The Solana Foundation has brought on two senior hires to lead its institutional and payments strategy: Rachel Conlan, ex-Binance chief marketing officer, as chief strategy officer, and Jamal Raees, formerly of Polygon Labs, as general manager of payments. The moves land as the network's stablecoin volume tops $5 trillion in 2026.
The Solana Foundation has hired Rachel Conlan, Binance's former global chief marketing officer, as its chief strategy officer, and Jamal Raees, formerly of Polygon Labs, as general manager of payments. The Switzerland-based non-profit is assembling a senior team aimed at institutional adoption and payments.
New leadership for institutional strategy
Conlan spent three years as Binance's global CMO and previously held senior roles at OKX, sports agency CAA Sports and advertising group Havas. Her brief covers institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth and go-to-market, the Foundation said. Conlan pointed to "The ambition of its builders and the active usage already seen on the platform" as her reason for the move.
Raees joins as general manager of payments from Polygon Labs, having previously worked at stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge and payments company Wyre. He will work with payment companies and enterprises to expand Solana's use as payments infrastructure.
Stablecoin volume tops $5 trillion
Solana processed more than $5 trillion in stablecoin volume so far in 2026, according to the Foundation. Real-world assets on the network have passed $4.5 billion. Tokenized equity supply has crossed $620 million.
Network upgrades and a growing executive team
Solana cut its target slot time to 250 milliseconds last week, a nearly 17% speedup in block production and the third of four planned reductions. A separate consensus overhaul is in testing to shorten the point at which a payment can no longer be reversed.
Conlan and Raees follow Michael Coates, who joined as chief information security officer earlier this year from Mozilla and Twitter. Crypto Briefing dates that hire to July 2026, meaning the Foundation has now added three senior executives in rapid succession.
Sources: Decrypt, Crypto Briefing
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