2025, crypto markets experienced their largest liquidation event in history. A whopping $19.5 billion was liquidated across all markets with approximately $1 trillion in total market cap wiped out. Binance halted trading. Ethereum Layer 2s lagged. Arbitrum fees spiked above $500, with median fees jumping to $116. The entire ecosystem was under unprecedented stress.
This was the ultimate real-world test of mission-critical infrastructure.
Less than a year after we dramatically improved Fireblocks’ Solana performance during the Trump meme coin surge, the October 10th liquidation event provided validation of everything we built. Not only did our infrastructure hold, but it excelled, proving that enterprise-grade blockchain operations can handle maximum stress when it matters most.
When Markets Panic, Infrastructure Must Stay Calm
During the liquidation cascade, Solana processed the chaos without breaking stride. Validators processed 100,000 transactions per second (TPS) of inbound traffic (6x normal peak traffic) while maintaining 400-millisecond block times. The network sustained 6,000 raw TPS throughout the event with validators processing transactions with zero payment interruptions.
For Fireblocks customers, the platform handled a 200% increase in Solana traffic with zero customer impact and 100% first-attempt transaction success. This is proof that corporate payments can run on Solana even when markets are in crisis.
The Numbers That Matter: Digital Asset Infrastructure Performance Under Pressure
Let’s look at what happened to the metrics that matter most during stress events:
- Transaction Landing Rate: 100% – No change from baseline. Every transaction succeeded on the first attempt, with no retries needed despite the massive surge in network activity.
- Broadcasting Speed: 23ms (P50) – Fireblocks’ median time to broadcast a signed transaction remained unchanged at 23 milliseconds, even as transaction volume spiked 2x. This broadcasting speed also represents a significant improvement from the previous median time of 47ms in March 2025.
- Time to notify about a completed transaction: 2 seconds – Consistent throughout the event. Fireblocks’ ability to process and notify about confirmed transactions not only maintained baseline performance during the event, but also showed a 3-second improvement since March 2025.
Transaction Fees: The Real Story
Here’s where Solana’s architecture truly shines. While there was fee variability, median transaction costs remained under a penny.
Compare this to what happened elsewhere:
- Ethereum saw fee spikes of 3,000x
- Arbitrum fees exceeded $500 per transaction at the peak
- Many Layer 2 solutions experienced significant delays
Even during the most congested 20-minute window, Solana transactions on Fireblocks cost less than one cent. When you’re processing treasury operations or payment rails during a market crisis, the difference between $0.007 and $300 is the difference between operational continuity and complete gridlock.
Redundancy in Action: Why Multi-Node Architecture Matters
During the October 10th event, some of Fireblocks’ node vendors experienced increased error rates. In February, this would have been a problem. However, because we re-built our infrastructure, multiple node providers and active-active routing mechanisms now monitor error rates and select only the best nodes to send transactions to. This means our transaction success rate wasn’t affected at all.
This is what enterprise-grade infrastructure looks like: when one path encounters friction, traffic seamlessly routes to optimal nodes with zero impact to customers. No retries. No delays. No compromises.
The Infrastructure Improvements That Made the Difference
The performance Fireblocks delivered on October 10th was the direct result of foundational improvements we made following the January stress test:
- Multiple node providers with active-active routing, ensuring traffic flows to the most efficient path
- Stake-weighted QoS, prioritizing transactions intelligently to maintain 100% first-attempt success
- Enhanced error identification, providing real-time visibility when issues arise
- Dynamic fee calculation, optimizing for both speed and cost even during congestion
Why This Matters for Enterprise Blockchain Adoption
Financial institutions evaluating blockchain infrastructure need to answer one critical question: will this work when I need it most?
October 10th provided a definitive answer. When markets are volatile, when liquidity is scarce, when every second matters, Solana and Fireblocks deliver:
- Sub-penny transaction costs during peak congestion
- Zero payment interruptions across the entire event
- 100% transaction success with no retries
- Consistent performance metrics matching baseline operations
This is what enterprise treasury operations require. Not theoretical throughput numbers or best-case scenarios, but proven performance under maximum real-world stress.
And the work continues. We’re constantly investing in infrastructure improvements, additional redundancy, and enhanced capabilities to ensure Fireblocks customers can operate with confidence regardless of market conditions.
As stablecoin adoption accelerates and enterprises integrate blockchain into core financial operations, they need battle-tested solutions that provide security, speed, and operational resilience. October 10th proved that Fireblocks and Solana deliver exactly that.
Huge kudos to the Fireblocks engineering teams who built the infrastructure that made this possible, and to the Solana Foundation for their continued partnership and ecosystem support.
Request a demo to see how Fireblocks can support your enterprise blockchain operations.
