Solana enters 2026 with last-minute boost in RWA momentum

Solana appears poised to expand from its memecoin-focused, retail-dominant network this year, after posting record real-world asset tokenization activity in December. 

Data from RWA.xyz shows the value of tokenized RWAs on Solana increased nearly 10% over the last month to a record-high $873.3 million, while the number of Solana RWA token holders rose over 18.4% to 126,236 over the same timeframe. 

The majority of these RWAs back US Treasuries, such as the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund and the Ondo US Dollar Yield, which boast market caps of $255.4 million and $175.8 million, respectively.

New tokenized stocks like Tesla xStock and Nvidia xStock are also rising, at $48.3 million and $17.6 million, respectively, while institutional funds are also being tokenized on Solana.

Solana is poised to become the third blockchain to exceed $1 billion in tokenized RWAs, behind Ethereum at $12.3 billion and BNB Chain, which recently passed $2 billion.

SOL will set a new high in 2026 if one thing happens: Bitwise

Last month, crypto asset manager Bitwise predicted Solana would set a new all-time high should the US pass the market-structure-focused CLARITY Act in 2026.

If it passes, Bitwise expects crypto tokenization will take off, with Solana being one of the biggest winners from that upward trend: “We’re bullish on Ethereum and Solana. Really bullish. Primarily because we think stablecoins and tokenization are megatrends, and Ethereum and Solana are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of that growth.”

SOL has some catching up to do on BTC, ETH

Solana enters 2026 at a significantly lower price than it began 2025, trading around $125 versus roughly $190 this time last year.

SOL is also over 57% off the $293.3 all-time high it set on Jan. 19, 2025, while Bitcoin and Ether set their all-time highs more recently — October and August — and are currently trading much closer to those prices.

ETFs, institutional payments also spurring SOL momentum

Solana's legitimacy in the institutional space strengthened in late October when the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first lot of now six spot Solana exchange-traded funds. 

Those Solana products have combined for $765 million in inflows, Farside Investors data shows.

Also in October, international remittance giant Western Union chose Solana to build its stablecoin settlements platform on for its more than 150 million customers, spread across over 200 countries and territories. It is expected to roll out in the first half of 2026.

Solana’s on-chain metrics look solid

Solana is leading all blockchains in app revenue, proving it can generate high income even when memecoin activity slows. 

Over the past 30 days, it raked in over $110 million, far ahead of second-place Hyperliquid at $61.1 million and nearly double Ethereum’s $47.2 million, DeFiLlama data shows.