Solana's DAT Revolution: Billion-Dollar Treasury Announcements Signal Growing Institutional Interest

The cryptocurrency markets experienced a peculiar weekend in late August 2025. Solana began pumping on Sunday, seemingly without catalyst, only for Monday morning to reveal the reason: two major Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) announcements that could fundamentally reshape institutional participation in the Solana ecosystem. In a comprehensive discussion on the Lightspeed podcast, host Jack and Blockworks research analyst Carlos Gonzalez Campo dissected these announcements alongside other major developments including VanEck's groundbreaking JitoSOL ETF filing and the upcoming Alpenglow consensus upgrade.

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The timing of Solana's price movement relative to the announcements raised familiar concerns about information asymmetry in cryptocurrency markets. As Campo noted, "Inside of information in this industry is just crazy," pointing out that while insider trading of crypto tokens is technically illegal, enforcement has been sparse. The one major case involving Coinbase employees was reportedly dropped by the DOJ, creating an environment where front-running major announcements appears to occur with regularity.

Galaxy, MultiCoin, and the Billion-Dollar Solana Treasury Play

Bloomberg scooped the story that Galaxy, Jump, and MultiCoin are seeking one billion dollars for a Solana DAT, which would make it the largest Solana treasury vehicle by more than double. This announcement represents a significant milestone for an ecosystem that has largely sat on the sidelines during the Wall Street DAT frenzy that defined the summer of 2025. While Bitcoin and Ethereum have captured the lion's share of institutional treasury allocations, Solana has remained conspicuously absent from the cool kids' table.

The involvement of Galaxy, Jump, and MultiCoin carries particular significance. Kyle Samani of MultiCoin and Mike Novogratz of Galaxy represent two of the most visible figures who could potentially serve as Solana's spokesperson to traditional finance audiences. As the discussion revealed, both men have the credibility and communication skills to explain Solana to institutional investors in ways that resonate with their existing frameworks for understanding technology investments.

Campo drew parallels to how Tom Lee transformed Ethereum's narrative for traditional finance audiences, offering a simple explanation that positioned Ethereum as "a stablecoin chain" and "the ChatGPT moment for crypto." This kind of accessible framing proved remarkably effective at getting TradFi to "instantly kind of get it." The Solana ecosystem now appears to be running a similar playbook, seeking credible figureheads who can bridge the educational gap between the technology and institutional investors.

Sharps Technology and Solana Foundation Involvement

The second DAT announcement came from Sharps Technology, which revealed a $400 million private placement led by co-founders of Jambo, the company behind a $99 Solana phone. While smaller than the Galaxy/MultiCoin vehicle, this announcement carried an interesting twist: the company signed a Letter of Intent with the Solana Foundation for the Foundation to sell $15 million worth of SOL at a 15% discount in exchange for proceeds from a public stock sale.

This Foundation involvement signals a meaningful shift in institutional posture. The Bloomberg piece noted that the Solana Foundation has given its endorsement to the Galaxy/MultiCoin effort according to sources, suggesting the Foundation has moved from skepticism to active participation in the DAT phenomenon. As Jack observed, "the foundation is clearly more involved with these DATs today than they were, you know, maybe a couple of months ago."

Campo acknowledged his own initial skepticism toward DATs: "When I saw this DAT goes like first appear on the Ethereum side, like my first reaction was one of rejection. Kind of or like, you know what I mean? Like this does not make a lot of sense. It sounds kind of scammy." However, the results speak for themselves. Ethereum DATs have purchased billions of dollars of ETH and now account for approximately 2.5% of Ethereum's total supply, creating undeniable buying pressure that contributed to Ethereum's outperformance.

The Pace of Institutional Accumulation

Perhaps the most striking data point from the discussion concerned the speed at which institutional vehicles have accumulated cryptocurrency. Campo posed a revealing comparison: How long did it take Michael Saylor to acquire 1% of Bitcoin's supply? The answer: approximately three and a half years. How long did it take Tom Lee's BitMine to acquire 1% of Ethereum's supply? Forty days.

This hundred-fold acceleration in accumulation speed represents both an opportunity and a warning sign. "It definitely speaks like the market is quite hot right now," Campo cautioned, suggesting that the frenzied pace of institutional buying may indicate market frothiness that warrants caution. Nevertheless, for those positioned in Solana, the prospect of similar institutional accumulation creates a compelling narrative for near-term price appreciation.

The ability of DATs to accumulate at scale represents one of their primary value propositions. As Campo explained when steelmanning the DAT case, no individual investor could purchase ETH as quickly as BitMine. Whether this speed of accumulation constitutes genuine skill or simply reflects access to capital remains debatable, but the results have proven undeniably impactful for token prices.

Why DATs Might Be More Than Just a Trade

Beyond simple accumulation, DATs offer capabilities that passive investment vehicles like ETFs cannot match. Campo articulated several ways DAT companies can actively participate in ecosystem development: they can publish research explaining the underlying technology to general audiences, launch their own liquid staking tokens, integrate with DeFi markets, and push adoption forward through active engagement rather than passive holding.

The staking yield component creates another structural advantage for Solana DATs specifically. Campo noted that Solana ETFs, when approved, will likely allow staking of the underlying assets, but this involves operational complexity with third-party staking providers that creates friction and reduces returns to end investors. DATs can potentially capture these yields more efficiently.

However, the discussion also acknowledged the elephant in the room: Solana still lacks its Tom Lee or Michael Saylor equivalent. These figures have proven crucial to the success of Bitcoin and Ethereum treasury vehicles, serving as tireless evangelists willing to make bold, sometimes provocative statements on mainstream financial media. When Saylor tells audiences to "mortgage your house and buy Bitcoin," he generates attention and conviction that translates into demand for MicroStrategy stock.

Finding Solana's Voice on Wall Street

The search for Solana's institutional spokesperson revealed interesting candidates and considerations. While Kyle Samani and Mike Novogratz represent obvious choices given their involvement in the new DAT vehicles, some observers suggested the true Solana spokesperson might be someone not yet prominent in crypto circles. Tom Lee was relatively unknown on crypto Twitter before his BitMine advocacy thrust him into the spotlight.

A particularly entertaining suggestion emerged from the discussion: Chamath Palihapitiya as a potential Solana figurehead. As one observer noted on crypto Twitter, "the most entertaining outcome sometimes is the most likely," and the prospect of Chamath shilling Solana would certainly generate attention, if nothing else.

Jack articulated why finding this spokesperson might be less difficult than it appears: "It's not super hard to explain Solana to a TradFi audience. You say this is the fastest, cheapest chain. It's good for payments. Ethereum has these issues with the L2 roadmap. Just say it's fast and cheap and it works and developers love it and there's a lot going on and Trump launched on it." Combined with institutional credentials, this simple narrative could prove sufficient.

The Meme Coin Narrative Challenge

One persistent challenge for Solana's institutional narrative involves its association with meme coins. Campo identified this as a key misconception that "a DAT co figurehead could be useful for just taking down this misconception of Solana is just for meme coins." The perception in normie and TradFi circles that Solana exists primarily for speculative token launches creates friction for institutional adoption.

However, Jack pushed back against simply denying the meme coin element, pointing to Elon Musk's companies as proof that memetic energy can coexist with institutional success. "One of them is called the Boring Company and it's like, you know, boring holes into the earth. So there is a way and obviously Elon Musk's companies are quite successful on Wall Street. So there is a way to do the meme thing and lean into it."

The key, Jack suggested, lies in how the meme coin story gets told. Instead of "pump.fun, pump and dumps, Libra, all the lowlights," the narrative should emphasize "Dogecoin, it's fun, it's culture, it's interesting." Campo agreed that meme coins represent "the permanent state of affairs" and won't be going away, so finding a bullish framing becomes essential rather than optional.

VanEck's Groundbreaking JitoSOL ETF Filing

In what Campo described as a development that made him "super happy," VanEck filed an S-1 for a JitoSOL ETF on Friday. Rather than holding naked SOL and using a third-party staking provider like Coinbase, this ETF would directly hold the Jito liquid staking token, effectively baking in staking rewards more efficiently.

This filing followed the SEC's clarification under "Project Crypto" that liquid staking tokens are not securities, clearing a major regulatory hurdle. Matthew Siegel from VanEck noted that the firm tries to be "pretty judicious about doing single crypto ETFs" and doesn't pursue them for just any asset, suggesting JitoSOL represents a special case worthy of the effort.

The JitoSOL ETF offers structural advantages over standard staking arrangements. Campo explained: "You can have a higher portion of the ETF with staking exposure. So I can guarantee that the JitoSOL ETF is going to have like a higher staking yield for end investors than the SOL ETFs that are going to be staking with third party providers." This operational efficiency translates directly into better returns for investors.

Jito's Strategic Positioning Pays Off

The JitoSOL ETF filing represents vindication for Jito's aggressive regulatory engagement strategy. Campo pointed to Rebecca Redig, Jito's chief legal officer, who posted a "how it started, how it's going" tweet showing Jito's early meetings with the SEC's crypto task force alongside the VanEck filing announcement.

Jito has actively made the case that JitoSOL, due to its tip router mechanism that automatically routes staking rewards, represents "the chosen one LST in Solana" with even less centralization risk than other liquid staking tokens. This positioning has clearly influenced regulatory and institutional perception.

Beyond the ETF itself, the filing creates incremental revenue opportunities for Jito. The protocol charges a percentage management fee on JitoSOL staking rewards, so any demand for the ETF translates directly into protocol revenue. As Campo noted, "if there's huge demand for the JitoSOL ETF, you could be very significant not just for SOL but for Jito as well."

Marketing Questions and Name Recognition

The JitoSOL ETF does raise practical marketing questions. SOL has meaningful brand recognition, but JitoSOL remains obscure outside crypto-native circles. As Jack noted, investors might prefer a straightforward "Solana ETF" to a "JitoSOL ETF" that requires additional explanation.

How VanEck plans to position and market the product remains unclear. Will they sell it as a SOL ETF with better yield mechanics, or explicitly as a JitoSOL product? Campo acknowledged uncertainty about ticker selection and go-to-market strategy but emphasized that the structural advantages should make the product compelling regardless of branding.

Alpenglow: Solana's Path to 100x Faster Finality

Shifting from institutional adoption to technical development, the discussion covered the formal proposal for Alpenglow, Solana's consensus upgrade that promises transformative performance improvements. Voting on the proposal is scheduled to begin around Thursday of the week following the recording, with the expectation of overwhelming approval.

The headline impact: a 100x reduction in Solana's finality time to approximately 150 milliseconds. But Campo emphasized that Alpenglow delivers multiple second-order effects beyond raw speed. Slot times can eventually be reduced, and voting transactions—which currently consume meaningful block space—would no longer be an issue.

Campo expressed confidence in passage: "I expect this to pass. I don't think it's controversial like at all." The upgrade represents the culmination of research by ETH Zurich developers who identified fundamental inefficiencies in Solana's consensus mechanism and developed solutions that Anza, the company maintaining the primary Solana client, successfully recruited them to implement.

The Firedancer Question

Alpenglow's progress raises interesting questions about Firedancer, Jump's alternative Solana client that was once positioned as a crucial performance catalyst. As Campo noted, "the longer that Firedancer takes to ship to mainnet, the more like the harder time they are going to have taking market share from the Agave client, because it just keeps getting better and better with each passing month."

Nearly September 2025, full Firedancer remains absent from Solana mainnet. Frankendancer, a hybrid version, runs on some validators and has enabled fuller blocks, but the complete client that was once heavily promoted has not materialized. Jack observed that "Firedancer is not as much of a talking point as it once was" as Anza has demonstrated its own ability to scale the chain.

This doesn't necessarily mean the Firedancer investment was wasted. Jack offered a nuanced perspective: the association with Jump Crypto served as a crucial signal that Solana was a serious chain in a world full of scam layer-ones. "I think the fact that it was like, oh, Jump Crypto, which is like a real HFT firm is building infrastructure for Solana. Like that put a lot of people at ease."

Competition Drives Innovation

Even if Firedancer never fulfills its original expectations, the competitive pressure may have catalyzed improvements at Anza that wouldn't have otherwise occurred. Campo noted that Anza managed to attract the ETH Zurich developers who created Alpenglow, talent that might not have been interested in Solana absent the competitive client development narrative.

An interesting wrinkle: Firedancer might actually launch first on Fogo, another SVM chain running a unified Firedancer client. As Campo observed, "Fogo just launches Firedancer before Solana. And then we see like how it performs on another chain." This outcome might ruffle feathers among Solana maximalists but would provide valuable data about Firedancer's performance characteristics.

The broader lesson appears to be that competition between client teams, regardless of which client ultimately dominates, creates positive outcomes for the ecosystem. Whether through direct contributions or by raising the performance bar that incumbents must match, the multi-client approach has delivered value.

The Launchpad Wars: Pump.fun's Dominance Returns

The discussion turned to Solana's launchpad competition, where pump.fun's market position came under significant pressure from letsbonk.fun during July and August before a dramatic reversal. Campo shared data showing the shift: from the beginning of July until early August, letsbonk.fun compressed pump.fun's revenue share below 10% on some days. But by August 24th, pump.fun commanded 91.6% of launchpad revenue while letsbonk.fun captured just 0.09%—not even cracking 1%.

This dramatic reversal raises questions about what drove the letsbonk.fun surge and why it proved unsustainable. Campo offered a frank assessment: "It was very coincidental that letsbonk.fun started taking market share just before pump.fun launched PUMP. I think it wasn't organic at all, to be honest. I don't want to burn my hands too much, but I think they were probably paying people to launch or incentivizing people to launch on their launchpad."

The timing alignment with pump.fun's token launch suggests letsbonk.fun may have opportunistically targeted the moment of maximum vulnerability for their competitor. But without genuine product differentiation, the advantage proved temporary.

Pump.fun's Defensive Moves

Pump.fun responded aggressively to the competitive threat. Most significantly, they began buying back their own token with daily revenues, currently executing approximately $1.2 million in daily buybacks. This represents a dramatic increase from the initial 25% of revenue allocated to buybacks, now at 100%.

The buyback strategy appears designed to create sustained buying pressure that supports PUMP token price while demonstrating commitment to token holders. With a fully diluted valuation around $2.9 billion—down more than 25% from ICO price—Campo sees upside potential: "25% below the ICO price, they're making like $1.2 million in revenue and just pouring that into the token. I think it's quite significant."

Jack expressed more skept skepticism about pump.fun's long-term defensibility. The letsbonk.fun episode demonstrated that "pump.fun doesn't really have a moat. Like it's not that hard to spin up basically an identical product, get the power users to switch over through incentives or something. And they'll be more than happy to do so."

Building Sustainable Competitive Advantages

Both hosts agreed that pump.fun's primary challenge involves building genuine defensibility beyond network effects and brand recognition. Campo suggested focusing on "owning the front end" through improved mobile apps and livestreaming features, noting that platforms like Axiom demonstrate genuine moats in trading interfaces that aggregate tokens regardless of launch venue.

The livestreaming feature represents particular opportunity. Jack suggested pump.fun should consider acquiring successful creators like ThreadGuy and having them stream daily on the platform. "Some of the games he streams, people would clip those and they would go viral on CT and that felt real, that felt sustainable." In contrast, current pump.fun livestreams often fail to capture attention or provide compelling reasons to remain engaged.

Jack pushed back against pump.fun's current marketing emphasis on "organic crypto culture" and community. "It sets off alarm bells for me when people who are in very speculative sectors start talking about community because your community should be your buds that you hang out with, your community should not be people who want to use you as their exit liquidity."

Heaven and New Competitors

Beyond letsbonk.fun, new launchpad competitors continue to emerge. Campo mentioned Heaven (ticker: LIGHT), which has gained traction particularly in crypto Twitter circles over recent weeks. However, he expressed skepticism about any competitor's ability to meaningfully challenge pump.fun's dominance: "I just expect this trend to be very sporadic and pump.fun to remain the leader over the long term."

The fundamental challenge for challengers lies in pump.fun's war chest. "They have $2 billion in cash where they have infinite optionality as to how to gain back market share and they can pull so many incentives. They have so many levers to pull." This resource advantage makes sustained competitive challenges extremely difficult.

Prop AMMs Reshape Solana's Trading Infrastructure

The final major topic addressed the continued rise of proprietary AMMs (prop AMMs) on Solana, a trend Campo identified early and has tracked closely. Since originating around October 2024, six or more prop AMMs have launched on Solana, with the latest entrant Humidify overtaking Sulfa in trading volumes.

In aggregate, prop AMMs now execute approximately $5 billion in weekly volume, quoting significantly tighter spreads for liquid pairs like SOL/USD and stablecoin swaps. Most remarkably, prop AMMs have captured approximately 60% of SOL/USD trading volumes, far exceeding traditional AMMs like Orca and Raydium and dwarfing order book venues like Phoenix.

This market structure evolution reflects fundamental characteristics of Solana's architecture. Campo explained that Solana's microstructure favored prop AMMs over order books due to structural disadvantages market makers faced against adverse selection from arbitrageurs, combined with network jitter issues that plagued traditional order book operation.

The Technical Advantages of Prop AMMs

Prop AMMs operate differently from traditional AMMs in crucial ways. Because liquidity is protocol-owned rather than sourced from external LPs, and prices update based on oracle feeds rather than swap activity, the market making function can execute quote updates multiple times per second without computational overhead.

"Oracles are 100x less computing intensive than swaps," Campo explained, "so the market maker in a prop AMM is basically able to push quick updates multiple times a second. And that's what enables them to have much better quotes than traditional AMMs."

This efficiency translates into tighter spreads for users and more competitive execution for high-volume trading pairs. For highly liquid assets, prop AMMs now represent the dominant venue choice, fundamentally reshaping how Solana's DeFi infrastructure operates.

The Bifurcation of Solana DEX Markets

Campo predicts an "increasing bifurcation between highly liquid markets and long-tail assets like meme coins on Solana." Prop AMMs will dominate trading for established, liquid assets where oracle price feeds exist and market maker risk can be managed. Traditional AMMs will continue serving meme coin markets where volatility precludes market maker participation and oracle coverage doesn't exist.

This creates interesting strategic questions for protocols like Raydium. Will they launch their own prop AMM products to compete in the liquid asset segment? Or will they focus on defending their position in meme coin trading while ceding liquid pairs to purpose-built competitors?

The evolution also raises questions about order book venues like Phoenix, which have struggled to gain traction on Solana despite theoretical advantages in price discovery and execution. If Solana's microstructure fundamentally disadvantages order book operation, these protocols may need significant architectural changes or focus on different use cases entirely.

Looking Forward: Solana's Institutional Moment

The convergence of DAT announcements, ETF filings, and technical upgrades positions Solana for what could become a defining period of institutional adoption. The billion-dollar treasury vehicles signal growing Wall Street interest in the fastest major smart contract platform. The JitoSOL ETF filing opens pathways for liquid staking exposure through traditional investment vehicles. And Alpenglow promises to dramatically improve the user experience that underpins developer and user enthusiasm.

Challenges remain. Solana still needs its Tom Lee—a credible voice who can explain the technology to institutional audiences in accessible terms while maintaining the evangelistic fervor that drives sustained attention. The meme coin association requires careful management rather than denial. And competitive pressures from both other chains and internal ecosystem competition demand continued innovation.

But the trajectory appears positive. As Campo summarized regarding the DAT opportunity: "I think it's going to be a sustainable stream of buying pressure for SOL and it may be possible for the asset." With multiple billion-dollar treasury vehicles in formation and regulatory clarity improving, Solana's path to broader institutional acceptance looks clearer than ever before.

The discussion reflected the maturation of Solana's ecosystem from scrappy challenger to legitimate institutional consideration. Whether through DATs, ETFs, or direct adoption, traditional finance increasingly recognizes Solana as infrastructure worth building upon. The announcements of late August 2025 may mark the beginning of a new chapter in that story.

Facts + Figures

• Galaxy, Jump, and MultiCoin are seeking $1 billion for a Solana DAT, which would make it the largest Solana treasury vehicle by more than double existing vehicles.

• Sharps Technology announced a $400 million private placement led by co-founders of Jambo, with a Letter of Intent from the Solana Foundation to sell $15 million worth of SOL at a 15% discount.

• Ethereum DATs have accumulated approximately 2.5% of Ethereum's total supply, demonstrating the significant impact these vehicles can have on token prices.

• Michael Saylor took approximately 3.5 years to acquire 1% of Bitcoin's supply, while Tom Lee's BitMine acquired 1% of Ethereum's supply in just 40 days—a 100x acceleration.

• VanEck filed an S-1 for a JitoSOL ETF, which would hold the liquid staking token directly rather than staking SOL through a third-party provider.

• Jito charges a percentage management fee on JitoSOL staking rewards, meaning ETF demand would translate directly into protocol revenue.

• Alpenglow promises a 100x reduction in Solana's finality time to approximately 150 milliseconds, with voting expected to begin around late August 2025.

• Pump.fun captured 91.6% of Solana launchpad revenue on August 24th, while letsbonk.fun dropped to just 0.09%—a dramatic reversal from earlier in the summer.

• Pump.fun is executing approximately $1.2 million in daily token buybacks at 100% of revenue, up from an initial 25% allocation.

• Pump.fun's fully diluted valuation sits around $2.9 billion, representing a decline of more than 25% from ICO price.

• Prop AMMs now execute approximately $5 billion in weekly volume on Solana and have captured roughly 60% of SOL/USD trading volumes.

• Six or more prop AMMs have launched on Solana since October 2024, with Humidify recently overtaking Sulfa in trading volumes.

• The SEC clarified under "Project Crypto" that liquid staking tokens are not securities, clearing regulatory hurdles for the JitoSOL ETF filing.

• Firedancer, Jump's alternative Solana client, remains absent from mainnet nearly September 2025, while Frankendancer operates in a hybrid configuration.

• Heaven (ticker: LIGHT) represents another emerging launchpad competitor gaining traction in crypto Twitter circles.

Questions Answered

What are the new Solana DAT announcements?

Galaxy, Jump, and MultiCoin are seeking $1 billion for a Solana Digital Asset Treasury, which would become the largest Solana DAT by more than double. Additionally, Sharps Technology announced a $400 million private placement led by Jambo co-founders. The Solana Foundation has become more actively involved in these efforts, signing a Letter of Intent with Sharps Technology to sell $15 million worth of SOL at a 15% discount and giving endorsement to the Galaxy/MultiCoin vehicle according to Bloomberg sources.

Why are DATs important for Solana's price?

DATs create sustained buying pressure that can significantly impact token prices. Ethereum DATs have purchased billions of dollars of ETH and now account for approximately 2.5% of Ethereum's total supply, contributing to Ethereum's outperformance. Unlike passive investment vehicles like ETFs, DATs can actively participate in ecosystem development by publishing research, launching liquid staking tokens, and integrating with DeFi markets. The speed of institutional accumulation through DATs far exceeds individual investor capabilities.

What is VanEck's JitoSOL ETF filing?

VanEck filed an S-1 for an ETF that would hold JitoSOL, Jito's liquid staking token, rather than holding naked SOL and using a third-party staking provider. This structure offers operational efficiency advantages because a higher proportion of the ETF can maintain staking exposure, resulting in better yields for end investors compared to ETFs that stake through providers like Coinbase. The filing followed SEC clarification that liquid staking tokens are not securities, removing a key regulatory obstacle.

What is Alpenglow and when will it launch?

Alpenglow is Solana's consensus upgrade that promises a 100x reduction in finality time to approximately 150 milliseconds. Voting on the proposal was scheduled to begin around late August 2025, with the expectation of overwhelming approval since the upgrade is not controversial. Beyond faster finality, Alpenglow enables potential reductions in slot times and eliminates voting transactions as a block space concern. The upgrade was developed by ETH Zurich researchers who Anza successfully recruited.

Why did pump.fun regain market share from letsbonk.fun?

Pump.fun's market share dropped below 10% on some days during July and August 2025 due to competition from letsbonk.fun, but recovered to 91.6% of launchpad revenue by August 24th. The letsbonk.fun surge appears to have been driven by incentivized deployment rather than organic demand, coinciding suspiciously with pump.fun's token launch. Pump.fun responded aggressively by increasing token buybacks to 100% of revenue (approximately $1.2 million daily) and leveraging its $2 billion war chest to defend market position.

What are prop AMMs and why are they gaining share on Solana?

Prop AMMs are proprietary automated market makers that use protocol-owned liquidity and oracle-based price updates rather than external liquidity providers and swap-based price discovery. They've captured approximately 60% of SOL/USD trading volume on Solana because Solana's microstructure favors their design—oracle updates are 100x less computationally intensive than swaps, allowing multiple price updates per second with tighter spreads. Traditional AMMs like Raydium maintain advantages for long-tail assets like meme coins where oracles don't exist.

Who could be Solana's equivalent to Michael Saylor or Tom Lee?

Kyle Samani from MultiCoin and Mike Novogratz from Galaxy represent obvious candidates given their involvement in the billion-dollar DAT vehicle and their ability to explain Solana to TradFi audiences. However, some observers suggest Solana's spokesperson might be someone not yet prominent in crypto—Tom Lee was relatively unknown on crypto Twitter before BitMine. Chamath Palihapitiya was mentioned as an entertaining possibility. The key requirement is someone with TradFi credibility willing to be an enthusiastic, potentially provocative advocate.

What happened to Firedancer?

Firedancer, Jump's alternative Solana client once positioned as a crucial performance catalyst, remains absent from Solana mainnet as of late August 2025. Frankendancer, a hybrid version, operates on some validators. The extended timeline has reduced Firedancer as a talking point as Anza has demonstrated its own scaling capabilities through upgrades like Alpenglow. However, the competitive pressure from Firedancer development may have catalyzed innovation at Anza, and the Jump association provided crucial legitimacy signals during Solana's post-FTX recovery period.