Solana is having a moment. Just… not the kind that shows up on a price chart.
In January, the network was ranked No.1 in DEX Volume rankings, while transactions and usage pushed to ATHs. However, despite it all, SOL’s price has struggled to keep pace.
Will that change?
Solana leads by a wide margin
Recent data per CryptoRank showed that Solana has processed $117.7 billion in trades in January 2026.
Source: CryptoRank
That’s a 20% month-on-month increase, leaving Ethereum [ETH], BNB Chain [BNB], Base [BASE], and Arbitrum [ARB] far behind.
At its peak, Solana [SOL] accounted for nearly 35% of all on-chain DEX Volume.
Source: X
Meanwhile, Transaction Counts and overall network activity are at all-time highs, while the ratio of successful to reverted transactions improved meaningfully.
All these numbers, and yet…
…price has taken a good fall.
Over the past week, SOL dropped roughly 20%, retracing from the $120-125 range to trade near $100. The price dropped fast with big red candles – caused by the overall market weakness of the recent days, and NOT a loss of interest in Solana.
Source: TradingView
RSI indicated that selling pressure has been intense in a short span of time. In effect, SOL’s price has moved in the opposite direction from its on-chain growth.
The long game
That gap between activity and price is exactly where Standard Chartered sees Solana’s longer-term opportunity.
While the bank trimmed its near-term outlook for SOL from $310 to $250, it recently raised its forecasts further out.
They noted that the network is moving beyond meme coin-led trading cycles and that they will be dominant in stablecoin transfers and micropayments.
The forecasts state that SOL will reach $400 by the end of 2027, $700 by the end of 2028, and $1,200 by end-2029.
According to Geoff Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Assets Research, activity on Solana’s DEXs is moving toward SOL-stablecoin pairs, with stablecoins circulating far faster than on Ethereum.
That efficiency could unlock new use cases (particularly AI-driven micropayments), even if scale takes time to arrive.
Final Thoughts
- Solana led January DEX volume, even as SOL fell 20%.
- Standard Chartered’s long-term SOL target depends on stablecoins and micropayments.
Source: https://ambcrypto.com/solana-wins-january-on-chain-so-why-did-sol-still-drop-20/
