The Solana Foundation has announced the hiring of Rachel Conlan, former Chief Marketing Officer at Binance, as its new Chief Strategy Officer. Conlan will be responsible for overseeing institutional partnerships and driving ecosystem growth.
Joining her is Jamal Raees, previously with Polygon Labs, who will serve as General Manager of Payments. Raees aims to deepen the foundation's engagement with major payment companies and enhance the infrastructure for payment services on the Solana network.
These appointments come on the heels of the launch of the Solana Developer Platform, which has already attracted notable partners like Modern Treasury, Mastercard, and Western Union. The platform aims to facilitate greater adoption of blockchain technology in payment solutions.
Additionally, Solana is preparing for its Alpenglow network upgrade, which is set to significantly reduce transaction finality times from approximately 12.8 seconds to around 150 milliseconds, enhancing the overall efficiency of the network.
With over $5 trillion in stablecoin volume processed in 2026 alone, Solana continues to establish itself as a key player in the crypto space, boasting more than $4.5 billion in real-world assets and a growing supply of tokenized equity.