Geoffrey Kendrick, an analyst at Standard Chartered, highlights Solana’s potential as key infrastructure for the micropayments market using stablecoins. The thesis argues that if the network manages to establish itself as the standard for low-value, high-frequency transactions, its fundamental value would be strengthened by real and constant utility.
Given the recent crash of SOL, Kendrick has lowered his price forecast for SOL to $250 from $310 by the end of 2026. However, Kendrick remains optimistic, seeing a path to $2,000 by 2030, driven by Solana’s growing role in stablecoin-based micropayments.
“We lower our end-2026 forecast to $250 because Solana’s next dominant utility could take time,” Kendrick commented.
Overall, market analysts supported the ‘quality wins’ narrative. Investor Mike Alfred described the recent drop as a classic risk-off move. “…this is just a typical risk-off move where lower-quality stuff sells off harder, and then everything bounces… It’s in these moments where real money is made,” Alfred wrote, referring to the recent market downturn.
In reality, Standard Chartered expects Solana to underperform Ethereum until 2026 and part of 2027. But after that period, the bank foresees a phase where Solana closes the gap, thanks to scalability, utility, and cost advantages.
According to Kendrick, the current volatility is less a warning signal and more a selection mechanism, which could ultimately benefit investors willing to buy quality while the market remains unstable.
It is important to emphasize that this is a long-term investment thesis based on technological fundamentals. It should not be interpreted as a promise of immediate returns or a prediction of short-term price movements, but rather as a scenario of future adoption.
What is Solana?
To understand this potential, one must first explain what Solana is: it is an open-source blockchain platform designed to support decentralized applications (dApps) and cryptocurrencies, just like Ethereum. However, the big difference lies in its speed and low cost.
While other blockchains can be slow and expensive when many users are operating simultaneously, Solana can process thousands of transactions per second at minimal cost. That’s why many consider it one of the fastest blockchains in existence today.
Within this ecosystem, the SOL token fulfills an indispensable operational function: it acts as the asset needed to cover network fees (transaction costs) and execute Smart Contracts. It is, in essence, the unit that keeps Solana’s technological machinery moving and accessible for any user or application.
Micropayments and stablecoins: Why are they relevant?
Micropayments are defined as digital transactions of very low monetary value that are conducted frequently. For this model to be functional on a large scale, the infrastructure must solve two critical challenges that have traditionally limited financial networks:
- Cost efficiency and user experience:The expense of processing the transaction must be negligible compared to the amount sent. If the fee is high, the micropayment loses its reason for being. Likewise, the confirmation must be almost instantaneous for a smooth user experience.
- Value stability: This is where stablecoins come in. By being linked to stable assets like the US dollar, they eliminate the risk of the payment’s value fluctuating during the transaction.
It is important to note that, even though Solana’s price today may experience volatility on exchange markets, the viability of micropayments does not depend on its daily price quote, but rather on the network’s ability to maintain these two conditions constantly and predictably.
By the way, according to Geoffrey Kendrick, Solana’s very low-cost, high-performance architecture strategically positions it to dominate this sector in the future. He notes that this is even more true as AI-driven applications and stablecoin transactions gain popularity.
“We increase our forecasts from there onwards, as we see Solana dominating the micropayments space in the future,” Kendrick indicated.
Why could Solana benefit if micropayments with stablecoins grow?
Solana’s architecture is not only fast, but its design is conceived so that the success of a use case, like micropayments, directly fuels the network’s health. This benefit is explained through the following causal mechanisms:
|
Benefit Factor |
Description of Impact on Solana |
| Increase in Activity | A higher volume of small payments generates a constant flow of verifiable transactional activity on the blockchain. |
| Proven Scalability | To capture this market, the network must demonstrate it can sustain high operational volume while maintaining minimal costs recurrently. |
| Network Effect | A massive use of stablecoins tends to attract more developers and companies, increasing demand for the ecosystem’s resources. |
What would have to happen for the theory to hold
For the analyst’s vision to be fulfilled, network speed is not enough. It is essential that there is real, everyday, and sustained use of stablecoins in retail transactions, surpassing the stage of purely speculative usage spikes.
Furthermore, the network must guarantee operational stability in the face of large traffic volumes and compete with other infrastructures targeting the same niche. If you are considering buying Solana, it is crucial to distinguish between personal financial operations and the underlying technological thesis, which depends exclusively on the utility and adoption of the infrastructure in the long term.
