Solana’s Memecoin-driven reputation may soon give way to a deeper role in digital payments, according to a new report from Kendrick Geoffrey, head of cryptocurrency research at Standard Chartered Bank.
Kendrick lowered his price forecast for SOL to $250 from $310 by the end of 2026, given SOL’s recent drop to $100 levels. However, Kenrick remains bullish on SOL, which he believes will reach $2,000 by 2030, driven by Solana’s growing role in stablecoin-based micropayments.
The bank describes Solana as moving beyond a “one-trick pony” image. In 2025, nearly half of Solana’s protocol fees will come from memecoin transactions on decentralized exchanges. But data now shows a shift in transaction flow — from meme tokens to SOL-stablecoin pairs — suggesting new uses are emerging. Stablecoin trading volume on Solana now significantly exceeds Ethereum pointing to a different type of activity: high-frequency, low-cost trading.
One example is x402, a platform created by Coinbase (COIN) to support micro, AI-powered payments using stablecoins. The average transaction size on x402 is just 6 cents. Base, Coinbase’s own layer 2 network on Ethereum, has hosted the majority of trading volume to date, but its fees may be too high for long-term survival. Geoffrey said Solana’s lower gas fees (usually less than a cent) make it more suitable for such applications.
Micropayments are generally not feasible in traditional finance due to fixed fees per transaction, but they can unlock new types of internet services, from machine-to-machine payments to social applications with built-in pay-per-use functionality. Solana’s technical strengths enable it to serve as the backend for such infrastructure.
Standard Chartered also noted growing institutional interest. Geoffrey said the Bitwise BSOL ETF has absorbed 78% of net inflows into SOL-related ETFs since October 2025, bringing the total supply under ETF management to more than 1%. Meanwhile, digital asset Treasuries currently hold nearly 3% of SOL.
Kendrick’s revised targets now project SOL at $400 in 2027, $700 in 2028, and $1,200 in 2029.
