The Solana season has officially begun! Bitwise: An epic explosion is expected by the end of the year.

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan believes that the Solana season has arrived, with all factors in place, and Solana is expected to achieve epic success by the end of the year.

The secret to high returns in cryptocurrency: ETP + DAT

In the past 18 months, the secret to high returns in cryptocurrency has been clear: part of it is from ETP ( exchange-traded products, including ETF) inflows, combined with strong purchases from digital asset financial company (DAT), which can yield substantial returns.

Bitcoin has followed the same pattern, rising from $40,000 in January 2024 to the current $112,000. Ethereum also discovered the same pattern in April 2025, with prices having doubled to $4,500.

This is a typical supply and demand relationship! When demand exceeds supply, prices will rise.

Since January 11, 2024, the Bitcoin network has produced 322,681 Bitcoins, while ETPs and enterprises have purchased over 1.1 million.

Since April 15, 2025, the Ethereum network has produced 388,568 ETH, while ETP and the company have acquired 7.4 million ETH.

Why will Solana (SOL) be the next one?

Multiple issuers, including Bitwise, Grayscale, VanEck, Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, Invesco/Galaxy, and Canary Capital, have applied to launch a Solana spot ETP. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to make a decision on these applications by October 10, 2025, which means we may see several issuers launch a Solana spot ETP in the fourth quarter.

Last weekend, three large companies, Galaxy Digital, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital, pledged to provide $1.65 billion in cash and stablecoins to the large Solana-listed financial company Forward Industries. After the transaction is completed, the new company will begin purchasing SOL and staking it, aiming to achieve excess returns.

Forward Industries has appointed Kyle Samani, co-founder of Multicoin Capital, as chairman. Multicoin is not only one of the early investors in Solana, but Samani is also one of the most articulate and steadfast supporters. Hougan believes that Samani has the opportunity to play a similar role in promoting the Solana vision as Michael Saylor of the Bitcoin reserve company MicroStrategy (Strategy) and Tom Lee of the Ethereum reserve company BitMine, which will help drive the flywheel effect of investor demand.

What is the focus of SOL's promotion?

Solana is a competitor to Ethereum. It is a programmable blockchain designed to support stablecoins, tokenized assets, and decentralized finance applications. One of Solana's highlights is its transaction throughput, which far exceeds that of Ethereum, while also being cost-effective and capable of quickly achieving final confirmation. In fact, the Solana blockchain recently approved a significant technical upgrade that reduces the final confirmation time from approximately 12 seconds to 150 milliseconds. After the upgrade goes live, Solana will rank among the fastest blockchains in the world.

Solana achieves this through a technology design that is fundamentally different from Ethereum. It does not rely on second-layer networks and makes the blockchain simpler for users.

Although critics argue that Solana's ability to achieve this is due to its greater centralization and vulnerability, Solana still attracts a large number of users. In terms of programming blockchains, Solana ranks third in stablecoin liquidity, only behind Ethereum and TRON, and ranks fourth in tokenized assets. Moreover, it has grown rapidly, with its tokenized asset management scale increasing by 140% so far this year. Its supporters believe that Solana is the only blockchain fast enough to support the tokenization of major global assets.

The market value of SOL is relatively small, making its price easier to drive up.

As of September 7, the market capitalization of Bitcoin is $2.22 trillion, Ethereum's market capitalization is $5.19 trillion, and Solana's market capitalization is $1.16 trillion. In other words, Solana's size is one-twentieth of Bitcoin and less than one-quarter of Ethereum.

Forward Industries has announced it will invest $1.6 billion to purchase Solana.

Therefore, Hougan suggests that everyone continues to pay attention to Solana in the coming months, as the Solana season has arrived and it will achieve epic success by the end of the year.

This article marks the official start of the Solana season! Bitwise: An epic explosion is expected by the end of the year, first appearing in Chain News ABMedia.