Solana $SOL ( ▼ 2.49% ) may be bruised, but one major bank thinks a comeback is brewing. Standard Chartered predicts the token could climb to $250 by the end of 2026, more than doubling from recent levels near two-year lows.
The bet is not on hype. It is on how Solana is actually being used.
From Meme Coins to Micropayments
According to the bank’s digital asset research team, activity on Solana’s decentralized exchanges is shifting away from meme coin speculation and toward stablecoin pairs. That matters because stablecoins are often used in real transactions rather than just trading frenzies.
Analyst Geoff Kendrick says AI-driven micropayments are starting to show how Solana’s low fees can enable entirely new markets. If transaction costs are an order of magnitude cheaper, small-value payments that were previously uneconomical suddenly make sense.
In that view, Solana $SOL is not just another smart contract platform. It becomes infrastructure for a new class of high-volume, low-value transactions.
Markets Still See Big Risk
Not everyone is convinced. Event contract markets suggest investors see a meaningful chance Solana falls much further, with roughly a 30% probability of prices dipping below $40 next year. On the flip side, there is also strong belief in upside, with traders pricing in about a 41% chance of the token rising above $200.
Standard Chartered itself has tempered its near-term optimism slightly, trimming its previous forecast of $310. The bank also expects Solana to underperform Ethereum over the next couple of years before potentially catching up if the micropayment use case scales.
The Long Game Is Much Bigger
Looking further out, the bank projects Solana $SOL could reach $2,000 by 2030 if adoption of these new use cases accelerates. That would require Solana to move beyond trading cycles and become core plumbing for emerging digital economies.
For now, the story is a tug-of-war between near-term volatility and long-term infrastructure dreams.