Solana (SOL) Price: Institutions Are Still Buying the ETF Even as SOL Trades Near $88
TLDR
Solana (SOL) is down 57% since US Solana ETFs launched in July, trading around $88
Solana ETFs have still accumulated $1.5 billion in inflows and held onto most of it
50% of ETF inflows come from institutional investors
Solana’s network hit a record $650 billion in stablecoin transactions in February 2026
Solana now holds the second-largest USDC supply of any blockchain, behind only Ethereum
Solana’s price has fallen sharply since its ETF debut in the United States, but on-chain activity and fund flows tell a more complicated story.
SOL is currently trading at around $88, down 57% since Solana ETFs launched in July. It is also down 70% from its all-time high of $293, reached in January 2025 during a memecoin trading surge.
Despite the price drop, Solana ETFs have pulled in $1.5 billion in net inflows and have not given much of that back, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
Solana is down 57% since the spot ETFs launched in July (that is about as unlucky timing as you’ll ever see in ETFs) yet they managed to not only accumulate $1.5b in flows but not really give any of it up. Further, 50% of the assets are from 13F filers = serious inv base. Both… pic.twitter.com/jfCPCTOnsv
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) March 5, 2026
Balchunas noted on Thursday that 50% of those inflows came from institutional investors, which he described as a “serious investor base.”
He added that ETFs launching into a market downturn of this size usually find it “near impossible to get inflows,” and that most funds would not survive if the underlying asset dropped 57% in their first six months.
When adjusted for market size, Solana ETFs have seen the equivalent of $54 billion in flows relative to Bitcoin’s market cap — roughly double where Bitcoin ETF inflows stood at the same point after launch.
On Thursday, Solana ETFs recorded their first net outflow day in over a month, with $6 million leaving the six products. That followed a $19 million net inflow day on Wednesday, per CoinGlass data.
Stablecoin Volume Hits Record High
Away from price action, Solana’s network posted a record $650 billion in stablecoin transactions during February 2026, according to a research note from Grayscale Investments.
Source: Grayscale
That figure is the highest monthly stablecoin total ever recorded on any blockchain, and it was reached in just 28 days. It more than doubled the previous peak, set only four months earlier in October 2025.
Grayscale noted the volume was driven by SOL-stablecoin trading pairs and real payment activity, not speculative memecoin trading.
Low transaction fees on Solana have made small transfers practical, drawing developers building payment tools and micropayment systems that would not work on higher-fee networks.
Solana’s Position in Stablecoin Rankings
Solana now holds the fourth-largest stablecoin supply of any blockchain. In USDC specifically, it ranks second, behind only Ethereum.
USDC is widely used by institutional participants, making Solana’s second-place ranking in that category a data point worth watching.
Ethereum still leads in tokenized real-world assets, carrying $15.57 billion over the past 30 days compared to Solana’s $2 billion, according to rwa.xyz figures.
SOL is currently down 2.7% on the day and 11% over the past month, per CoinGecko. The token last traded at approximately $88.40.
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Filed under: News - @ March 6, 2026 8:22 am