Standard Chartered Says “Buy Quality” as Solana Dip Opens Long-Term Outperformance Window
Standard Chartered is urging traders to look via near-term volatility in digital belongings and deal with what it calls “high quality” blockchain tasks.
The comment comes as the current selloff reshapes relative worth throughout the crypto market.
Standard Chartered Backs Ethereum and Solana for Long-Term Outperformance Despite Near-Term Volatility
Geoff Kendrick, the financial institution’s Head of FX and Digital Assets Research, stated he’s actively accumulating in the course of the downturn. According to the analyst, the pullback is a defining second for long-term positioning.
“I’m a purchaser of this dip in digital belongings,” Kendrick informed BeInCrypto in an electronic mail. “What’s extra, I believe that is the beginning of larger differentiation in digital asset efficiency, whereby high quality tasks win.”
Within that framework, Standard Chartered continues to favor Ethereum and Solana as its high layer-1 exposures. Kendrick reiterated that view explicitly, including:
“I’ve beforehand highlighted my view that Ethereum is one such high quality mission. And right here I do the identical for Solana. Buy high quality.”
Recently, Standard Chartered stated it saw Ethereum outperforming Bitcoin, citing DeFi dominance, scalability upgrades, and regulatory readability.
The financial institution, nonetheless, has tempered its near-term expectations for Solana. Standard Chartered lowered its end-2026 worth forecast for SOL to $250 from $310. On this, they cite the time required for the community’s subsequent main use case to mature.
“We decrease our end-2026 worth forecast to USD 250, as Solana’s subsequent dominant use case could take time,” Kendrick stated.
Despite that minimize, the financial institution raised its longer-dated projections, arguing that Solana’s structural benefits stay intact.
Solana’s Shift from Meme Coins to Micropayments Could Drive Long-Term Outperformance
According to Standard Chartered, Solana’s ultra-low-cost, high-throughput structure positions it to finally dominate micropayments. This, Kendrick says, is especially true as AI-driven purposes and stablecoin-based transactions gain traction.
“We increase our forecasts thereafter, as we see Solana finally dominating the micropayments house,” Kendrick famous.
If that thesis performs out, the financial institution expects SOL to outperform Bitcoin between 2027 and 2030, whereas solely step by step catching as much as Ethereum as the ecosystem scales.
The report highlights a refined however essential shift underway on Solana’s decentralized exchanges. While the community has lengthy been related to meme coin exercise, flows are more and more rotating towards SOL-stablecoin buying and selling pairs.
These stablecoins, Standard Chartered notes, are turning over two to a few occasions sooner than their Ethereum counterparts.
That evolution might assist Solana shed its “meme coin low cost,” which beforehand weighed on valuation and deterred TradFi members.
Analysts Back Standard Chartered’s Quality Wins Narrative
Market commentators broadly echoed the financial institution’s “high quality wins” narrative. Investor Mike Alfred described the drawdown as a textbook risk-off transfer.
“…it is a run-of-the-mill risk-off transfer the place the bottom high quality goes down the toughest, after which every thing bounces… This is when actual cash is made,” wrote Alfred, referencing the current market drop.
Developer and investor Mike Ippolito struck an identical tone, arguing that sentiment has swung too far within the destructive path.
“I believe individuals are far too bearish ETH and SOL right this moment,” he said, calling layer-1 blockchains “the Amazon or Google of our time” as a result of their world markets, high limitations to entry, and fee-generating potential.
Standard Chartered expects Solana to underperform Ethereum via 2026 and into 2027. But past that window, the financial institution sees a catch-up part pushed by scale, utility, and price benefits.
In Kendrick’s view, the present volatility is much less a warning signal than a sorting mechanism, one that will finally reward traders keen to purchase high quality whereas the market remains to be unsettled.
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