Should we expect explosive growth of Solana: forecast for 2025 — 2029
Solana experienced a rapid rise amid the popularity of meme tokens and platforms for their launch such as Pump.fun and LetsBonk.fun, and the blockchain continues to dominate the meme cryptocurrency segment. Over the past two years, Solana has increased in price more than 10 times and entered the top six largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, which reached $109 billion.
Experts expect that in the coming years Solana will remain one of the most in-demand ecosystems compared to other Layer-1 networks due to its technological advantages: high performance and low transaction costs.
By total value locked (TVL), which exceeded $14 billion, the Solana ecosystem ranks second after Ethereum in the decentralized finance (DeFi) market. Since the beginning of 2024, this figure has increased more than 8 times, and a record level was reached in January 2025.
Short-term forecast for Solana
According to Standard Chartered, the price of the SOL cryptocurrency could reach $275 by the end of 2025. However, this value is 6.5% lower than the peak reached in January 2025 at $294. The price correction is due to a decrease in network activity, which peaked in November 2024: since then, the number of daily active addresses has decreased by more than half.
Michael Young, a leading analyst, is also positive about SOL. According to his forecast, Solana could rise to $250 in the coming months. The expert believes this will be driven by:
- structural changes to the network, including an upcoming update that will reduce transaction confirmation time from 12 seconds to a record 150 ms;
- supply limitation amid the increase in staked SOL tokens;
- growth of institutional adoption.
Even more optimistic is the Solana forecast presented by analysts of the large investment company VanEck. In their opinion, the altcoin's price could rise to a record $520 by the end of 2025. According to experts, this will be driven by the growing demand for smart contract platforms, which also include Ethereum and BNB Chain.
VanEck estimates that by the end of 2025 the market for smart contract platforms will grow to a record $1.1 trillion, and Solana's share will increase from the current 15% to 22%.
An important role in Solana's growth was played by the boom of AI-meme coins, created amid the popularity of artificial intelligence technologies. However, analysts note that the focus on meme coins could have a detrimental effect on the Solana ecosystem: for long-term growth, it needs development in other key sectors of the crypto market, such as real-world assets (RWA), decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and artificial intelligence (AI).
According to analysts, additional support for the altcoin comes from the expectation of a Solana-based ETF launch. But not all experts are convinced: Bitwise analysts believe that despite possible approval of a Solana ETF, reaching record price levels seems doubtful due to macroeconomic risks.
Some experts also point to the possibility of a price pullback for Solana in autumn 2025: the share of SOL coins trading above the purchase price reached a six-month high, exceeding 96%. In their opinion, this indicator often serves as a key signal preceding a market correction. For example, in July, after the indicator rose to 96%, the price of SOL fell by 23% — from $205 to $158.
In addition, analysts are observing an increase in SOL balances on centralized exchanges, which may also signal that traders are ready to sell and, consequently, a correction is approaching. The number of SOL tokens on exchanges rose from 30 million to 32 million in August alone.
According to Glassnode and Coinglass, long-term holders are increasing sales, and the number of short positions is growing. This serves as another indicator that the price of SOL may pull back soon. Analysts estimate that in the near term, Solana's price may fall below $200 and drop to $195 if the situation does not change.
There are also analysts who paint an even more depressing picture for Solana: one of them, Gert van Lagen, even predicts a possible collapse of the ecosystem. In his opinion, the weakening of Solana's structure shows early signs similar to the collapse of the infamous Terra protocol in 2022. The expert notes that in terms of dynamics, Solana is weakening compared to other major altcoins — Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), and XRP (XRP).
Long-term prospects for Solana: expert forecast until 2029
In the long term, Standard Chartered gives a more optimistic forecast for Solana: according to the bank's experts, the price of one of the largest altcoins on the market could reach $500 by 2029.
CoinCodex analysts made a more cautious forecast: according to their estimates, the price of the altcoin will adjust to $184 in 2026. Meanwhile, DigitalCoinPrice believes that the price of SOL will show growth: up to $384 in 2026 and up to $559 in 2027. Also, according to the company's forecast, by 2030 Solana's price will rise to $852, which significantly exceeds Standard Chartered's more conservative estimate.
The most optimistic scenario assumes Solana's price will grow to $1250–2000 by 2030, if the altcoin's ecosystem continues to grow and market conditions, including the regulatory environment, remain favorable.