The Solana Foundation has hired Rachel Conlan, formerly Binance’s global CMO, as chief strategy officer. Jamal Raees, a former Polygon Labs executive, has joined as general manager of payments. The Foundation says these hires are meant to speed up institutional adoption and payment activity on Solana.
ID: N25-07
Site: NewsBTC
Status: READY
Author: NewsBTC Editorial Team
Focus Keyword: Solana
Image Keyword: Solana
Category: Altcoins
Tags: Solana, Rachel Conlan, Payments, Institutions, Foundation
Primary Source: https://solana.com/news
Solana Wants To Turn Network Activity Into Institutional Adoption
Conlan spent three years as Binance’s global CMO and previously held senior roles at OKX, CAA Sports, and Havas. At Solana, her responsibilities will go beyond marketing. The Foundation says she will oversee institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth, and go-to-market strategy.
Raees will focus more specifically on payments. His role covers stablecoins, tokenized deposits, and the broader infrastructure needed to make Solana useful as a financial settlement network.
The appointments come as the Foundation points to substantial growth in those areas. It says Solana processed more than $5 trillion in stablecoin volume during 2026, while real-world assets on the network have passed $4.5 billion and tokenized equity supply has moved above $620 million. These are company-reported ecosystem figures, but they explain why the Foundation is building a team specifically around institutional finance.
Solana Is Competing For Financial Infrastructure, Not Just Crypto Apps
Solana’s earlier growth story was closely tied to trading, NFTs, and consumer crypto applications. The network is increasingly positioning itself around payments, tokenization, and institutional settlement as well. That puts it in a different competitive set.
Ethereum and its Layer 2 networks remain deeply embedded in tokenized finance, while newer payment-focused chains and private banking networks are chasing many of the same use cases. Solana’s pitch is performance: high throughput, low transaction costs, and an existing pool of stablecoin liquidity.
But technology alone does not bring institutions onchain. Banks, asset managers, and payment companies require partnerships, compliance integration, and people who can translate blockchain infrastructure into products that fit existing financial businesses. The Foundation’s latest hires suggest it knows that.
Solana already has the network. Conlan and Raees are being brought in to help turn that network into something more institutions and payment companies actually use.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by [Samuel Rae](https://www.newsbtc.com/author/rae-samuel/).
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQs Solana Foundation Hires Former Binance CMO for Institutional Push
1 What happened exactly
The Solana Foundation hired a former Chief Marketing Officer of Binance to lead its efforts to attract big institutional investorsbanks hedge funds and asset managersto the Solana blockchain
2 Who is the person they hired
The hire is a former CMO of Binance the worlds largest crypto exchange Their job is to bring Wall Streetstyle players onto Solana
3 What is the Solana Foundation
Its a nonprofit organization based in Switzerland that supports the growth and development of the Solana blockchainfunding projects marketing and partnerships
4 What does institutional push mean
It means actively courting large professional financial firmsnot just individual crypto users Think pension funds banks and asset managers rather than retail traders
5 Why does Solana want institutional investors
Institutions bring huge amounts of capital legitimacy and longterm stability They also attract developers and businesses which strengthens the whole ecosystem
6 Why hire someone from Binance specifically
Binance is the biggest crypto exchange and its former CMO knows how to market to and work with large financial players That experience transfers directly to Solanas goals
7 What is a CMO
Chief Marketing Officerthe executive in charge of a companys marketing branding and public messaging
8 Why is this news important
It signals that Solana is serious about competing with Ethereum and other chains for bigmoney mainstream finance adoptionnot just meme coins and retail trading
9 What can institutions actually do on Solana
Things like tokenized realworld assets stablecoin payments trading custody services and DeFi yield strategies
10 Whats the benefit for regular Solana users
More institutional activity can mean better liquidity more stable prices more useful apps and stronger longterm network growththough it can also bring more regulation and centralization concerns
11 Does this mean Solana is becoming more centralized
Not necessarily but its a fair concern Institutions often prefer compliant controlled environments which can conflict with cryptos decentralized ethos The Foundation says it wants both