Solana over Bitcoin? Who does Raoul Pal pick as the 'AI Era' cryptocurrency leader?

▲ Solana (SOL)/AI generated image ©

Solana (SOL) is gaining attention as a key infrastructure in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), leading to a groundbreaking prediction from a prominent financial expert that it will become a high-growth asset surpassing Bitcoin (BTC)'s role as a store of value.

According to cryptocurrency media outlet Bitcoinist on May 10 (local time), Raoul Pal, a global macro expert and CEO of RealVision, clearly stated his preference for Solana over Bitcoin at the recent 'Consensus 2026' event in Miami. He defined cryptocurrency as the 'universal basic asset' of the AI era, predicting that future market dominance would shift from simple asset storage to high-speed networks capable of processing large-scale activities.

Raoul Pal cited overwhelming throughput and low transaction costs as the key reasons for choosing Solana. He assessed that Solana has a much more suitable structure than Bitcoin for micro-payments between AI agents and ultra-fast DeFi interactions. In contrast, he pointed out that while Bitcoin is an excellent monetary asset, it was not designed as a high-frequency execution layer to handle millions of automated micro-transactions.

Notably, he made a radical prediction that AI agents, not humans, will account for 60% of DeFi users within five years. This means that for every two human users in the DeFi market, there will be three AI agents. In such an environment, a network capable of processing frequent transactions cheaply is essential, and Solana's recent outperformance of Ethereum (ETH) in this area has critically influenced Raoul Pal's choice.

The Consensus 2026 event focused on building practical infrastructure, including AI agents, tokenization, and stablecoins, and attracted significant attention with the participation of key Wall Street figures such as JPMorgan and Citigroup. Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom, expressed a unique view that cryptocurrencies exist outside the system and do not require regulation, while Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse mentioned that he views AI as a tool, not a means of reducing workforce.

Currently, Solana is trading around $93.6. Although it is unlikely that Solana's market capitalization will immediately overtake Bitcoin, the common analysis among experts is that as the combination of AI and blockchain accelerates, the growth opportunities provided by high-performance networks like Solana will only increase.

*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for any investment losses based on it. The content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*