Solana has been a recent outperformer among major cryptos — ahead 24% over the past month — but that could just be precursor to an epic end of year run, writes Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan.

"For the last 18 months, the recipe for strong returns in crypto has been clear," said Hougan. "Take one part ETP inflows, add strong corporate treasury purchases, and voilà — you get big returns."

Hougan reminded that "recipe" sent bitcoin from $40,000 to its current level and ether more than tripling, and the same setup is forming around SOL.

Seven major asset managers — including Bitwise itself, alongside Grayscale, Fidelity, and VanEck — have filed to launch spot Solana ETPs. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is due to rule on them by October 10. If even a few are approved, retail and institutional investors could soon be buying SOL the same way they would a stock.

That’s not the only tailwind, said Hougan. This past weekend, a previously quiet publicly traded microcap, Forward Industries (FORD), announced it had raised $1.65 billion from crypto investment heavyweights Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital.

The company’s playbook is simple: buy SOL, stake it, and generate yield — turning solana itself into a revenue-generating asset on a public balance sheet. At the helm is Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin and one of Solana’s earliest champions.

Hougan likens Samani to the Michael Saylor of Bitcoin or Tom Lee of Ethereum — visible, vocal, and capable of turning a technical narrative into a mainstream headline. Still, Solana has to earn the attention.

Its pitch is speed. Unlike Ethereum, which uses additional layers to scale, Solana runs everything on one chain. A new upgrade — soon to go live — will shrink transaction finality time from 12 seconds to 150 milliseconds. Transaction fees remain under a cent.

Those gains do come with tradeoffs, Hougan allowed. Solana’s critics argue that its structure is more centralized than other blockchains, potentially leaving it exposed to network failures. Supporters counter that it’s the only chain fast and cheap enough to support high-volume use cases — like tokenized assets or stablecoins — at a global scale.

And growth is happening. Solana is now third in stablecoin liquidity and fourth in tokenized assets, with asset volume up 140% this year, said Hougan.

Then there’s its size. With a market cap of $116 billion, Solana is still a small fish compared to Bitcoin’s $2.2 trillion or Ethereum’s $519 billion. That means smaller inflows can move the needle in bigger ways. According to Hougan, Forward Industries’ $1.65 billion could have the same impact on SOL as a $33 billion investment would on BTC.

That’s why he’s watching closely. “My suggestion?” Hougan wrote. “Keep your eye on Solana.”