Standard Chartered has cut its year-end 2026 price target for Solana (SOL) to $250, down from $310, citing delays in the blockchain's transition to its next dominant use case.
Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank's head of digital assets research, said in a note on Tuesday that while Solana remains a quality project worth buying, its heavy reliance on meme coin trading has held back broader adoption.
The shift toward more sustainable applications like micropayments is underway but will take time to reach scale.
Meme Coin Dominance Has Become A Double-Edged Sword
Solana's ultra-fast and low-cost transaction model has made it a leader in blockchain technology.
But that strength has largely been channeled into meme coin speculation, a segment Solana dominates but one that markets view as unsustainable.
Kendrick noted that this focus has caused SOL to trade at a discount relative to peers when measured by market cap against protocol fees.
It has also discouraged traditional finance players from building on the network, even as institutional participation in crypto grows.
Micropayments Could Be The Game Changer
Signs of a shift are emerging. Trading flows on Solana's decentralized exchanges are starting to move away from meme coins toward SOL-stablecoin pairs.
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These stablecoins are turning over two to three times faster than those on Ethereum, hinting at a different kind of usage.
Kendrick pointed to AI-driven micropayments as a promising frontier.
Solana's dramatically lower transaction costs could enable entirely new markets that are not viable on more expensive chains.
Lower Near-Term Target But Higher Long-Term Expectations
Despite trimming the 2026 forecast, Standard Chartered raised its projections for subsequent years.
The bank now expects Solana to reach $2,000 by the end of 2030, outperforming Bitcoin over the 2027-30 period while gradually closing the gap with Ethereum.
Kendrick urged investors to focus on quality projects during the current market dip, highlighting both Solana and Ethereum as strong long-term bets.
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