Solana, like Bitcoin, offers investors dual opportunities in a single bet if either — or both — the stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure markets grow and it captures a large share of those markets, according to Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan in a note on Wednesday.
Drawing comparisons to Bitcoin, Hougan highlighted that the store-of-value market has grown by 10x, from under $3 trillion in 2005 to $27.5 trillion in 2025, with Gold and Bitcoin accounting for $25 trillion and $2.5 trillion, respectively.
'All you need for Bitcoin to 10x is for that to repeat," wrote Hougan. "A mistake many investors make is focusing too much on Bitcoin winning market share and too little on the growth of the market."
On the other hand, Bitcoin's price could double if the store-of-value market size remains unchanged, but its share of that market improves by 2x. The "upside compounds" if both the market size and Bitcoin's share of it increase, Hougan added.
In the same vein, Hougan says an investment in Solana is based on a dual bet that the stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure market will grow, with Solana's share of the market rising alongside.
Among Layer 1 blockchains, Ethereum leads the stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure market across several metrics, with Solana, Tron, and BNB Chain as key challengers.
The native tokens of these blockchains currently have a market capitalization of about $768 billion, with Solana accounting for just 14% at $107 billion. Solana's current small market share makes it a good candidate for such a dual-opportunity bet, Hougan explained.
He anticipates strong growth in the stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure market, noting that people underestimate the impact these technologies will have on financial markets.
"Over time, I suspect nearly all payments will be in stablecoins and nearly all assets will be tokenized. The blockchains that facilitate this growth will be extremely valuable. It's easy to imagine this market growing by 10x or more," said Hougan.
While Solana's market share is currently small, the Bitwise CIO expects it to gain greater market share due to its scalability, user-friendly technology, and a strong developer community focused on shipping products quickly.
"If I'm right, the combination of a growing market and a growing share of that market will be explosive for Solana. Just as with Bitcoin," Hougan added.
Bitwise debuted the first US spot Solana exchange-traded fund under the '33 Act, BSOL, on Tuesday, with the products attracting over $116 million in net inflows in its first two days of trading.
Western Union also announced that it will launch a stablecoin on Solana in 2026, signaling growing institutional adoption.
Solana trades near $180, down 6% over the past 24 hours at the time of publication on Thursday.