Can Solana shed its memecoin image in 2026?

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Solana heads into 2026 facing the question of whether infrastructure upgrades and tokenized fiscal enactment tin propulsion the web beyond its memecoin reputation.

Solana kicked disconnected 2025 astatine the tallness of the memecoin frenzy, with Solana (SOL) reaching a new all-time precocious of $293 connected Jan. 19. As memecoin volumes cooled implicit the year, SOL had fallen to astir $130 by mid-December.

“Solana needs to shingle disconnected the stamp of ‘memecoin [or] NFT’ concatenation and presumption itself arsenic a superior spot for Web2 and Web3 fiscal businesses to travel and physique the aboriginal of finance,” Tomas Fanta, main astatine the crypto concern steadfast Heartcore, told Cointelegraph.

Whether Solana tin determination beyond that estimation volition beryllium mostly connected the occurrence of its infrastructure upgrades. Next year, Solana is expected to beforehand its Firedancer validator lawsuit adoption, which proposes statement changes and execution-layer improvements that purpose to marque the web much predictable and resilient.

Solana’s Firedancer is already live

The layer-1 blockchain’s infrastructure propulsion is already moving ahead. The Firedancer validator lawsuit is present moving connected mainnet.

Firedancer, developed by Jump Crypto, is simply a reimplementation of Solana’s validator bundle designed to amended performance. The lawsuit is susceptible of processing up to astir 1 cardinal transactions per 2nd (TPS) nether perfect conditions.

The Solana Foundation said connected Dec. 12 that Firedancer has been producing blocks connected mainnet for much than 100 days extracurricular of trial environments.

Two validators are presently moving the afloat Firedancer client, but a hybrid mentation known arsenic “Frankendancer” has seen acold broader adoption. Data shows astir 165 validators, representing astir 26% of the full stake, are present moving Frankendancer alongside the existing Agave client.

Doug Colkitt, a founding contributor to Fogo, a layer-1 blockchain presently moving Frankendancer, told Cointelegraph that the bigger trial volition travel arsenic much involvement shifts onto axenic Firedancer due to the fact that stableness astatine a tiny stock of the web does not warrant stableness astatine scale.

“A batch of times, a lawsuit tin beryllium unchangeable erstwhile you trial it arsenic a tiny percent of the network, and past definite things mightiness not truly look until you standard up to a larger percent of the network.”

For builders moving connected latency-sensitive fiscal products, those changes to show already matter.

“For products similar ours, wherever milliseconds matter, I expect the Firedancer upgrade to marque trading adjacent faster,” said Igor Stadnyk, co-founder and AI pb astatine True Trading — a Solana-based AI trading platform.

More important than earthy show is whether that show tin beryllium relied connected consistently, Stadnyk said.

“Firedancer matters for a crushed that doesn’t get capable attention: predictability. Throughput and latency improvements are great, but much importantly, Solana gets a afloat autarkic lawsuit with a antithetic codebase, engineering civilization and nonaccomplishment modes.”

Alongside Firedancer, Solana developers are besides preparing for Alpenglow, a projected overhaul of Solana’s statement design. The upgrade would regenerate proof-of-history and TowerBFT to cut artifact finality to astir 150 milliseconds portion improving the network’s quality to enactment unrecorded adjacent if a information of validators are unresponsive.

“If successfully implemented, this caller statement mechanics volition unlock Solana for the adjacent level of performance,” Fanta said.

Memecoins don’t person to beryllium Solana’s unintended burden

Memecoins person been 1 of Solana’s apical maturation engines, driving idiosyncratic enactment and taste relevance successful the past mates of years. That enactment helped propulsion developers and traders onto the web and played a large relation successful Solana’s decentralized concern resurgence.

At the aforesaid time, the dominance of memecoin trading has shaped however the web is perceived by investors and fiscal institutions, often tying Solana’s maturation to speculative cycles.

“Memecoins won’t disappear. They’re portion of Solana’s taste individuality and a liquidity motor that brings users in,” said Stadnyk.

He added that the adjacent signifier of maturation is apt to travel from applications that trust little connected viral speculation and much connected accordant execution, specified arsenic onchain perpetual futures and AI-native trading agents.

Memecoin trading has besides reshaped however liquidity is provided connected Solana. Over the past year, the web has seen the emergence of prop automated marketplace makers (AMMs), wherever trading firms deploy their ain superior and algorithms onchain alternatively than relying connected permissionless liquidity pools.

“In 2025, prop AMMs astir apt changed everything. Solana has ever been a precise trading-focused chain, and prop AMMs truly revolutionized the marketplace operation determination — astatine slightest successful spot trading.”

Colkitt said the exemplary came with trade-offs, peculiarly astir centralization, but argued that it emerged arsenic a nonstop effect to demand.

“If you didn’t person the memecoin explosion, you wouldn’t person had the detonation of enactment successful Solana,” helium said. “You wouldn’t person built retired the marketplace operation oregon the infrastructure without that measurement of transactions.”

That aforesaid trading strength has besides shaped however Solana generates revenue. As the web matures, the situation is reducing memecoins’ power connected gross and sentiment without undermining the enactment that drove its caller growth.

Fanta pointed to the value of increasing existent economical worth (REV) successful ways that are little babelike connected memecoin-induced maximal extractable worth (MEV). MEV is simply a signifier of gross generated by transaction ordering, and it tin dominate web revenue during periods of aggravated speculative trading.

“If Solana tin proceed to turn its REV successful a much sustainable, little memecoin-induced MEV way, organization investors volition instrumentality announcement and reevaluate SOL’s worth proposition nether a precise antithetic hazard framework,” Fanta said.

Fanta added that failing to pull much superior fiscal and firm builders, peculiarly arsenic galore Web2 firms proceed to experimentation connected EVM-based networks, could bounds however acold that reevaluation goes arsenic Solana moves into 2026.

Solana’s bull and carnivore case

As Solana heads into 2026, the network’s outlook progressively comes down to execution. The bull case, arsenic Fanta said, rests connected infrastructure upgrades delivering arsenic intended and caller forms of fiscal enactment gaining existent traction.

Successful rollouts of Firedancer and projected statement changes, combined with maturation successful tokenized funds, equities and different real-world assets, could assistance Solana make much sustainable REV and displacement however organization investors measure its hazard profile.

Colkitt said derivatives trading successful 2025 has been a missed opportunity, with the web failing to nutrient a credible onchain rival to Hyperliquid during the past cycle. The lack of specified a level reflects Solana’s broader situation arsenic it looks to determination beyond memecoins toward higher-stakes fiscal markets.

The downside risks for Solana are that heavy protocol changes summation the information of concatenation halts, an result that would rapidly revive disapproval tied to Solana’s earlier outages and measurement connected sentiment.

Fanta argued that nonaccomplishment to pull larger Web2 and fiscal firms, galore of which proceed to experimentation connected Ethereum Virtual Machine-based networks, could headdress Solana’s maturation adjacent if its show advantages persist.

For builders similar Stadnyk, the result hinges connected whether Solana tin crook its method advantages into thing dependable.

“Solana is the archetypal situation wherever that imaginativeness is really executable: debased latency, predictable finality, inexpensive authorities reads and tooling that nary longer feels experimental,” helium said, referring to real-time, automated trading systems.

Stadnyk said 2026 could beryllium the twelvemonth Solana demonstrates that full-stack onchain trading tin run astatine a level antecedently reserved for centralized exchanges.

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