Solana Foundation hires former Binance and Polygon executives for institutional push

The Solana Foundation has hired former Binance executive Rachel Conlan as chief strategy officer and former Polygon Labs executive Jamal Raees as general manager of payments as the network expands its institutional finance business.

Conlan will lead strategy across institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth and efforts to bring more businesses onto Solana. She spent three years at Binance, most recently as global chief marketing officer, and previously held senior roles at OKX, CAA Sports and Havas.

Raees will focus on expanding Solana’s use among payments companies and enterprises. He joins from Polygon Labs and previously worked at stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge and crypto payments firm Wyre.

The appointments come as Solana increasingly positions itself as infrastructure for payments, treasuries, tokenized funds and equities rather than primarily a venue for crypto trading.

Solana has processed more than $5 trillion in stablecoin volume so far in 2026. Real world assets on the network have surpassed $4.5 billion, while tokenized equity supply has crossed $620 million.

The foundation describes the broader shift as a “Token Supercycle,” referring to the long term migration of money, assets and ownership onto always on blockchain infrastructure. 

Its broader Internet Capital Markets thesis envisions assets being issued, traded and settled directly over internet native networks.

Conlan’s role will focus on turning that institutional interest into adoption by building partnerships and helping companies move from experimentation to implementation.

Raees will lead a similar push in payments, where the foundation says blockchain infrastructure is increasingly moving from pilot programs into production at enterprises and payments companies.

The hires follow the appointment of former Mozilla and Twitter executive Michael Coates as the Solana Foundation’s chief information security officer earlier this year, adding another senior operator as the organization expands its institutional focus.