# The Solana Foundation The Solana Foundation is an Endowment / Foundation based in Zug, Switzerland. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation - **Headquarters:** Zug, Switzerland - **Region:** Europe - **Address:** Dammstrasse 16, 6300 Zug, Switzerland - **Founded:** 2022 - **Assets under management:** Undisclosed - **Website:** solana.org - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/solana-foundation ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About The Solana Foundation was formed in 2022 in Zug, Switzerland, shortly after the mainnet launch by co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal. The entity was purpose-built as an independent, non-profit steward of the Solana protocol and its intellectual property, accepting the transfer of core assets from the original development company, Solana Labs. The Foundation is governed by a council that includes President Lily Liu and early investor Mable Jiang of Multicoin Capital, positioning its oversight across both technical and venture perspectives. The Foundation deploys capital from its on-chain treasury — including the Solana Operational Reserve and the Community & Ecosystem Fund — to accelerate development across the network. Its grant-making and direct investment strategy encompasses infrastructure, DeFi, consumer applications, and developer tooling. Confirmed ecosystem participants that have received Foundation support include projects building in payments, decentralized finance, and NFT marketplaces. Its geographic focus starts with a strong developer base in Europe and Asia, particularly in emerging market corridors where high-throughput, low-cost transaction rails offer a distinct utility. Beyond its core treasury, the Foundation maintains the on-chain Solana Foundation Founders Collection and coordinates with Solana Labs, which continues its own commercial product work. The team's size and annual deployment figures are not publicly disclosed. The Foundation does not operate as a traditional venture fund — it does not raise outside capital — but its ecosystem fund functions as a perpetual strategic allocator within the Solana economy. No recent personnel or structural events from the last 24 months were verifiable from the available record. What separates The Solana Foundation from a standard crypto foundation is the clean legal severance of protocol governance from the commercial entity that birthed it. Solana Labs develops products on the network, but the IP and treasury sit in a Swiss non-profit with a mandate to grow a permissionless community. This architecture forces all major upgrades and capital allocation decisions through a council that includes external members — a governance model closer to an open-source software foundation than a proprietary venture outfit. ## Sectors - Blockchain Infrastructure - Enterprise Software ## People - Lily Liu — President and Chair of the Foundation Council - Anatoly Yakovenko — Co-Founder of Solana, Foundation Council Member - Raj Gokal — Co-Founder of Solana ## Questions ### How is The Solana Foundation different from Solana Labs? Solana Labs is the for-profit engineering company that originally developed the Solana protocol. The Solana Foundation is the independent, Swiss non-profit that now holds the core IP and network treasury. Labs continues to build commercial products on the network, while the Foundation focuses on protocol governance, grants, and ecosystem development. This separation is designed to prevent any single commercial entity from controlling the blockchain's future. ### Who controls investment and grant decisions at The Solana Foundation? The Foundation Council makes strategic allocation decisions. President Lily Liu serves as Chair and is the most visible executive making day-to-day calls on the treasury. The council also includes Anatoly Yakovenko and external members, such as Mable Jiang from Multicoin Capital, ensuring that both technical founders and third-party investors have a voice in governance. Day-to-day grant operations are run by the Foundation's internal team in Zug. ### Where does The Solana Foundation's capital come from? The Foundation's capital originates from the launch of the Solana blockchain and the subsequent transfer of IP and token reserves from Solana Labs. It holds on-chain assets in an operational reserve and a designated Community & Ecosystem Fund. Because it does not solicit external subscriptions, its treasury functions as a closed, public-good endowment for the Solana network rather than a managed fund. ### What is the Foundation's known posture on co-investments alongside external VCs? The Foundation actively allocates alongside crypto-native venture firms. Through relationships like the one with Multicoin Capital — whose partner Mable Jiang sat on its council — it functions as a co-investor and ecosystem convener. It frequently runs joint grant programs and hackathon-linked funding rounds with external venture partners to syndicate early-stage deal flow across the Solana ecosystem. ## Related profiles - [The Shizuoka Bank](https://altss.com/profile/the-shizuoka-bank) - [The Sovereign Fund of Egypt](https://altss.com/profile/the-sovereign-fund-of-egypt) --- Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/the-solana-foundation Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology