Solana tops $100 as ETF inflows snap 10-month losing streak

Solana climbed 46 percent in August to trade near $106, snapping a 10-month losing streak as institutional inflows lifted SOL above $100. The token touched $110.38 on Aug. 27, its highest level since late January, and sits about 80 percent above its June low, pushing market value toward $61 billion.

Regulated investment products supplied a visible bid, with U.S. spot Solana exchange-traded funds collecting roughly $1.34 billion in cumulative net inflows since launching in October 2025, according to sosovalue.com. Bitwise's BSOL staking fund has cleared $1 billion in assets under management.

Another distribution channel is coming. On Aug. 27, Charles Schwab announced plans to add spot SOL, Avalanche and Chainlink to Schwab Crypto, a platform overseeing more than $12 trillion in client assets across roughly 39 million brokerage accounts. Corporate buyers stepped in too: Defi Development Corp. purchased 19,000 SOL at an average price of $98.14, lifting its holdings to about 2.33 million SOL, while Goldman Sachs disclosed roughly $88 million in Solana ETF exposure in its latest regulatory filing.

The rally faces its next test in September. Solana's Transaction V1 upgrade lands Sept. 9, raising the maximum transaction size from 1,232 bytes to 4,096 bytes, followed by the first rent reduction and progress toward the Alpenglow consensus upgrade in October. A sustained break above $120 would open the $139-$150 zone, while a drop below $97 would show momentum fading.

Supply squeeze tightens as governance vote passes

Solana completed its first binding onchain governance vote, with SGP-0002, dubbed "Double Disinflation," passing with 67 percent support from participating stakeholders. The change doubles Solana's annual disinflation rate from 15 percent to 30 percent, meaning new SOL enters circulation at a slower pace sooner while the network retains its eventual 1.5 percent inflation floor. Estimates place the issuance reduction at roughly 18.9 million SOL over six years.

Record traffic pushes network limits

The rally arrived with heavy network usage. Solana processed a record 4.2 billion transactions in July, 13.5 percent above June and roughly 91 percent higher than December 2025, according to The Kobeissi Letter. Daily active addresses reached 5 million, and from Aug. 17-23 the network logged about 1.32 billion non-vote transactions, another weekly record. Tokenized equity trading also surged, with Solana's decentralized exchanges reporting about $5.8 billion in tokenized stock volume in the second quarter, up 114 percent from the prior quarter. Network fees, however, fell 44 percent quarter over quarter to $41 million, according to DefiLlama.

Leverage fueled part of August's move, with more than $16 million in Solana short positions liquidated during the breakout toward $109, according to Coinglass.com derivatives stats. Forced buying can stretch a rally, but that machinery works just as aggressively when momentum turns south. September's upgrade milestones will show whether August started something bigger or merely delivered Solana's sharpest rebound in nearly a year.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.