The Solana Foundation has hired two executives with experience at Binance and Polygon to manage its institutional partnerships and payments operations, in a push to grow its commercial reach.
The company has brought Rachel Conlan aboard as chief strategy officer, where she will handle strategy across institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth and the push to get businesses onto Solana. Jamal Raees has also arrived, serving as general manager of payments with a focus on stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
Conlan’s Path From Binance to Solana
Before departing the exchange, Conlan served for three years as chief marketing officer at Binance. Her resume also reflects time spent in senior positions at OKX, CAA Sports and Havas.
The foundation said the hire was part of a broader push to deepen relationships with established firms, and the new role is focused on institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth and bringing businesses onto Solana.
Raees Joins With Payments Experience
Raees comes to his new role after holding an executive position at Polygon Labs. His work will center on the infrastructure that teams use when they build payment services on Solana.
“My focus will be on driving greater adoption and usage of stablecoins and tokenized deposits, with an emphasis on global markets,” he said in a statement provided by Solana Foundation.
The foundation said the appointments follow a wave of new partnerships.
The Developer Platform Launch
The Developer Platform was released by Solana in March, and Modern Treasury stepped in to handle payments infrastructure. Two early users were named: Mastercard and Western Union.
AWS Adds Solana to x402
The x402 feature now covers Solana among the networks it supports, per Amazon Web Services’ recent announcement. The feature enables website owners to charge AI agents in USDC for viewing content.
Stablecoin Volume Surpasses $5 Trillion
Solana has processed more than $5 trillion in stablecoin volume so far in 2026. The network also reported more than $4.5 billion in real-world assets on the network and more than $620 million in tokenized equity supply.
Alpenglow Network Upgrade Ahead
The Solana team is set to roll out Alpenglow, a network update designed to cut transaction finality from its current mark of around 12.8 seconds down to roughly 150 milliseconds.
Key Facts Box
- Rachel Conlan: chief strategy officer, joining from Binance CMO role
- Jamal Raees: general manager of payments, joining from Polygon Labs
- Developer Platform launched March, with Modern Treasury as payments partner
- Mastercard and Western Union named as early users
- AWS x402 supports Solana, settling in USDC
- Stablecoin volume: more than $5 trillion so far in 2026
- Real-world assets: more than $4.5 billion on the network
- Tokenized equity supply: more than $620 million
- Alpenglow target: finality reduced from ~12.8 seconds to ~150 milliseconds
A group with experience in payments, marketing and institutional relations has been brought together by the foundation. Alongside the platform launch and the AWS partnership, these hires point to Solana moving quickly toward becoming a serious player in enterprise finance.
The foundation is clearly attempting to place itself at the heart of the discussion, even if it is unclear whether the network can maintain that pace.
Source material: “Solana Foundation hires ex-Binance CMO and payments exec as new partnerships expand,” Cointelegraph.
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