Solana Foundation has announced two high-profile executive appointments, hiring Rachel Conlan, former chief marketing officer at Binance, as chief strategy officer and Jamal Raees, a veteran of Polygon Labs, as general manager of payments. The appointments were disclosed on September 24, 2026 and are intended to strengthen Solana's connections with banks, asset managers, and payment companies.
Conlan brings experience from Binance, OKX, CAA Sports, and Havas, and will focus on institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth, and sales initiatives. Raees, whose background includes payments and stablecoins work at Bridge, now part of Stripe, and Wyre, will build relationships with payment firms and businesses moving funds on Solana. Conlan said she sees Solana as positioned to bring Internet Capital Markets to life by connecting assets, trading and payments on one global network.
Solana currently leads blockchains in tokenized stock trading and records about $5 trillion in stablecoin volume despite transaction fees of just 0.000005 SOL. At the time of reporting, SOL trades near $124, up roughly 2.7% over 24 hours and 14.5% over the past week, with a market cap around $73 billion. The token remains about 58% below its all-time high of $293.31.
