Here’s why one analyst expects Solana (SOL) to rise twenty-fold from the current depressed level

Solarium SUN$104.79 The reputation-driven memecoins could soon give way to a deeper role in digital payments, according to a new report from Standard Chartered’s head of crypto research, Kendrick Geoffrey.

Given SOL’s recent drop to the $100 level, Kendrick has lowered his price forecast for SOL to $250 from $310 by the end of 2026. Kenrick, however, remains a bull, seeing a path towards $2,000 by 2030, driven by Solana’s growing role in stablecoin-based micropayments.

The bank describes Solana as someone who goes beyond his “one-trick pony” image. In 2025, almost half of Solana protocol fees came from trading memecoins on decentralized exchanges. But data now shows a shift in trade flows (from meme tokens to SOL-stablecoin pairs), suggesting new uses are emerging. Stablecoin turnover on Solana now significantly exceeds Ethereum ETH$2,325.24targeting a different type of activity: high-frequency, low-cost transactions.

One example is x402, a platform created by Coinbase (COIN) to support AI-powered micro-sized payments using stablecoins. The average transaction at x402 is just six cents. Base, Coinbase’s own Layer 2 network on Ethereum, has hosted most of the volume so far, but its fees may be too high for its long-term viability. Solana’s lower gas rates (often less than a cent) make it better suited for such applications, Geoffrey said.

Micropayments, often unviable in traditional finance due to fixed transaction fees, could unlock new types of Internet services, from machine-to-machine payments to social apps with built-in pay-as-you-go features. Solana’s technical strengths position it to serve as a backend for this type of infrastructure.

Standard Chartered also points to growing institutional interest. Since October 2025, the Bitwise BSOL ETF has absorbed 78% of all net inflows into SOL-related ETFs, putting it at more than 1% of the total ETF supply under management, according to Geoffrey. Meanwhile, digital asset treasuries now own almost 3% of SOL.

Kendrick’s revised targets now project SOL at $400 in 2027, $700 in 2028, and $1,200 in 2029.