Solana Foundation strengthens institutional and payments team｜Appointments do not equal new on-chain revenue｜SOL around 120—I'll wait
My view is to acknowledge the organization’s investment, but I won’t treat SOL spot as already realized growth just because two executives have taken office. Solana Foundation’s September 24 official announcement: Rachel Conlan appointed Chief Strategy Officer, responsible for institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth, and promotion; Jamal Raees appointed General Manager of Payments, driving cooperation with payment companies and enterprises. The announcement is a clear personnel fact, not signing a new bank, issuing a new stablecoin, or obtaining any regulatory license. On the same day, Binance Plaza’s trending list focused more on regulation, ETFs, and exchange security—no hot-topic tags clearly tied to this specific appointment—so this piece discusses actual projects only and doesn’t force unrelated trend topics.
The foundation also states that in 2026 Solana processed stablecoin transfer volumes of over $5 trillion, with on-chain real-world asset (RWA) size exceeding $4.5 billion, and tokenized stock supply over $620 million. These figures indicate the network already has observable use cases, but the metrics are measured differently: cumulative transfer volume, outstanding assets, and supply—not foundation revenue, and not SOL tokens being bought in equal value. Especially with stablecoins, the same capital can circulate repeatedly; interpreting “$5 trillion transactions” as “$5 trillion in new capital entering SOL” would seriously exaggerate demand.
Why does this matter to the crypto market? If the team pushes collaboration toward sustainable real payment use, it could increase on-chain transactions, accounts, and infrastructure demand, and strengthen institutions’ confidence in Solana’s stability and compliant integrations. But between product rollout and SOL value capture, there’s still a gap: transaction fees, active users, the validator economy, and competitive chain value diversion. The evidence I want to see afterward is that partners themselves confirm go-lives, stablecoin settlement volumes keep rising, and whether on-chain fees improve in parallel; a standalone headline about someone’s resume only changes expectations and does not directly change cash flow.
The market hasn’t provided a reason to chase price. When I wrote this, Kraken’s SOL/USD was about $120.57. Over the past 24 hours it was high at $122.91, low at $116.09, and opened at $122.12; the current price is still below the open. The levels above—$121.50 and $122.90—are the two confirmation points I’m watching. Around $119.00 is the short-term risk line; if it breaks further below $116.09, this repair/bounce thesis fails. If the price still can’t reclaim $121.50 under a good-news narrative, it suggests selling pressure and macro risks may be temporarily outweighing longer-term fundamentals.
If I were trading myself: I currently hold zero position, and I won’t try to guess the bottom. I only consider conditional spot longs, with a maximum position size of 0.35% of total capital, and no leverage. The entry trigger is two complete 15-minute candles closing above $121.50, followed by a pullback to $121.00—$121.50 that does not break. If that trigger doesn’t happen, I’ll keep watching from the sidelines. After entry, I halve the position around $122.90 and close the remaining position near $124.00; if a 15-minute close returns below $120.40, I halve first, and if it hits $119.00 I fully exit (stop-loss). If $116.09 breaks before entry, I cancel the long plan. If later collaboration stays at promotional level and on-chain metrics don’t improve, I also won’t extend my holding just because of the announcement.
#SOL
The above is only my personal market observations and does not constitute investment advice.
My view is to acknowledge the organization’s investment, but I won’t treat SOL spot as already realized growth just because two executives have taken office. Solana Foundation’s September 24 official announcement: Rachel Conlan appointed Chief Strategy Officer, responsible for institutional partnerships, ecosystem growth, and promotion; Jamal Raees appointed General Manager of Payments, driving cooperation with payment companies and enterprises. The announcement is a clear personnel fact, not signing a new bank, issuing a new stablecoin, or obtaining any regulatory license. On the same day, Binance Plaza’s trending list focused more on regulation, ETFs, and exchange security—no hot-topic tags clearly tied to this specific appointment—so this piece discusses actual projects only and doesn’t force unrelated trend topics.
The foundation also states that in 2026 Solana processed stablecoin transfer volumes of over $5 trillion, with on-chain real-world asset (RWA) size exceeding $4.5 billion, and tokenized stock supply over $620 million. These figures indicate the network already has observable use cases, but the metrics are measured differently: cumulative transfer volume, outstanding assets, and supply—not foundation revenue, and not SOL tokens being bought in equal value. Especially with stablecoins, the same capital can circulate repeatedly; interpreting “$5 trillion transactions” as “$5 trillion in new capital entering SOL” would seriously exaggerate demand.
Why does this matter to the crypto market? If the team pushes collaboration toward sustainable real payment use, it could increase on-chain transactions, accounts, and infrastructure demand, and strengthen institutions’ confidence in Solana’s stability and compliant integrations. But between product rollout and SOL value capture, there’s still a gap: transaction fees, active users, the validator economy, and competitive chain value diversion. The evidence I want to see afterward is that partners themselves confirm go-lives, stablecoin settlement volumes keep rising, and whether on-chain fees improve in parallel; a standalone headline about someone’s resume only changes expectations and does not directly change cash flow.
The market hasn’t provided a reason to chase price. When I wrote this, Kraken’s SOL/USD was about $120.57. Over the past 24 hours it was high at $122.91, low at $116.09, and opened at $122.12; the current price is still below the open. The levels above—$121.50 and $122.90—are the two confirmation points I’m watching. Around $119.00 is the short-term risk line; if it breaks further below $116.09, this repair/bounce thesis fails. If the price still can’t reclaim $121.50 under a good-news narrative, it suggests selling pressure and macro risks may be temporarily outweighing longer-term fundamentals.
If I were trading myself: I currently hold zero position, and I won’t try to guess the bottom. I only consider conditional spot longs, with a maximum position size of 0.35% of total capital, and no leverage. The entry trigger is two complete 15-minute candles closing above $121.50, followed by a pullback to $121.00—$121.50 that does not break. If that trigger doesn’t happen, I’ll keep watching from the sidelines. After entry, I halve the position around $122.90 and close the remaining position near $124.00; if a 15-minute close returns below $120.40, I halve first, and if it hits $119.00 I fully exit (stop-loss). If $116.09 breaks before entry, I cancel the long plan. If later collaboration stays at promotional level and on-chain metrics don’t improve, I also won’t extend my holding just because of the announcement.
#SOL
The above is only my personal market observations and does not constitute investment advice.
