Solana Foundation Hires Binance's Former Global CMO for Institutional Push

In brief

• Rachel Conlan joins the Solana Foundation as chief strategy officer after three years as Binance's global chief marketing officer.
• Jamal Raees becomes general manager of payments, arriving from Polygon Labs.
• The appointments come as Solana cuts block times, with the third of four planned reductions taking effect last week.

The Solana Foundation has hired Binance's former global chief marketing officer as its chief strategy officer, and a Polygon Labs executive to run payments, as the non-profit builds a senior team focused on institutional adoption and payments.

Rachel Conlan spent three years as Binance's global CMO and previously held senior roles at OKX, the sports agency CAA Sports and the advertising group Havas. Her brief covers institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth and go-to-market, the Foundation said.

Jamal Raees joins as general manager of payments from Polygon Labs, having previously worked at the stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge and the payments company Wyre. He will work with payment companies and enterprises on expanding Solana's use as payments infrastructure.

Solana's "Token Supercycle"

Solana has processed more than $5 trillion in stablecoin volume so far in 2026, according to the Foundation, with real-world assets on the network passing $4.5 billion and tokenized equity supply crossing $620 million.