Standard Chartered Sees Solana Pivoting Toward Micropayments, Keeps Long-Term $2,000 Bull Case

Standard Chartered’s latest assessment reframes Solana from a platform dominated by speculative token trading to one increasingly suited for tiny, frequent payments. The firm lowered its target for SOL to $250 at the end of 2026 — down from a previous $310 — while projecting a multi-year appreciation path reaching $2,000 by 2030. The analyst highlights a notable reallocation of trading flows on the chain: memecoin volumes, which once accounted for a large share of protocol fees, are yielding ground to pairs involving SOL and stablecoins. That change matters because it signals different underlying activity — many more small-value transactions rather than episodic speculative swaps. Solana’s fee environment, often measured in fractions of a cent, positions it to economically host microtransactions that are impractical on networks with higher per-transfer costs. Practical examples already emerging include platforms built to route AI-driven micropayments with average ticket sizes measured in single-digit cents; some rival Layer 2 solutions are facing questions about their long-term cost-effectiveness for those use cases. Institutional interest has also ticked up: a single ETF has captured the majority of recent net inflows into SOL funds, bringing exchange-traded vehicles and corporate treasuries into the supply picture. Those flows represent a nascent, diversified source of demand that could temper volatility and support deeper market participation. Still, the near-term outlook is tempered by recent price weakness that forced the cut in the 2026 target, underscoring short-term sensitivity to market swings. Over the medium-to-long horizon, the bank’s scenario assumes that sustained adoption of stablecoin rails for micropayments and accumulating institutional holdings will re-price Solana’s utility and scarcity dynamics. If those assumptions hold, transaction-level economics and growing non-speculative demand could materially raise SOL’s valuation; if they don’t, upside may be constrained and volatility may persist. The assessment reframes Solana’s narrative from a memecoin venue to a payments infrastructure contender, while acknowledging both the promise and the practical hurdles ahead.