The SOL investment thesis rests on sustained demand for the Solana network. SOL pays for transactions, helps secure the network through Participating in a network with coins allocated to block validation. You can run your own validator or participate through a selected validator or service. Rewards are earned for following the network’s rules. and funds the balances that accounts need to store data. If Solana becomes a lasting venue for trading, payments and financial applications, these functions give people and services reasons to hold its native asset.
Purchase price matters too: a useful network can still be an expensive investment. A SOL assessment connects network usage, demand for the coin and changes in its supply. The detailed issuance and allocation rules are covered in SOL tokenomics; this review explains what they mean for a holder.
Why Solana needs its own coin
Paying for transactions. Sending USDC, swapping tokens and using an application generate transactions. The network charges their fee payer in SOL. The payer can be the user or a service sponsoring the transaction. More useful work on the network creates more occasions to spend SOL. Solana fee rules.
Securing the network. Validators are operators that check transactions and participate in confirming blocks. A SOL holder can delegate coins to them, a process called staking. Delegated SOL increases a A network participant that verifies transactions and helps confirm blocks using dedicated software. Validators work together under the network’s rules to determine which blocks are accepted and how balances are updated.’s voting weight, while the participant earns rewards under the network’s rules. This provides a reason to hold coins beyond topping up a wallet for the next transfer.
Funding account storage. Solana accounts hold a minimum SOL balance based on the amount of data they store. That balance can be recovered when an eligible account is closed. Creating accounts holds some coins within application infrastructure through a different mechanism from transaction spending. How accounts work.
What usage supports the thesis?
Solana supports applications with frequent operations: token swaps, collateralized lending, payments and stablecoin settlement. A stablecoin provides the user’s unit of payment, while SOL pays for the network operation.
A concrete example is Visa’s announcement on December 16, 2025: Cross River Bank and Lead Bank had begun settling in USDC over Solana. For the investment thesis, the useful connection is a recurring workflow: who pays, which operation they need and why they keep using the network.
Trading or transfer volume connects to SOL through transaction costs rather than matching amounts. A large USDC transfer can cost the same as a small transfer carrying out the same actions. Volume is therefore more useful alongside network fees and the applications generating them.
The widget shows Solana network fees for its displayed period. Their distribution between burning and block producers is explained in Solana’s network economics. Wallets, exchanges and other applications are gathered in the Solana ecosystem.
What does a SOL holder receive?
A small SOL balance lets someone use the network. A larger long-term holding expresses the view that Solana’s role will grow and participants will need its coin. These are different scales of the same function.
Staking adds rewards denominated in SOL. New issuance supplies their foundation; an individual holder’s result depends on the share of SOL being staked, validator performance and commission. With native delegation, withdrawal authority remains with the stake account’s owner. Activation and deactivation take effect through changes of epoch, the network’s operating periods. Delegation rules.
A service stakes coins and issues a token representing your share. The token can be used in applications or swapped; the swap price and the time required to redeem the original coins depend on the market and the service’s rules. offers another form: a pool delegates SOL and gives the user a token representing a share, such as JitoSOL. Accrued rewards increase the SOL value of that share. This arrangement adds the pool’s own rules and software. How JitoSOL works.
Exchange products for SOL can have different sources of yield and withdrawal terms. SOL product comparisons lead to specific offerings; a product’s rate describes that offering rather than the issuance rate of the whole network.
The summary compares a SOL product’s rate with network issuance measured on October 13, 2026. APR is a simple annualized rate. Assuming unchanged conditions for a year, the model shows coin growth relative to gross issuance, before burning.
SOL rates and coin issuance
Annual gross issuance rate: 3.60% in epoch 1056. Network observation: 13.10.2026 15:20 Moscow time. This dated issuance input is measured before fee burns.
Kraken · On-chain staking: 4.80% APR observed at 18.10.2026 08:03 Moscow time. If the rate stays constant for a year without reinvestment and supply grows at gross issuance before burns, the share change is 1.15%.
SOL tokenomics: full calculation and product terms →What strengthens or weakens the investment thesis?
| Factor | Strengthens the thesis | Weakens the thesis |
|---|---|---|
| Usage | People return to trading, payments and other applications | Activity depends on a brief trading surge |
| Connection to SOL | More coins are needed for transactions, accounts and network security | Application volume outpaces demand for the native coin |
| Supply | Issuance slows and the holder participates in staking | New coins expand supply faster than lasting demand |
| Network operation | Applications and validators handle work under heavy load | Disruption and unsuccessful operations make alternatives more attractive |
| Purchase price | Expectations leave room for further growth in usage | The price already assumes more growth than the network achieves |
The framework weighs network usage, supply and purchase price. A successful application can earn substantial revenue from its own fees; that revenue connects to SOL through shared infrastructure usage. An application token may have its own distribution mechanism, which belongs in a separate assessment.
Infrastructure performance directly affects this connection: regular users need a working route. The Solana Foundation’s network health report explains the role of diverse validator software and application performance under load.
Worked example: more SOL and a dollar return
Consider a hypothetical 100 SOL purchased at $150 per coin, an initial value of $15 000. Suppose the balance reaches 106 SOL after a year, including rewards. The assumed 6% is the balance growth over the full period after a hypothetical commission, rather than a current validator rate.
At an ending price of $120, the holding is worth 106 × $120 = $12 720, a return of −15.2%. At $180, the same coins are worth $19 080, a gain of 27.2%. If the price stays at $150, the ending value is $15 900, a 6% increase.
The general formula is (1 + SOL balance growth) × (ending price / starting price) − 1. It combines the change in coin balance and price; purchase and withdrawal fees, as well as taxes, are excluded.
Reasons to hold SOL
For transactions, a user needs a balance for fees and account creation. For network participation, they need delegated SOL and a staking arrangement. For long-term ownership, they need a view that lasting demand for Solana will justify the coin’s purchase price and expanding supply.
The third idea forms the investment thesis. Staking changes the number of coins a holder owns, while network usage gives participants reasons to own them. Together, those mechanisms explain SOL better than a single yield figure or a promised future price.
Continue with Solana tokenomics: issuance, allocation and a holder’s share. The SOL profile brings together market and practical data, while SOL withdrawal fees help assess the cost of moving coins from an exchange.