With the price of Bitcoin down 48% over the past four months, it's perhaps no surprise that speculative altcoins are being hit hard as well. Solana (SOL 1.57%), for example, is down 37% for the year, and now trades for just $78. That's a 73% discount from its all-time high of $294 from just 12 months ago.
The good news is that Solana could turn things around faster than anyone expects. Market sentiment on the crypto is simply too bearish, and this is one digital coin that could triple in value this year.
Solana's path to $50
Let's start with the bear-case scenario for Solana. It assumes that Bitcoin will continue to drift lower, dragging the entire crypto market with it. This has been the historical pattern, and there's no reason to think that it can rally if this happens. As Bitcoin goes, so goes the crypto market.
CRYPTO: SOL
Key Data Points
Given that Solana recently hit a two-year low of $67, a price target of $50 seems far more likely than a price of $250. There's simply too much downward momentum.
If you buy into the predictive power of technical trading charts (including the popular head-and-shoulders pattern), it does appear that Solana is poised for another steep downturn in 2026.
Solana's path to $250
But there's a contrarian take that's been circulating in crypto investing circles. According to a new investment thesis from the British multinational bank Standard Chartered (SCBF.Y 4.28%), Solana is in the process of transforming from a meme-coin centric blockchain network into a stablecoin-centric network.
Image source: Getty Images.
Based on a quick perusal of blockchain performance metrics, this does appear to be the case. In early 2026, Solana passed Ethereum as the fastest-growing blockchain network for stablecoins, based on both transaction volume and transaction velocity. It's both faster and cheaper to use than Ethereum, and that's what makes micro-size stablecoin payments so attractive.
According to Standard Chartered, this vast new pocket of growth will propel the crypto to $200 this year, $400 next year, and $2,000 by the end of 2030. So maybe all the bearish sentiment on Solana is overdone right now.
What do prediction markets think?
One way to stress-test these assumptions is by looking at data from online prediction markets. On the Kalshi prediction platform, for example, traders are giving Solana a 44% chance of hitting $150 this year, a 23% chance of hitting $200, a 14% chance of hitting $250, and a 10% chance of hitting $300.
Those are numbers I can live with. It's almost a coin flip about whether it can double in value this year to hit $150. And even $250 is remarkably within reach.
With that in mind, I'm still bullish on the crypto's prospects. Once market sentiment catches on to the improving fundamentals at Solana, that's when it could skyrocket in price.
