My $SOL bull thesis
1. Usage didn't follow price down
REV declined only 1% QoQ to $89.5M in Q1 2026 - second-highest of any network behind Hyperliquid, while total staked SOL ended the quarter at a new all-time high.
2. The app layer monetizes better than anywhere else
App revenue capture ratio on Solana hit 382% in Q1 2026 - for every $1 of network REV, apps capture nearly $4. The chain where apps actually make money is the chain where the next apps get built.
3. Regulators and institutions
The SEC and CFTC classified Solana as a digital commodity. May 2026 was the best month of the year for Solana ETFs: $80M in net inflows led by Bitwise, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs were in heavy outflow.
4. RWA settlement layer
Solana processes 97% of all tokenized equities volume on-chain. Basically the home of RWAs.
5. The biggest problem is about to be solved
SIMD-0550 would reach the 1.5% terminal inflation rate in ~2.8 years. SIMD-0547 would add burned base fees to every transaction. Both publicly backed by @toly
Much, much higher for SOL
Dear Solana:
Solana is my favorite blockchain to transact on. It is still one of my favorite assets to trade. And when price is attractive, I still think there is a good case for accumulating it.
But I am less bullish on SOL’s next-cycle price targets than I was last time.
Last cycle, while everyone was calling for $500+ SOL, I publicly said I planned to be out before $250. Solana’s ATH came earlier than BTC and much of the market, but that call ended up being pretty damn close.
This time, unless I see a real fundamental shift, I will probably be lowering my targets. As things stand now, I would likely be out before $200 next cycle.
That is not because I hate Solana. I don’t.
But love is not a sound investment thesis.
The reasons are pretty straightforward.
Pump fun has historically made up a meaningful chunk of Solana volume, and I believe the pump (and broader memecoin casino) meta is dying. Maybe it evolves. Maybe something replaces it. But pretending that was not a significant driver of activity feels dishonest.
Solana DeFi has also taken a serious hit. A lot of Solana DeFi was tied into Drift, and the damage there impacted dozens of protocols. It hurt the broader perception of Solana DeFi.
Then there is the capital markets side.
A lot of Solana DATs were formed at some of the worst possible price points, then unwound, restructured, or de-risked at some of the worst possible price points.
CT forgets everything in 72 hours but institutional capital does not.
If a bunch of institutions got dragged into Solana exposure near the highs, then unwound for losses, that leaves a mark. It does not mean they will never touch SOL again. But it does mean the next wave of institutional appetite may not be as easy, clean, or deep as people assume.
Then there is the cultural layer.
Solana feels disjointed right now. Some of the most prominent Solana voices have spent an incredible amount of time relentlessly shilling an entirely different blockchain. Yes, ZEC is it's own Layer 1.
It does not exactly scream focus on Solana itself. It reads as devs thinking their bag is cooked and so they start pumping their next bag.
Only now does there finally seem to be real traction around addressing the inflation issue, which should have been more meaningfully a long time ago.
But what really read as desperation to me was the @PhoenixTrade push. That moment actually influenced my vision more than any of the others.
Look, I have traded over $5B in perps across various protocols. I have tested or used almost every “perp DEX” worth testing. And Phoenix is about as basic as it gets.
Yes, the engineering under the hood is interesting. Fine. Mad respect to the builders.
But traders do not ultimately care about engineering.
They care about three things:
Does it work?
Can I make money there?
Is it safe?
And right now, the best Solana-adjacent perps venue is @pacifica_fi . I say Solana-adjacent because it is mostly the stables on-ramp and Solana TVL. It is not generating massive activity for the Solana network itself. And even Pacifica has already talked about building its own L1. (A decision I'm skeptical about, even as a fan)
My exact reaction to the huge marketing push on one of the most basic perp dexs I've ever traded on was: they are so very desperate for something to gain traction on Solana it actually scares me.
Solana talks a lot about what it wants to be when it grows up. And to be clear, the vision is compelling. The ambition is real. The talent is definitely real.
But ambition is not maturity.
Every kid wants to be a doctor, an astronaut, or a superhero when they grow up.
I care more about what something actually is than what it says it wants to become.
So what is my favorite new blockchain?
Solana.
Because you can still love something and still be rational about it.
🫡 From the depths —
The White Whale 🐋
Here's my finalized proposal for the resource fee. Although it's reframed a bit as breaking up the base fee into resource and inclusion fee, the mechanism is identical to that in the discussion with an additional base fee adjustment.
This version manages to just slightly **reduce** vote costs and oracle updates (and other hyperefficient txns), while increasing the burn for very inefficient transactions. This is of course tunable, but it is thus suitable to be activated before OR after Alpenglow activation.
https://t.co/A452XeA8hU
TLDR infographic here: https://t.co/LvOmuwrgfn
JUST IN: @Solana cofounder @toly has signaled support for SIMD-547, a tokenomics improvement proposal that would add a resource based fee burn to higher cost transactions, increasing estimated daily $SOL burn from 648 $SOL per day to 10,800 to 64,800 $SOL.
Some things to remember about being a human:
- 5 days a month you will be sad
- 5 days a month you will be happy
- 3 days a month you will feel lonely
- 3 days a month you will be depressed
- 1-3 days you will be ecstatic
- the rest of the time you are neutral
Doesnt matter about why or what is happening (narrative)- its the human condition we all go through it men and woman.
Just accept it, understand it, dont over react.
It helps to say to yourself “nothing has changed” on the bad days and “enjoy this” on the good days.
We all in this together.
solana at $293 had zero US banks settling on it, fewer transactions, less stablecoin supply, and no commodity classification. solana at $87 has two US banks live for USDC settlement, 10.1b transactions in Q1 (record), $14.6b in stablecoins (up 167% YoY), and SEC/CFTC commodity status. the token at ATH was pricing in hope. the token now is pricing in a network that doesn't exist anymore. 425m SOL staked at two year highs. FTX overhang down to $16m/month in distributions. firedancer and alpenglow hitting mainnet this quarter. the market priced SOL for what it was in 2023 and forgot to update the model.
La paradoja del socialismo: necesitan que existan los pobres. Prometen ayudarlos, pero es al revés: si realmente los ayudaran, dejarían de ser pobres. Sin pobres, no se necesita socialismo.