Solana's Scaling Struggles: Is Ethereum Pulling Ahead with Institutional Backing?

Solana's Price Outlook and Scaling Challenges: Standard Chartered Analysis

According to a recent report by Standard Chartered, Solana's price is expected to underperform Ethereum over the next two to three years due to ongoing scaling issues. The bank forecasts Solana (SOL) to reach $275 by the end of the year and $500 by 2029, while Ethereum (ETH) is projected to hit $4,000 in 2025 and $7,500 by 2029. Currently, SOL is trading at approximately $180, up 2% in the last 24 hours and over 19% in the past month, whereas ETH is near $2,700, marking a 4.5% daily gain and nearly 50% increase over 30 days, as per CoinGecko data.

Standard Chartered's Head of Digital Assets, Geoffrey Kendrick, notes that Solana's dominance in high-volume, low-cost transactions has so far been limited to meme coin trading, which now appears to be past its peak. Kendrick emphasizes that for Solana to close the gap with Ethereum, it must find broader use cases, particularly in high-throughput financial and consumer applications. However, achieving this scale may take several years. The report also highlights that Ethereum has benefited from the Pectra upgrade, which improved security and efficiency, contributing to its recent rally.

Asset	Current Price	2025 Target	2029 Target
Solana (SOL)	$180	$275	$500
Ethereum (ETH)	$2,700	$4,000	$7,500

Solana's price ratio to Ethereum is expected to rise from 14 to 17 through 2028, then dip in 2029.
Solana's meme coin activity is declining, and the network is trading at a discount to its application revenue.
Ethereum's recent upgrades and increased staking have improved its market position.

Key Takeaway: Solana faces a critical period where it must expand beyond meme coin trading to compete with Ethereum, which continues to benefit from technical upgrades and broader adoption. (Source: Decrypt)

Ethereum Options Market Shows Cautious Optimism Amid Rising Open Interest

Ethereum's options market is signaling cautious optimism as open interest returns to December highs, despite low volatility. Data from Amberdata indicates only a 12% probability that ETH will exceed $5,000 by December 2025. Retail traders are targeting $3,000 by the end of the month, while institutional investors are aiming for $3,500 by June. Open interest in ETH options has climbed to approximately $35 billion, an 8.8% increase, according to CoinGlass.

Greg Magadini, Amberdata's director of derivatives, notes that while investor appetite for options is returning, volatility remains inexpensive. The divergence in price targets between retail and institutional traders reflects differing risk appetites. Despite subdued price expectations, the market's positive sentiment is evident in the increased open interest and a positive OI-weighted funding rate. Over the past week, ETH has gained about 4%, reaching around $2,647.

Metric	Value
Open Interest (ETH options)	$35 billion
Open Interest Change	+8.8%
Retail Target	$3,000 (end of month)
Institutional Target	$3,500 (by June)
Probability of $5,000 by Dec 2025	12%

ETH has outperformed Bitcoin in Q2, up 45% compared to Bitcoin's 31%.
Market participants are actively positioning despite conservative price targets.

Key Takeaway: Ethereum's options market reflects cautious optimism, with rising open interest and split price targets between retail and institutional traders. (Source: Decrypt)

Unstaked Presale Heats Up as Ethereum and Avalanche Show Mixed Signals

Unstaked, a new crypto project focused on autonomous, no-code AI agents for Web3, is gaining attention with its presale in Stage 15. Over $7.5 million has been raised, with around 860 million tokens sold at $0.009831 each. The projected launch price is $0.1819, suggesting a potential 27x return on investment for early buyers. The platform's AI tools are set to go live soon, offering automation for Telegram communities, X posts, and crypto drops without requiring coding skills.

Meanwhile, Avalanche (AVAX) recently bounced off $26 after a 32% rally but faces resistance between $26.5 and $28. Technical indicators such as the MACD show a bearish crossover, and a daily close below $22 could trigger further downside. For Ethereum, the price remains below the $2,800 cost basis, a key level for long-term holders. Despite ETF inflows of over $238 million this week, ETH faces resistance at $2,800, with the next target at $3,052 if it breaks higher. If it falls below $2,366, it could revisit sub-$2,300 levels.

Project/Asset	Current Price	Key Levels	Notable Data
Unstaked ($UNSD)	$0.009831 (presale)	Projected launch: $0.1819	27x ROI potential, $7.5M+ raised
Avalanche (AVAX)	$26	Resistance: $26.5-$28; Support: $22, $19	32% rally, bearish MACD
Ethereum (ETH)	Just under $2,500	Resistance: $2,800; Support: $2,366	$238M ETF inflows, bullish flag, golden cross

Unstaked's presale is in high demand, with a $1 million giveaway boosting interest.
Both AVAX and ETH are at critical technical levels, with mixed short-term signals.

Key Takeaway: Unstaked stands out as a potential breakout project, while Ethereum and Avalanche present mixed trading signals amid key resistance and support levels. (Source: FinanceFeeds)

Ethereum Achieves Real-Time zk-Proof Milestone: A 'ZK Man on the Moon Moment'

Succinct has achieved a significant technical milestone by demonstrating real-time zero-knowledge (zk) proving for Ethereum blocks, generating cryptographic proofs in under 12 seconds. The SP1 “Hypercube” zkVM produced a proof for Ethereum block 22309250 (143 transactions, 32 million gas) in 10.8 seconds, and internal benchmarks show that 93% of 10,000 recent main-net blocks can be proven in under 12 seconds, with an average latency of 10.3 seconds.

This breakthrough narrows the latency gap between proof generation and block time, but challenges remain. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin points out that worst-case block proving must also fit within block times for Layer 1 security, and current energy requirements are near 100 kW per proof—far above the 10 kW target for home-based proving. The SP1 proofs have not yet undergone formal verification. Community discussions are ongoing about balancing decentralization and performance, with some researchers suggesting temporary relaxation of hardware decentralization goals for provers.

“This is ZK’s man on the moon moment. Real-time Ethereum proving has landed. If you had asked anyone in ZK 1 year ago whether this was possible, they would have said it was a literal moonshot.” — Uma Roy, Succinct co-founder

Succinct’s implementation uses a new proof system based on multilinear polynomials and optimized CUDA kernels.
Proof generation can be parallelized across distributed infrastructure, reducing centralization risks.
Further reductions in latency and power, along with protocol-level integration, are needed for broader adoption.

Key Takeaway: Real-time zk-proof generation marks a major step for Ethereum scalability, but energy efficiency and decentralization challenges remain. (Source: CryptoSlate)

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin Rally After Trump Media's Bitcoin Treasury Announcement

Major cryptocurrencies saw gains following the announcement that Trump Media & Technology Group, co-founded by President Donald Trump, will use proceeds from a $2.5 billion private offering to create a Bitcoin treasury. Bitcoin reached the high $110,000s before settling in the $108,000 range, while Ethereum jumped 4.5% in 24 hours to an intraday high of $2,712.29. Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin in Q2, rising 45% compared to Bitcoin's 31% increase.

Over $231 million was liquidated from the crypto market in the last 24 hours, mostly from bearish short bets. Bitcoin's open interest rose 1.87%, and Ethereum's derivatives saw a 7.68% increase in funds locked. More than 57% of Binance traders with open ETH positions were long. The global crypto market cap reached $3.44 trillion, up 1.31% in 24 hours. Analyst Michaël van de Poppe stated that "ETH is probably the best play to have in your base portfolio."

Asset	24h Price Change	Q2 Performance	Open Interest Change
Bitcoin (BTC)	High $110,000s to $108,000	+31%	+1.87%
Ethereum (ETH)	+4.5% (to $2,712.29)	+45%	+7.68%

Trump Media's move is part of a growing trend of public companies adopting crypto as treasury assets.
Analysts remain optimistic about Bitcoin and Ethereum's trajectory.

Key Takeaway: The announcement of a Bitcoin treasury by Trump Media has boosted market sentiment, with Ethereum showing strong relative performance. (Source: Benzinga)

SharpLink Gaming Raises $425 Million for Ethereum Treasury Strategy

SharpLink Gaming has raised approximately $425 million through a private investment in public equity offering to adopt an Ethereum treasury strategy. The company's stock surged over 400%, reaching as high as $52 before closing at $35.80, up from about $6 on Friday. The funds will be used to acquire Ethereum as the firm's primary treasury reserve asset. Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin will become chairman of SharpLink’s board of directors upon closing of the offering, which is expected soon.

Consensys, led by Lubin, spearheaded the investment round, joined by Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital, and Primitive Ventures. Maria Shen of Electric Capital highlighted the momentum in the Ethereum ecosystem, citing the Pectra upgrade and new leadership at the Ethereum Foundation. The price of Ethereum increased 5.6% in the last 24 hours to $2,680, outpacing the top 50 cryptocurrencies. SharpLink’s market cap now stands at $24 million, while Ethereum’s is about $323 billion.

SharpLink’s move follows other public companies adopting crypto as reserve assets, such as Upexi and DeFi Dev Corp with Solana, and Strategy with Bitcoin.
Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, recently acquired 4,020 BTC for $427 million, bringing its total to 580,250 BTC worth $64 billion.

Key Takeaway: SharpLink’s $425 million Ethereum treasury strategy underscores growing institutional interest in Ethereum as a reserve asset. (Source: Sherwood News)

Solana Network Now Live on MetaMask

MetaMask, the most-used Ethereum browser wallet with over 100 million annual users, has integrated the Solana network for the first time. Users can now access Solana through the MetaMask wallet on desktop, enabling transactions and interactions with Solana-based applications. The integration will be extended to the MetaMask mobile app in the coming weeks.

This marks the first time MetaMask has integrated a non-EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) network. The company stated that other non-EVM networks will follow soon, simplifying wallet management for users who interact with both Ethereum and Solana ecosystems.

Solana users can now manage their assets alongside Ethereum accounts in one interface.
The integration is currently available on desktop, with mobile support coming soon.

Key Takeaway: MetaMask’s integration of Solana streamlines user experience and signals growing interoperability between major blockchain networks. (Source: CoinDesk)

Solana Launches Attestation Service to Boost Internet Capital Markets

The Solana Foundation has introduced the Solana Attestation Service, an open-source protocol designed to serve as a trust layer for "internet capital markets." The service allows approved issuers to bind off-chain credentials—such as KYC results, geographic eligibility, or accreditation status—to a user's wallet address without exposing personal data on-chain. These attestations are portable, living inside the wallet and verifiable across applications.

The service aims to streamline compliance, reduce repetitive onboarding, and eliminate the need for projects to store sensitive identity records. Developers can use the service to meet regulatory obligations, gate region-specific offerings, or build reputation systems. The protocol has already been integrated by identity providers in the Solana ecosystem, and infrastructure firms plan to use attestation data for risk scoring and transaction monitoring.

Investors can hold reusable "KYC passports" for future token sales.
Gaming studios and real-world asset platforms can issue badges and confirm accreditation thresholds.
The service is central to the emerging "internet capital markets" narrative, where tokens act as equities for decentralized funding.

Key Takeaway: Solana’s attestation service enhances compliance and user experience, supporting the growth of decentralized internet capital markets. (Source: CryptoSlate)

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