Solana Foundation hires Binance and Polygon veterans

The Solana Foundation has appointed two high-level executives to bolster its institutional and payment sectors. Rachel Conlan, formerly the global chief marketing officer at Binance, joins as Chief Strategy Officer. She will oversee institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth, and go-to-market strategies. Jamal Raees, a veteran from Polygon Labs with experience at Bridge and Wyre, has been named General Manager of Payments to focus on integrating the network as payment infrastructure for enterprises.

These leadership changes come as the Solana network reports significant growth in decentralized finance. The Foundation noted that since the start of 2026, the network has processed over $5 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume. Additionally, real-world assets on the network have exceeded $4.5 billion, and tokenized equity supply has surpassed $620 million.

Solana Foundation President Lily Liu described this period as the early stages of a ‘Token Supercycle,’ a term used to characterize the long-term migration of money, assets, and ownership onto continuous digital infrastructures.