Last updated: October 2026
The December heating oil contract settled at $4.7315 a gallon on Monday. At that price, a 275-gallon fill runs $1,301.16.
The same fill cost $602.83 on October 20 last year. That $698 gap is the only number in this week’s market coverage that changes what happens on Railroad Avenue.
Quick Answer: Brent crude’s December contract closed at $109.21 a barrel on Oct. 19, 2026, after printing $110.69 intraday, the highest intraday level since May 20. Bitcoin traded near $82,100, up about 1% since Sept. 4, while ethereum sat near $2,410, down about 4%. Heating oil settled at $4.7315 a gallon, 115.8% above last year’s $2.1921, which puts a 275-gallon fill at $1,301.16 against $602.83 a year ago.
What did the $RIP ledger do while oil ran?
Nothing. While traders repriced a barrel, our own token sat still. The Ripsaw Token mint at KCtkoQysUHvmFFUmngTC3BFxPunHWgHHzFmGeDVTLPF has 220 signatures in its full history, and the most recent landed Oct. 1 at 16:36 UTC. That is 18 days of silence on a token whose first recorded transaction is Dec. 22, 2025.
A quiet chain is not a broken one. Supply reads 997,206,879.64043409 tokens across 64 accounts, 56 of them funded. Both the mint authority and the freeze authority return null, so no new tokens can be created and no holder account can be frozen.
The Oct. 1 activity was housekeeping, not trading. We pulled both transactions through Solana’s JSON-RPC and read the instructions: burnChecked and closeAccount calls on token fractions, with no transfers between wallets. The monthly signature counts run 63 in December, 105 in January, 32 in February, 8 in March, then single digits every month after. September had zero.
Does a quiet mint mean the tipping system is down?
No. Servers hold their own wallets, and a customer’s transfer settles whether or not the token moved on an exchange that hour. See also: how the $RIP ledger is verified.
How much does a tank of heating oil cost in Prentice right now?
December heating oil settled at $4.7315 a gallon Monday, down from $4.8991 on Friday. A 275-gallon fill, the standard residential tank size, prices at $1,301.16 before delivery fees and tank charges.
The annual number matters more than the daily one. The same continuous heating oil series closed at $2.1921 on Oct. 20, 2025. That is a 115.8% increase in twelve months, and it turns a $602.83 fill into a $1,301.16 one. On a 275-gallon tank, the most common residential size in this part of Wisconsin, that is the whole argument.
What was the high point this year?
Heating oil peaked at $5.262 a gallon on Sept. 15, 2026. At that price the same fill cost $1,447.05. Monday’s settlement sits 10.1% below the peak and still 115.8% above last October.
Why the daily move matters less than the annual one
Monday’s 3.4% decline sounds like relief. On 275 gallons it saves $46 against Friday’s settlement. The year-over-year change costs $698. Budget for the second number.
What happened to Brent on October 19?
Brent’s December contract settled at $109.21, down 0.59% from Friday’s $109.86. The session high was $110.69, the strongest intraday print since May 20, when it touched $111.50.
The high came early and the settle came soft. OilPrice.com ran the headline Monday: “Oil Prices Slip as Trump-Putin Diesel Deal Raises Supply Hopes.” Traders read a diesel arrangement as more distillate coming, and distillate is what heats a house here.
Supply fear set the high, and supply relief took the edge off. A barrel at $109 is not a headline number in Prentice. It is the reason a delivery ticket doubled.
Why is Brent trading $11 above WTI?
West Texas Intermediate settled at $98.24. Brent settled at $109.21. That $10.97 gap is wider than Friday’s $8.45 and sits above the $6.07 average the two settlement series have produced over the past six months.
Brent prices waterborne crude that moves by tanker through the Strait of Hormuz and around sanctions. WTI prices crude that lands in Cushing, Oklahoma by pipeline. When shipping lanes dominate the news, Brent carries the premium.
The two benchmarks still track each other closely. Daily returns correlate at 0.78 over the past 30 sessions. Oil is one trade. Oil and bitcoin are not.
Do oil and bitcoin move together?
Not this month. We compared 30 daily returns for Brent and bitcoin from Sept. 4 through Oct. 19 and got a correlation of -0.19. Bitcoin and ethereum correlate at 0.92 over the past 60 sessions.
A negative reading means the two drifted apart slightly more often than they moved in step. It does not make oil a hedge for crypto. Thirty sessions is a small sample, and next month can flip the sign.
What the sample does support is narrower. Oil’s move came from supply news in the Middle East and Russia. Bitcoin’s came from something else, and bitcoin fell 1.9% in the week ending Oct. 19 while Brent gained 2.4%.
| Asset | Sept. 4 | Oct. 19 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brent crude (Dec.) | $96.28 | $109.21 | +13.4% |
| WTI crude (Dec.) | $91.48 | $98.24 | +7.4% |
| Bitcoin | $81,264.70 | $82,084.89 | +1.0% |
| Ethereum | $2,507.65 | $2,409.49 | -3.9% |
Why did bitcoin stay flat while oil ran?
Oil is priced off barrels that may not ship. Bitcoin is priced off flows into and out of a market that does not care where those barrels go. That is our read of the tape, and it is worth checking against the next six weeks. See also: what the September jobs report did to crypto prices.
What does this mean for a Price County household budget?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the average weekly wage in Price County at $951 for the first quarter of 2026, across all industries. The $698 year-over-year increase in one tank fill equals about 73% of that week’s pay.
One delivery now costs nearly three-quarters of a week’s wages. Bring that number to a budget conversation, not the barrel price on the evening news.
Two practical notes, neither of them financial advice. Ask your supplier which contract month the quote references, because the futures price on the radio is not the retail price you pay. If you are on a budget plan, check whether the monthly payment was recalculated after the September peak at $5.262.
For the bar at 1117 Railroad Ave, the math is simpler. Fuel is a line item that did not cost this much a year ago, and January is the month that hurts. We watch the December contract, not the headline. See also: the Wisconsin bar industry data we track and the Wisconsin crypto investor’s handbook.
Frequently asked questions
What was bitcoin’s price on October 19, 2026?
Bitcoin traded near $82,100 on Monday evening, up about 1% from its Sept. 4 mark of $81,264.70 and down 1.9% from the prior Monday. Ethereum traded near $2,410, down about 4% over the same six weeks.
What did Brent crude close at on October 19, 2026?
The December contract settled at $109.21 a barrel, down 0.59% from Friday’s $109.86. The intraday high was $110.69, the highest since May 20.
How much does heating oil cost in Prentice, Wisconsin?
Front-month heating oil settled at $4.7315 a gallon on Oct. 19, 2026. A 275-gallon fill prices at $1,301.16 before delivery and tank fees. The same fill cost $602.83 in October 2025.
Why is heating oil so much more expensive than last year?
Heating oil settled at $2.1921 a gallon on Oct. 20, 2025 and at $4.7315 on Oct. 19, 2026, a 115.8% increase on the same continuous series. The move tracks crude oil’s rise through the year plus the refinery margin for distillate fuel.
Is Ripsaw Token still active?
The mint has 220 lifetime signatures, with the most recent on Oct. 1, 2026. Supply is 997,206,879.64043409 tokens, both mint and freeze authorities are revoked, and 56 of 64 token accounts hold a balance.
Sources
- Yahoo Finance — Heating Oil (HO=F) daily settlements through Oct. 19, 2026
- Yahoo Finance — Brent Crude (BZ=F) daily settlements and intraday range
- Yahoo Finance — WTI Crude Oil (CL=F) daily settlements
- CoinGecko API — Bitcoin and Ethereum daily price series, 60 days
- Solana JSON-RPC — getSignaturesForAddress, getTokenSupply, getAccountInfo for mint KCtkoQysUHvmFFUmngTC3BFxPunHWgHHzFmGeDVTLPF
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — QCEW, Price County, Wisconsin, first quarter 2026
- OilPrice.com — Oil Prices Slip as Trump-Putin Diesel Deal Raises Supply Hopes