Standard Chartered Bank has released its long-term outlook for Solana (SOL), projecting that the token could reach $500 by 2029. However, the bank expects Solana to underperform Ethereum in the near term, citing ecosystem imbalances and a heavy reliance on memecoin activity.
In a report published Tuesday, Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital assets research, acknowledged Solana’s technical strengths—particularly its ability to process high transaction volumes at low cost—but warned that these advantages are currently being channeled largely into speculative trading.
“Solana’s dominance in memecoin trading has stress-tested the network’s capacity,” Kendrick wrote,
“but this segment is unlikely to sustain long-term value creation.” He added that the market is now assigning a discount to future earnings from this sector, viewing memecoins as past their peak influence.
While Solana has demonstrated impressive throughput capabilities, Kendrick argued that its application-layer economy remains underdeveloped compared to Ethereum. This gap, he said, may limit near-term adoption unless new use cases—such as DeFi, tokenized assets, or social applications—gain traction.
Kendrick also noted that Solana currently trades at a discount based on Standard Chartered’s market cap-to-GDP model, which defines blockchain GDP as the aggregate revenue generated by on-chain applications. In contrast, rival Layer 1 blockchain BNB trades at a premium due to its integration with Binance’s centralized exchange.
Despite the subdued short-term view, the bank sees potential for Solana to scale into broader sectors by 2026 and beyond—unlocking new growth avenues that could ultimately justify the $500 price target.
Solana Faces Multi-Year Growth Slowdown
Standard Chartered’s report also predicts a two- to three-year period of limited growth for Solana, as memecoins—the blockchain’s former main driver of volume—lose steam.
According to Kendrick, Solana now trades “cheap” relative to its on-chain GDP. However, he warned that low valuation combined with declining usage signals weak conditions for near-term upside.
“Declining usage and trading ‘cheap’ are not a good mix,” Kendrick said, emphasizing that the market appears to be in a wait-and-see mode as Solana searches for new sources of demand.
Future growth, Kendrick believes, will likely come from sectors that align with Solana’s high-throughput, low-cost architecture—including DeFi, tokenized finance, decentralized social platforms, and DePIN (decentralized physical infrastructure networks). Still, he cautioned that these sectors remain early in their development.
“As a result, Solana is likely to face a two- to three-year period of lower activity,” he concluded.
Kendrick Predicts ETH-SOL Ratio to Rise
Kendrick also expects Solana to trail Ethereum in performance through 2027, forecasting that the ETH-to-SOL price ratio will increase from its current level of 15 to 17.
Still, the bank sees this gap narrowing in the long run. Kendrick projects Solana will reach $275 by the end of 2025 and climb to $500 by 2029—assuming the network succeeds in building beyond its current memecoin-focused economy.
These Solana projections are part of a broader set of crypto forecasts issued by Kendrick. He expects Bitcoin to hit $200,000 by 2025 and surge to $500,000 by 2028. For Binance’s BNB, he anticipates a rise to $2,775. He also sees XRP reaching $12.50 and Avalanche’s AVAX climbing to $250 by 2030.
Notably, Kendrick has revised Ethereum’s 2025 price target downward to $4,000, citing structural limitations in its scaling and fee models. Still, he remains bullish on stablecoins, predicting the sector will reach a total market cap of $2 trillion by 2028 as tokenized finance gains mainstream traction.
Quick Facts
- Standard Chartered sets $500 Solana price target for 2029
- Bank sees ETH-to-SOL ratio widening through 2027
- Solana expected to grow slowly as memecoin hype fades
- Future growth tied to DeFi, tokenized assets, and DePIN
- Broader forecast includes $500K Bitcoin and $4K Ethereum
