Reevaluating Solana’s Potential: Could it Become the Go-To Chain for Institutional Adoption?
For years, the narrative surrounding cryptocurrency adoption, particularly among institutional investors, has centered around Ethereum as the likely choice for Wall Street. This is largely due to Ethereum’s position as the largest smart contract network, its widespread adoption among developers, and its role in shaping the concept of programmable finance. However, with the acceleration of institutional tokenization efforts, a new question has emerged: What if Solana, rather than Ethereum, becomes the preferred chain for institutional investors?
This scenario, while still speculative, reflects a significant shift in how market infrastructure is valued. Solana, initially known for its high-speed transactions, low fees, and ease of deployment, which made it a hub for memecoins and retail trading, is now being reconsidered for its potential in institutional-level settlements. According to data from Solscan, Solana can process over 3,000 transactions per second at an average cost of half a cent, outperforming Ethereum in terms of raw throughput and cost efficiency.
Solana’s performance profile has caught the attention of analysts who track the intersection of blockchains and traditional capital markets. Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan has described Solana as “the new Wall Street,” highlighting its low-latency execution model as better suited for institutional workflows than general-purpose alternatives. Furthermore, stablecoin issuers and tokenization firms are developing sophisticated products on the network, reinforcing this narrative.
Solana’s Evolving Image and Ambitions
Despite its ambitions, Solana’s current reality is far from its aspirations. The blockchain executes an average of about 284 “trades” per second in terms of user-initiated value movement instructions, significantly below its reported raw throughput. In comparison, Nasdaq executes about 2,920 trades per second and processes a daily volume of about $463 billion, compared to Solana’s $6 billion. The economic density between the two platforms remains substantial, with Solana’s developers working on upgrades to optimize validator performance, improve scheduling, and reduce block conflicts.
These advancements aim to bring the network closer to the reliability profile expected of market infrastructure. As noted by Galaxy Research, Solana is evolving into a coherent vision of “internet capital markets,” capable of supporting the full spectrum of digital financial activities. This strategic shift signals that Solana no longer wants to be just a fast blockchain but an execution engine for regulated financial operations at scale.
Valuation Projections: What If Wall Street Adopts Solana?
The question of Solana’s potential value if it gains significant traction with institutional investors has led to the development of new modeling frameworks. Jon Ma, CEO of Artemis, has proposed a model where blockchains are valued as infrastructure rather than speculative stocks, focusing on throughput, cost efficiency, fee capture, and the ability to support high-volume, low-latency financial flows. According to Ma’s model, if Solana captures even 5% of the projected $10 trillion to $16 trillion global tokenization market by 2030, it could support a market cap approaching $880 billion.
This model considers factors such as annual sales, projected inflation declines, and blended sales rates derived from priority fees, base fees, and Jito tips. While these predictions do not imply inevitability, they highlight how the market could value blockchains once real-world assets are moved on-chain at scale. With tokenized RWA already at about $35.8 billion, almost double what it was since the end of 2024, performance and execution costs are becoming increasingly important.
Solana’s appeal, based on its speed, low fees, and ability to scale without relying on external execution layers, positions it as a viable option for institutional adoption. Ethereum’s strengths, including security, sophisticated tools, and regulatory familiarity, remain the default institutional preference, but the increasing pressure to evaluate chains based on their ability to handle tokenization and high-volume transactions could shift the landscape.
For more information on Solana’s potential and the evolving landscape of blockchain adoption, visit https://cryptoslate.com/how-high-could-solanas-valuation-go-if-wall-street-starts-using-it-properly/
