At Consensus Hong Kong 2026, leaders from major Solana protocols declared the network's next phase will prioritize scaling global finance and real-world utility over the speculative meme coin activity that previously defined its reputation. The panel emphasized that the ecosystem has moved beyond a "survival mode" following the 2022 collapse of FTX, which was closely tied to Solana through its founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation, starkly framed the network's mission, stating, "If Solana doesn't do it, nobody will," positioning Solana as the last serious contender to push blockchain innovation forward, particularly in real-world finance. Armani Ferrante, founder of Backpack Exchange, described the FTX collapse as a "brutal" clearing event that ultimately strengthened the developer base, noting that "the single most important thing happening right now across any blockchain is all of finance coming onchain."
The shift is already manifesting in capital flows and infrastructure development. The stablecoin supply on Solana now exceeds $15.5 billion, signaling a move towards practical payment rail utility. Austin Federa, co-founder of DoubleZero, highlighted that while capital fled during the crisis, "Solana lost no technical teams," proving developer resilience independent of price action.
Upcoming network upgrades aim to further reduce latency, which is deemed essential for high-frequency demands like real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and institutional trading. Ecosystem tokens like Jito and Jupiter are noted to be moving at speeds distinct from the broader market, driven by this specific utility focus, with Jupiter recently announcing a strategic investment deal settled in JupUSD.
Despite a short-term price downtrend for SOL, testing the $79 support area, analysts project the token could trade between $128 and $178 by the end of 2026 as DeFi scale increases on the network.
