From Four Cents to $2,000: Inside One of Solana's Earliest Investors' Continued Conviction

Viktor Fischer, founder and CEO of Rockaway X, represents a rare breed in crypto venture capital—an investor who placed his bet on Solana when the project was still called Loom and priced at four cents per token. In a comprehensive conversation on the Lightspeed podcast, Fischer laid out his updated thesis for Solana, explaining why he believes SOL could reach $2,000 in the coming years and why Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) will fundamentally reshape the Solana ecosystem in 2026.

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The conversation revealed fascinating insights from someone deeply embedded in both the investment and operational sides of Solana infrastructure. Rockaway X, Fischer emphasized, operates more like "Citadel on chain" than a traditional venture capital firm, running validators, optical cables for Double Zero, on-chain market making operations, and providing substantial liquidity to DeFi protocols. This operational depth gives Fischer a unique vantage point on Solana's current state and future trajectory.

The Origin Story: Finding Solana at 500 Startups

Fischer's journey to becoming one of Solana's earliest backers began in the rich crypto ecosystem of Central Europe. The Czech Republic and Slovakia developed a robust cryptocurrency community stemming from Parallel Polis, an institute of crypto anarchy founded in 2013. When Fischer left his previous position, he purchased his first Bitcoin in 2015 at that very institute—not by choice, but necessity, as it was the only accepted payment method for coffee and desk space.

By 2017-2018, Fischer had become captivated by the ICO wave. A tip from within the ecosystem led him to San Francisco to meet a team building a new high-performance Layer 1 blockchain then called Loom. At the 500 Startups incubator, Fischer met with Raj Gokal, but the interaction that sealed his investment decision was counterintuitive. When Fischer requested a meeting with CEO Anatoly Yakovenko before committing capital, he learned that Toly "didn't want to speak with us because he was just heads down coding."

"That's when we said, 'Okay, this is great. We are investing,'" Fischer recalled. "This team is wasting no time speaking with VCs. Excellent."

The name change from Loom to Solana happened within weeks of Rockaway X's investment, prompted by confusion with an existing Ethereum project of the same name. Fischer's fund participated in both the four-cent pre-seed round and the twenty-cent seed round, establishing a position that would prove extraordinarily valuable.

Why the L1 Debate Is Definitively Over

When asked about evaluating new Layer 1 blockchains—with projects like Monad and Stripe's Tempo on the horizon—Fischer offered a stark assessment: "The framework is very easy. We are not investing into new L1s. Because I think that game is over."

Fischer observed that in conversations with developers, the choice has narrowed to just two options: Base or Solana. The reasoning extends beyond mere performance metrics to the insurmountable challenge of ecosystem development. "Even if a new L1 is really good, you still have to acquire developers and you have to onboard them and you have to ramp up all the DeFi protocols," Fischer explained. "Who cares about your chain if there is no lend-borrow, there is no DEX, there is no Oracle. So it's a massive effort which would take, I think, at least five years."

The venture capital landscape has transformed accordingly. Where a modest ticket into an early L1 could generate thousand-fold returns, Fischer noted that successful investments now target billion-dollar fully diluted valuations—with genuinely successful outcomes like Ethena reaching ten billion. This shift has turned venture investing into an "ownership game" where leading rounds and securing meaningful percentage stakes matters far more than simply participating.

"There will never be another Solana," Fischer declared definitively, acknowledging this might disappoint those who missed the four-cent opportunity but reflecting his conviction that the competitive dynamics have fundamentally shifted.

Surviving the FTX Collapse and Bear Market

The path from seed investment to current conviction wasn't linear. Fischer candidly shared that during 2019, he quoted in Rockaway X's internal Slack channel that "we are running out of money. We have no product market fit. It's ridiculous." The team's refusal to give up ultimately paid dividends.

Solana's initial traction came through the NFT cycle, where the candy machine infrastructure enabled creators to launch collections quickly and cheaply—operations that would cost substantially more on Ethereum. This practical utility drove adoption during the 2021 bull market, with SOL reaching $250. Fischer recalled attending the first Breakpoint conference in Lisbon where "we didn't have many builders there. You had many people walking around with Louis Vuitton and off-white clothes." For the Rockaway X team, these signals marked the cycle top.

When FTX collapsed and Solana crashed below $10, Fischer's conviction remained unshaken. "Actually, why? Because we are so deep in contact with key people in the ecosystem that we know is just clearly tweeted recently—today it was a great opportunity back then because Solana just loves underdogs. That's when everybody comes together."

Fischer cited the February 2024 network outage as emblematic of the community's resilience. When an upgrade deployed directly to Mainnet caused issues and an incorrect snapshot was distributed, validators coordinated twice to update 80% of stake to different snapshots. "The mistakes happen and then we learn and then we implemented the process to create the right snapshot and distribute it to all validators. We don't do updates on Mainnet anymore."

The Updated Solana Thesis: Why $2,000 Is Realistic

Fischer approached the current investment thesis from both macroeconomic and chain-specific angles. At the macro level, he anticipates negative real rates emerging in the United States, with inflation running at three to three-and-a-half percent while Fed rates decline to two to two-and-a-half percent. "Your savings are gone. Basically they're inflated away because it's the only way for the US to treat the debt to GDP."

This environment creates demand for alternative assets that offer growth potential and yield generation. Fischer referenced Dr. Arthur Laffer, the economist famous for the Laffer Curve and advisor to both Reagan and Trump, who serves on one of Rockaway X's boards. At 84 years old, Laffer synthesized Solana's value proposition into two core elements.

"For me, Solana is two things," Laffer told Fischer. "Number one, it's a global NASDAQ which is synchronized at the speed of light. As a result, I can invest anywhere in the world instantly, low costs, no necessity of during-the-night synchronization of different banking systems, no need for overnight settlement."

The second element concerns Solana as an investment vehicle. Laffer recognized that since the dollar has lost approximately 60% of its value since the 1970s, investors need portfolio assets that are both high-growth and yield-generating. "Solana is high growth because it's five times cheaper than Ethereum, but it has 30 times more transactions and users, and it's yielding 7% staking yield and with JitoTips like 10-12% plus," Fischer noted.

Rockaway X's analysis, detailed at whysolana.com, demonstrates that the traditional 60/40 portfolio no longer protects against drawdowns during inflationary periods. Adding Solana improves both returns and the Sharpe ratio—not because it's a store of value, but because it's a high-growth, yield-generating asset.

The Math Behind $2,000 SOL

Fischer outlined both top-down and bottom-up approaches to the $2,000 price target. In the near term, $900 represents a realistic possibility—the price at which Solana would reach Ethereum's current market cap. Given Solana's superior usage metrics and ongoing improvements accruing value to the base layer, Fischer sees this as a reasonable baseline.

The top-down approach for $2,000 and beyond relies on tokenized asset market multiples. Fischer applies a 0.75x to 1x ratio of market cap to tokenized value, comparable to L1 versus TVL relationships. With projected tokenization growth, this framework supports significantly higher valuations.

The bottom-up calculation examines cash flows: "Annual protocol revenue fees, any of these, staking should be like $30 to $50 billion by 2030. Valuation multiple 30 to 50x on cash flows comparable to high-growth SaaS infrastructure. Implied market cap $1.2 to $2.2 trillion." Dividing by the projected 750 million SOL circulating supply yields the $2,000 target.

Fischer was careful to note this represents his realistic assessment rather than the hyperbolic projections common in crypto. When Tom Lee suggested Ethereum could reach $60,000 on CNBC, Fischer observed that "the assumptions make no sense"—though he questioned whether the crypto community criticizing such predictions was counterproductive.

Digital Asset Treasuries: The 2026 Catalyst

Fischer's most actionable thesis concerns Digital Asset Treasuries—publicly traded vehicles that hold crypto assets on their balance sheets. While Solana has seen launches like DeFi Development Corp, Upexi, SOL Strategies, and Solmate, daily trading volume across all Solana DATs totals only $110-120 million compared to $3 billion-plus for Ethereum DATs. This 30x gap represents both current underweight and future opportunity.

"In Solana, we are completely lacking the understanding of TradFi investors," Fischer admitted. "This is my next challenge—stop kind of arguing on crypto Twitter about who is smarter, whether we are going to implement application-specific sequencing or multiple concurrent leaders, and rather simplify this very complex crypto story to traditional investors."

The timeline for DAT impact centers on reporting cycles. Q4 2025 will be the first full quarter where established Solana DATs operate at scale. Those quarterly reports will be published in February 2026, providing TradFi investors their first opportunity to compare yield generation across chains. "TradFi investors who are reading this will understand that Solana is generating much higher yield than Ethereum ones," Fischer predicted.

Beyond yield comparisons, Fischer envisions DATs becoming ecosystem participants—potentially acquiring Solana applications, ramping up businesses, and generating revenue beyond simple asset appreciation. While he couldn't share specifics due to non-public information constraints, he declared: "DATs will become absolutely instrumental for Solana in 2026. It's a big thesis for me. It's a DAT year next year."

Regarding concerns about DAT premiums to NAV (MNAV) compressing below one—as seen with some Ethereum DATs—Fischer emphasized that transparent communication about yield generation should prevent this dynamic. "If a DAT is doing 13% on SOL, MNAV should be 1.13. And the rational investor would compare the yield and the MNAV." When MNAVs do compress, the solution is stock buybacks that benefit existing shareholders.

The Tokenization Imperative

Fischer's frustration with traditional finance gatekeepers drives his passion for tokenization. He manages a $100 million market-neutral fund based in Liechtenstein that provides liquidity to DeFi, generating 16-17% net returns annually across 30 diversified positions. Despite having an ISIN code and full regulatory compliance designed to allow any bank to subscribe, the infrastructure fights against adoption.

"The banks don't get any fees when they are recommending this fund to their clients," Fischer explained. "So the banks are acting as a gatekeeper, not as a channel for me." When investors do want to subscribe, the administrator requires "a printed copy of your passport signed in wet ink and then mailed by DHL to Liechtenstein in 2025 to subscribe to my DeFi fund."

The absurdity of these requirements crystallizes the tokenization opportunity: "This is basically my mission in life. Just to disrupt these stupid, completely irrelevant gatekeepers and third parties. That's why I want to tokenize everything. All the funds should be tokenized and on-chain because then you open your wallet, boom, one click, put your money in, generate yield."

Fischer extended this vision to stocks, insurance, and reinsurance. Galaxy Digital's report shows $10 billion in private credit currently on-chain against a $3 trillion traditional private credit market. On-chain credit offers advantages through transparency, eliminating the need to analyze counterparty P&L and balance sheets manually.

Why Solana Needs More DeFi Applications for TradFi

When asked about specific DeFi protocols suited for TradFi onboarding, Fischer offered a surprising assessment: "I actually think that protocols we have in Solana are not very well-suited for TradFi. None of the TradFi friends I know would use Loop Scale or Kamino. I think we need to simplify much more how to onboard TradFi investors to Solana DeFi."

Applications showing promise include LULO, a yield aggregator focused on simplification that Rockaway X invested in, and Galaxy One, which provides 8% yields specifically designed for qualified investors. Fischer also highlighted nre.finance, an on-chain reinsurance protocol originally on Ethereum that Rockaway X invested in while bringing it to Solana.

The reinsurance opportunity illustrates both the potential and challenges. Traditional reinsurance generates 12% yields, and combined with USDe collateral generating 8%, protocols can offer 20% total returns. However, reaching critical mass requires capital from professional DeFi funds like Steakhouse, RE7, and others—entities that still ask "why Solana?" because "Ethereum is now the place for institutional capital."

Fischer's solution: demonstrate superior yields exclusively available on Solana, then let capital follow returns. "If we bring very nice yields onto Solana and only Solana can generate 20% yields, then the investors would come because they'll go where the juicy yield is."

Double Zero: Solving the 80% Duplication Problem

Rockaway X invested in Double Zero through a round led by Multicoin and Dragonfly and now operates a Double Zero node in Frankfurt. Fischer's engineers brought the opportunity to him approximately two years ago, and the technical case proved compelling.

Looking at Rockaway X's Firedancer validator (visible at firedancer.rockawayX.com), Fischer revealed a stunning statistic: of the roughly 225,000 transactions received at any given moment, 180,000—approximately 80%—are duplicates. "It's massive. 80% of transactions a validator receives are duplicates."

This duplication stems from traders attempting to ensure transaction inclusion by bombarding validators with traffic. Under the QUIC protocol Solana adopted after moving from UDP, validators essentially accept all incoming transactions without filtering. Traders know the leader schedule three days in advance and can target validators accordingly, with other validators passing on transactions they can't include.

Double Zero addresses this through custom firmware installed on Arista routers equipped with FPGA chips. The deduplication happens directly on the hardware level, filtering noise before it reaches validators. Additionally, transactions route through optical networks, dramatically reducing latency.

Fischer explained the importance of latency for arbitrage: "If you are an arbitrage trader on Solana, basically all that matters is the latency between Frankfurt, where most of the validators are located, and Tokyo, where Binance and Hyperliquid matching engines are. If you have super good infrastructure and low latency, your fair price model doesn't matter because you don't have to predict the future of where the price will be on Binance because you are just there."

The Abu Dhabi Data Center Initiative

Fischer revealed active discussions with the UAE government to build a major data center optimized for Solana validation and Double Zero infrastructure. Abu Dhabi's geographic positioning—between Frankfurt and Tokyo—offers significant latency advantages for global arbitrage operations.

However, the primary obstacle isn't energy (already cheap in the UAE) but internet connectivity costs. Fischer shared specific figures: 100 gigabits per second connectivity costs $12,000 monthly in Frankfurt, $13,000 in New York, $12,000 in London, $50,000 in Tel Aviv, and $240,000 in the UAE.

"We are working with the UAE government to see what can be done because this would open the competitiveness of this country globally," Fischer explained. His vision extends beyond Solana validation to potentially hosting centralized exchange matching engines. "If we could also put centralized exchanges' matching engines here—Binance, Hyperliquid, ByBit—everyone should collocate into this one data center with validators. Then arbitrage opportunities would have microseconds latency."

The internet cost disparity exists because Etisalat holds a monopoly in the market. Even home internet proves expensive—Fischer pays 500 dirhams (approximately $120) monthly for one gigabit at home, while a one gigabit connection for Rockaway X's office quoted at $4,000 monthly.

Firedancer Progress and Network Resilience

Rockaway X runs both Agave and Firedancer clients, providing operational insight into client performance. Fischer clarified terminology: what's commonly called Firedancer is technically "Frankendancer"—Firedancer's networking components combined with Agave's consensus mechanism. The improvement over pure Agave is substantial.

The new validators being spun up for Solmate, the Solana DAT that Rockaway X anchored, will run on Firedancer. Fischer expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming mainnet launch of the full Firedancer client, representing another infrastructure milestone for the network.

Pump.fun and the Creator Coin Meta

Fischer's recent exploration of pump.fun and creator coins revealed a dramatically different user base than Solana's infrastructure investors. Returning from the All-In Summit in Los Angeles, he launched "Heart Coin" from his phone, watching it reach $4 million market cap before landing.

The data proved illuminating: the most successful pump.fun trader in the streamer coin meta, who has generated $500,000 in profits since launch, maintains an average holding period of just four minutes. That same trader has created 120 creator coins. "I'm holding Solana since 2018. Four minutes. You see the difference of attention span."

Fischer launched Heart Coin with an actual vision—"doing good extends your life"—and charitable donation components intended to demonstrate long-term wealth building. Yet even this experiment encountered the pervasive short-termism: "People get anxious if they don't get 2x return or 1.5x return in 24 hours. You have to feed them a bit like with drugs. If 24 hours you don't update them on something new, they get anxious."

Reimagining Pump.fun as Instagram

Based on his creator coin experience and on-chain data analysis, Fischer offered product recommendations for pump.fun: "My recommendation to pump.fun—Alon and NoEyes—change the product. Right now, if you open the pump.fun mobile app, you have a plus icon at the bottom which gives you incentive to just launch new tokens all the time. That's why on average market cap is like $5,000."

His alternative vision resembles Instagram: "Every page should be just one token and you cannot launch tokens. But what you can do is take care of your community, post new videos, not only do livestream but post new videos, do reels like you can do on Instagram, then post pictures and engage your community also with non-real-time content. Build up your token page on pump.fun as if you were building an Instagram page for a product."

This shift would transform the user base from "super-fast paper hands to people who actually love your product, who love your Instagram page." Fischer concluded provocatively: "I actually think pump.fun is the Friendster of social networking. And if pump.fun doesn't change, someone else will do it. Of course, call me up because I want to invest in the Instagram-like pump.fun."

The TVL Gap and How DATs Will Close It

A critical metric underlies Fischer's thesis: Solana's TVL remains approximately ten times lower than Ethereum's. After accounting for the five-times price difference, this translates to roughly a two-times gap in actual asset usage. Fischer believes this gap, more than any other factor, supports Ethereum's price premium.

"I think it's really helping Ethereum's price that Ethereum has 10 times more TVL," Fischer observed. "It's something we have to play catch-up on as Solana. And I think DATs can fix that gap because it's only 2x—the 10x difference is 5x coming from price, then 2x coming from actual usage."

The mechanism is straightforward: every DAT should "massively leverage Solana DeFi." Fischer noted that drift, Kamino, and Jito TVL have already grown as DATs deployed capital. As DATs mature and generate yield through DeFi activities, they create a channel for traditional finance capital into Solana applications—potentially enabling acquisitions of wallets and other infrastructure that accelerate the ecosystem's tokenization vision.

Solana's Unique Community Strength

Throughout the conversation, Fischer returned to themes of community resilience and builder dedication. The Breakpoint conference in Amsterdam during the 2022-2023 bear market exemplified this: "It was raining so much, shitty weather, but such a positive attitude. Even Ethereum researchers went there and everybody was so excited about Solana."

This community cohesion, Fischer argued, stems from Solana's underdog identity: "Solana just loves underdogs. That's when everybody comes together." Whether recovering from the FTX collapse, coordinating validator updates after network issues, or continuing development during market drawdowns, the ecosystem has demonstrated an ability to rally that transcends price movements.

The "never give up" mentality that impressed Fischer in 2018—when Toly refused to break from coding for VC meetings—continues to characterize the project. Best entrepreneurs never give up, Fischer noted on his Twitter, and Solana's team has embodied that principle through multiple cycles.

Looking Forward: 2026 and Beyond

Fischer's framework positions 2025 as a building year and 2026 as the year of realization. Q4 2025 quarterly reports will establish baselines for DAT performance. February 2026 publications will educate TradFi investors about yield differentials. The full year will see DATs potentially acquiring companies, deploying capital into DeFi, and serving as channels for institutional investment.

The tokenization vision extends beyond mere asset representation to fundamental disruption of financial intermediaries—the banks earning fees while providing no value, the administrators requiring wet-ink signatures, the gatekeepers preventing efficient capital allocation. Fischer's conviction stems not from speculation but from building the infrastructure required to make this vision reality.

Whether through Double Zero's deduplication capabilities, validator operations providing network security, DeFi liquidity provision generating actual yields, or DAT structures creating TradFi access points, Rockaway X embodies the comprehensive approach Fischer believes Solana requires. The fund invested at four cents not to flip tokens but to build an ecosystem, and nearly seven years later, that mission continues.

As Fischer concluded, the opportunity set has shifted from early-stage L1 speculation to ownership stakes in applications that will reach billion-dollar valuations, operation of critical infrastructure, and creation of bridges between traditional finance and decentralized systems. For those willing to do the work rather than simply trade the tokens, Solana offers the most compelling platform for that ambition.

Facts + Figures

• Rockaway X invested in Solana during its pre-seed (4 cents) and seed (20 cents) rounds when the project was still called Loom
• 80% of all transactions received by Solana validators are duplicates according to Rockaway X's Firedancer data
• Solana DATs have approximately $110-120 million daily trading volume versus $3 billion+ for Ethereum DATs—a 30x gap
• Fischer's $2,000 SOL price target assumes $30-50 billion annual protocol revenue by 2030 with a 30-50x valuation multiple
• At $900 per SOL, Solana would match Ethereum's current market cap
• Rockaway X manages a $100 million market-neutral DeFi fund generating 16-17% net annual returns across 30 positions
• Internet connectivity at 100 gigabits per second costs $12,000/month in Frankfurt but $240,000/month in the UAE
• The most successful pump.fun trader in streamer coins has an average holding period of just four minutes and has created 120 tokens
• Galaxy Digital's report shows $10 billion in private credit on-chain versus $3 trillion in traditional private credit markets
• Solana's TVL is approximately 10x lower than Ethereum's, but accounting for price differences, the actual asset usage gap is only 2x
• Rockaway X runs both Agave and Firedancer validator clients on Solana
• Fischer projects 750 million SOL circulating supply when fully ramped up (currently ~610 million)
• Dr. Arthur Laffer, 84-year-old economist and Reagan/Trump advisor, serves on one of Rockaway X's boards
• Fischer characterizes Rockaway X as "Citadel on-chain"—running validators, optical cables, on-chain market making, and DeFi liquidity operations
• The new validators being deployed for Solmate (Solana DAT) will run on Firedancer
• Traditional reinsurance yields approximately 12%, which combined with USDe collateral (8%) can generate 20% returns on-chain
• Q4 2025 quarterly reports for Solana DATs will be published in February 2026—Fischer's predicted catalyst period
• Heart Coin, Fischer's experiment creator coin, reached $4 million market cap shortly after launch
• Fischer's DeFi fund requires investors to mail wet-ink signed passport copies by DHL to Liechtenstein to subscribe

Questions Answered

What price could Solana realistically reach and why?

Fischer projects SOL could reach $2,000 based on both top-down and bottom-up analysis. The top-down approach applies a 0.75x to 1x market cap to tokenized value multiple, while the bottom-up calculates $30-50 billion in annual protocol revenue by 2030 with a 30-50x valuation multiple comparable to high-growth SaaS infrastructure. Dividing the implied $1.2-2.2 trillion market cap by 750 million circulating SOL yields approximately $2,000. In the nearer term, $900 represents the price at which Solana would equal Ethereum's current market cap, which Fischer considers realistic given Solana's superior usage metrics.

Why is the Layer 1 competition effectively over?

Fischer believes new Layer 1 blockchains cannot compete because the developer ecosystem has consolidated around just two options: Base and Solana. Even a technically superior new chain faces an insurmountable bootstrapping challenge—acquiring developers, onboarding users, and building out essential infrastructure like lending protocols, DEXes, and oracles would take at least five years. By that time, Solana will have reached 1 million TPS with a fully mature ecosystem. Fischer stated definitively: "There will never be another Solana."

What are Digital Asset Treasuries and why do they matter for Solana?

Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) are publicly traded companies that hold crypto assets on their balance sheets, similar to MicroStrategy's Bitcoin treasury strategy. Solana DATs like DeFi Development Corp, Upexi, and SOL Strategies currently generate only $110-120 million in daily trading volume compared to $3 billion for Ethereum DATs. Fischer believes DATs will become the primary channel for traditional finance capital to flow into Solana, potentially closing the TVL gap with Ethereum. The catalyst will be Q4 2025 quarterly reports published in February 2026, when TradFi investors can compare yield generation across chains.

How does Double Zero improve Solana's network performance?

Double Zero eliminates transaction duplication that currently accounts for approximately 80% of all traffic received by validators. The solution uses Arista routers equipped with FPGA chips running custom firmware that performs deduplication at the hardware level before transactions reach validators. Additionally, transactions route through optical networks rather than standard internet connections, dramatically reducing latency between major trading hubs like Frankfurt and Tokyo. This infrastructure improvement benefits arbitrage traders and overall network efficiency.

Why does Fischer prefer Solana as an investment over Bitcoin?

Fischer doesn't position Solana as a store of value like Bitcoin because of its volatility. Instead, he characterizes Solana as a "high growth and yield-generating asset." While Bitcoin's store of value narrative remains aspirational (it hasn't yet demonstrated gold-like behavior during equity drawdowns), Solana offers 7% staking yields plus an additional 3-5% from Jito tips. Analysis shows adding Solana to a traditional 60/40 portfolio improves both returns and Sharpe ratio—not through portfolio protection but through superior growth and yield characteristics.

What is wrong with current DeFi applications for TradFi adoption?

Fischer candidly admitted that existing Solana DeFi protocols like Loop Scale and Kamino aren't well-suited for traditional finance users—none of his TradFi contacts would use them. The industry needs dramatic simplification of onboarding processes. He highlighted LULO (a yield aggregator) and Galaxy One (providing 8% yields for qualified investors) as applications moving in the right direction. The broader issue is gatekeeping by traditional financial institutions that don't benefit from recommending on-chain alternatives.

Why is internet connectivity so expensive in the UAE?

Internet connectivity at 100 gigabits per second costs $240,000 monthly in the UAE compared to $12,000 in Frankfurt, approximately 20 times more expensive. This disparity exists because Etisalat holds a monopoly on internet services in the market. Fischer is working with the UAE government to address this because Abu Dhabi's geographic position between Frankfurt and Tokyo makes it strategically valuable for Solana infrastructure. Reducing connectivity costs could enable a major data center that would attract validators and potentially centralized exchange matching engines.

What is Fischer's view on pump.fun and creator coins?

After experimenting with launching a creator coin called Heart Coin (which reached $4 million market cap), Fischer observed that the pump.fun user base has an extremely short attention span—the most successful trader holds positions for an average of just four minutes. He recommends pump.fun transform into an Instagram-like application where users cannot continuously launch new tokens but instead build community around single tokens through content creation, videos, and engagement. Fischer suggested pump.fun is the "Friendster of social networking" and if it doesn't evolve, a competitor will capture the opportunity.

How did the FTX collapse affect Rockaway X's conviction in Solana?

The FTX collapse and subsequent SOL price crash below $10 did not shake Fischer's conviction because of deep relationships with key ecosystem participants. He referenced Solana's "underdog" identity that brings the community together during difficult times. The Amsterdam Breakpoint conference during the bear market exemplified this resilience—despite terrible weather, enthusiasm remained high with even Ethereum researchers attending. Fischer views these challenging periods as opportunities when the strongest teams and communities differentiate themselves.

What makes Solana attractive to an 84-year-old traditional economist?

Dr. Arthur Laffer, inventor of the Laffer Curve and advisor to Reagan and Trump, serves on one of Rockaway X's boards and has embraced Solana. He synthesizes the value proposition as two elements: first, a "global NASDAQ synchronized at the speed of light" enabling instant, low-cost global investment without overnight settlement; second, as an investment for portfolio protection against dollar devaluation (which has lost approximately 60% of value since the 1970s), Solana offers both high growth potential and meaningful yield—a combination increasingly rare in traditional markets.