Multicoin Capital Co-Founder Kyle Samani Predicts Solana Will Flip Ethereum This Market Cycle

Multicoin Capital co-founder Kyle Samani has predicted that an increasing number of cryptocurrency companies will choose to build on Solana rather than Ethereum, driven by Solana’s superior ease of use and greater overall functionality.

Speaking during an episode of the Cointelegraph show Trade Secrets, Samani made a bold prediction that Solana is poised to flip Ether in terms of market capitalization during the current market cycle. He suggested that Ethereum may gradually lose its established edge as the default smart contract network choice for new and scaling crypto enterprises.

"They’ll all switch their default over to Solana because it’s the most functional network for all of them, and it’s just easier to consolidate their operations around Solana to the extent that they can," Samani told Cointelegraph during the interview.

Samani and Multicoin Capital amassed a sizable early position in Solana, and he has remained one of the network’s most outspoken proponents for years. However, fulfilling his market flip prediction would require a massive upward shift in valuation. Based on current market metrics, Solana would need to achieve roughly a five-fold increase from its $58 billion market capitalization to surpass Ether’s commanding market cap of $293 billion.

During the conversation, Samani offered a harsh assessment of Ethereum’s current utility and positioning within the broader digital asset ecosystem. He argued that "today, no one really uses Ethereum" for primary consumer-facing applications, asserting that the network only remains a leading blockchain due to its dominance in stablecoins and the fact that many stablecoins are borrowed against Ether as underlying collateral.

Despite their differing architectural philosophies and long-term outlooks, SOL and ETH have largely moved in lockstep in percentage terms during recent market upturns. Over the past month prior to the report, Ether rose by 30%, while SOL gained 34%. However, market analysts note that Solana’s percentage rise comes off a smaller base. Furthermore, Solana experienced a steeper drawdown during the previous bear market, falling 59% over a 12-month period compared to Ether’s more moderate 45% decline, according to data from TradingView.

Did Samani Ragequit Crypto?

The outspoken crypto investor’s trajectory has seen notable personal and professional shifts over recent months. In February, Samani made headlines when he announced that he was stepping down as managing partner of Multicoin Capital after a decade in the industry. At the time, he described the departure as a "bittersweet moment" following years of building the prominent venture firm.

Around the time of his departure, Samani appeared deeply dispirited about the broader state and direction of the cryptocurrency industry. He reportedly published and quickly deleted a post on X, formerly Twitter, expressing profound disillusionment with the sector.

"I once believed in the web3 vision. dapps. I don’t anymore," Samani stated in the deleted post. "Crypto is just fundamentally not as interesting as many crypto enthusiasts wanted. Myself included."

If Samani experienced a crisis of confidence regarding the decentralized application ecosystem, it proved to be relatively short-lived. By September, he had returned to active industry participation, joining the United States board of directors at the crypto trading platform and infrastructure provider Backpack.

Ethereum Has "Questionable" Value Accrual

Elaborating on his market outlook, Samani explained that he remains decidedly "bearish" on Ethereum’s long-term ability to accrue sustainable value for token holders, despite its status as the largest smart contract network by total value locked and asset valuation.

"It’s a $400 billion to $300 billion asset that has questionable value accrual, if any, and it’s not growing at all," Samani remarked.

He added that he fundamentally struggles to understand why rational investors would want to hold Ether at its current valuation, noting that he sees an abundance of alternative investment opportunities across the digital asset landscape trading at more reasonable prices.

Reiterating his core thesis, Samani emphasized that an ongoing migration of crypto engineering and business talent toward Solana is inevitable. He characterized Solana as the most functional network available today, providing an operational environment that significantly simplifies workflows for firms looking to streamline and consolidate their operations.

While SOL accounts for less than one-fifth of Ether’s total market capitalization, on-chain metrics indicate that the Solana network has successfully surpassed Ethereum in both weekly and monthly fee generation—a key indicator of active network usage and economic demand.

Data from decentralized finance analytics platform DefiLlama shows that Solana generated $23 million in network fees over a recent 30-day window, placing it fourth among all blockchain networks for monthly fee generation. In contrast, Ethereum generated $12.6 million over the same period, placing it in sixth place. This surge in network activity has been accompanied by massive surges in token issuance, including a record-breaking single day where 263,000 new tokens were minted on Solana.

Solana Became One of Multicoin Capital’s Top Bets

Samani’s deep involvement in the blockchain sector dates back nearly a decade. He first discovered permissionless finance and smart contracts through Ethereum in 2016, frequently describing it as his foundational "entry into crypto." However, his relationship with the Ethereum ecosystem cooled over time as he grew increasingly dissatisfied with how core developers and the broader community addressed scaling challenges and architectural evolution.

He encountered Solana shortly after co-founding Multicoin Capital in May 2017. Recognizing the high-throughput potential of Solana’s consensus mechanism, Multicoin went on to lead some of the network’s earliest institutional investment rounds in 2018, positioning the firm for massive financial upside as the ecosystem matured.

That early conviction transformed into one of the most successful bets in Multicoin Capital’s history. The firm reported managing $5.9 billion worth of assets by May 2025, cementing its status as one of the most prominent and influential crypto investment funds globally.

Before entering the digital asset sector as an investor and venture capitalist, Samani’s entrepreneurial background was rooted in enterprise technology. He co-founded and served as the chief executive officer of Pristine, a healthcare IT company that developed specialized enterprise software for Google Glass utilized by practicing surgeons in medical environments.