‘Big Year’: Solana Reveals Expectations in Mixed 2026 Start

It is 2026, and social media is flooded with wishes and expectations from projects and leaders in the crypto industry.

In a tweet on 2026’s first day, the official Solana X account shares expectations for the year 2026, calling it a “big year.”

According to the Solana team, the just concluded year 2025 was a “banger.” Hunter Horsley, Bitwise CEO, commends the energy and optimism of the Solana community, saying, “The Solana ecosystem has winning energy and execution. Fired up for 2026.”

This optimism comes despite 2026 starting on a mixed note, with several crypto assets, including Solana, trading in red as fear continues to dominate investor psychology.

Sentiment currently sits at 31, which signals fear, according to the crypto Fear and Greed Index.

Fear has dominated sentiment since the liquidation crash in October 2025, which wiped out nearly $20 billion in liquidations. The cryptocurrency market has yet to stage a meaningful recovery, with investor caution remaining.

Cryptocurrencies ended December without the expected year-end rally, as repeated attempts for a rebound were sold into.

At the time of writing, SOL was trading down 1.07% in the last 24 hours to $124.

Solana 2026 prediction

Asset manager Bitwise predicts a new all-time high for Solana in 2026, saying it remains bullish on Solana and Ethereum as it sees stablecoins and tokenization as megatrends, and both Ethereum and Solana are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of that growth if the Clarity Act passes.

In 26 predictions released by Galaxy Research at 2025’s close for the year 2026, the total market cap of Internet Capital Markets on Solana is predicted to surge to $2 billion from its current $750 million.

Galaxy predicts that no Solana inflation reduction proposal will pass in 2026, and the current proposal, SIMD-0411, will be withdrawn without a vote. In addition, it predicts more than 50 spot altcoin ETFs and another 50 crypto ETFs (excluding spot single-coin products) will launch in the U.S. Following the SEC’s approval of generic listing standards, Galaxy predicts the pace of spot altcoin ETF launches to accelerate in 2026.