📅February 3 | Solana isn't going to explode in 2026… and that's not necessarily a bad thing. The bank lowered its price projection for SOL, but at the same time painted a much more ambitious long-term picture. The reason? Solana is leaving behind the memecoin craze to try something more serious: becoming a key network for micropayments and stablecoins.
📖According to Geoffrey Kendrick, global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, the recent market downturn doesn't mark the end of the cycle, but rather a necessary cleansing. For the bank, this period of stress is separating projects with real foundations from those that only lived off hype.
In that context, Solana occupies a delicate position. Standard Chartered decided to lower its 2026 price target from $310 to $250, not because the network is failing, but because its new direction needs time.
Even so, the bank maintains a very optimistic outlook for the coming years, betting that Solana could experience strong growth starting in 2027 if it manages to consolidate its new model.
Just a year ago, the story was quite different. When the bank began analyzing Solana in May 2025, almost all activity on the network was powered by memecoins.
The peak came with the launch of the Trump coin in January, when speculation completely dominated decentralized exchanges. High volume, high excitement… but little solid foundation.
Since then, things have started to change. The data shows that interest in memecoins fell and that trading began to concentrate more on SOL pairs with stablecoins. This may seem boring, but for Standard Chartered it's an important sign: Solana could be moving beyond being just a fast-track betting network and becoming a payments infrastructure.
Topic Opinion:
Solana is growing, but no longer on hype. Moving from memecoins to real payments doesn't generate explosive headlines, but it does build long-term value. In crypto, not everything that goes up fast lasts, and not everything that moves slowly fails.
💬 Will micropayments really be the future of blockchains?
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