Solana Foundation hires Binance and Polygon veterans in tokenized finance push
Solana Foundation adds Binance and Polygon executives
The Solana Foundation has hired two senior figures from the crypto industry as it steps up its push into institutional finance. Rachel Conlan, a former Binance executive, joins as chief strategy officer. Jamal Raees, who comes from Polygon Labs, will serve as general manager for payments.
The foundation announced the appointments on Thursday. Solana is a public blockchain, a network that records transactions and runs applications. The foundation supports the network and is working to attract financial institutions that want to move payments and other assets onchain, meaning onto a blockchain.
Who Conlan and Raees are
- Conlan spent three years at Binance, a crypto exchange where people buy and sell digital assets. She was most recently its global chief marketing officer and left the exchange in June.
- Raees joins from Polygon Labs, the development group behind the Polygon network. He previously worked at Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure firm now part of Stripe, and at crypto payments firm Wyre.
- Conlan will lead strategy for institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth and efforts to bring more companies onto Solana.
- Raees will focus on getting payments companies and other businesses to use Solana to move money.
What Conlan said
In a statement, Conlan pointed to the work ahead. "The opportunity now is to bring that to a much wider audience," she said. "That means making the value clear, building the right institutional relationships and helping businesses move from interest to implementation."
Solana's stablecoin and tokenized asset numbers
Solana has processed more than $5 trillion in stablecoin volume so far this year, according to data from Allium. A stablecoin is a digital token designed to hold a steady value, usually by tracking a currency such as the US dollar.
Tokenized assets on the network have reached $4.5 billion, according to RWA.xyz. Tokenized assets are digital versions of real-world assets, such as funds or stocks, issued on a blockchain. That total includes more than $600 million in tokenized stocks, according to data from Blockworks.
Liu's 'Token Supercycle' argument
Earlier this month, foundation President Lily Liu laid out an idea she calls the "Token Supercycle." Her argument is that money, assets and ownership will shift over the long term onto blockchain networks that run around the clock, rather than within traditional market hours. This is Liu's thesis about the future, not a confirmed trend.
What the sources confirm
The foundation itself confirmed both appointments. The employment histories of the two hires come from CoinDesk's reporting. The volume and asset figures come from third-party data providers: Allium, RWA.xyz and Blockworks.
What remains uncertain
It is not yet known whether large numbers of institutions will move assets and settlement onto Solana or other public blockchains. The "Token Supercycle" is a prediction, and the announcement gave no timeline or specific targets for the new hires.
Why Solana is chasing institutions
Solana is positioning its network as infrastructure for more than crypto trading. Stablecoin payments, tokenized funds and tokenized stocks have become a bigger part of its pitch to financial firms as they experiment with moving assets and settlement onto public blockchains. The new hires put experienced operators from two established crypto companies in charge of that effort.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.