Rachel Conlan, who spent three years at Binance as global chief marketing officer before departing in June 2026, has joined the Solana Foundation as chief strategy officer, the foundation announced on September 24, 2026. The hire marks a significant addition of institutional finance experience as Solana expands its push into tokenized assets and blockchain-based settlement for financial institutions.
Conlan will lead strategy across institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth, and efforts to bring more companies onto Solana. “The opportunity now is to bring that to a much wider audience,” Conlan said. “That means making the value clear, building the right institutional relationships and helping businesses move from interest to implementation.”
The foundation simultaneously appointed Jamal Raees as general manager of payments. Raees previously worked at stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge, now part of Stripe, and at crypto payments firm Wyre. He will focus on getting payments companies and other businesses to use Solana for moving money.
Tokenized Assets on Solana
Solana has processed $5 trillion in stablecoin volume on its chain so far this year. The network currently hosts $4.5 billion in tokenized assets, including $600 million in stocks.
Solana Foundation President Lily Liu articulated a “Token Supercycle” thesis earlier in September, positing long-term migration of money, assets, and ownership onto always-on blockchain infrastructure. Stablecoin payments, tokenized funds, and equities have become a bigger part of Solana’s pitch to financial institutions experimenting with moving assets and settlement onto public blockchains.
Conlan’s appointment underscores the foundation’s focus on converting institutional interest into concrete deployments. Her background in global marketing at one of crypto’s largest exchanges positions her to navigate relationships with traditional finance firms evaluating blockchain-based infrastructure for settlement and asset management.
