Anatoly Yakovenko was a Qualcomm engineer who thought every blockchain was too slow, so he built one that processes 65,000 transactions per second — for basically free. Solana became "the fast chain" and Ethereum's most credible competitor. Then it crashed. And crashed again. And crashed again. The network went down at least seven times in 2022 alone. But like a boxer who keeps getting knocked down and keeps getting back up, Solana kept improving. By 2024, it was processing more daily transactions than Ethereum.
Founded
2017
HQ
San Francisco, California
Total Raised
$335 million
Founder
Anatoly Yakovenko
Status
Active
Website
solanalabs.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
Anatoly Yakovenko worked at Qualcomm for 13 years on operating systems and distributed systems. He realized that existing blockchains were bottlenecked by how they agree on time — they had to wait for each transaction to be processed sequentially.
His breakthrough idea was Proof of History (PoH), a cryptographic clock that lets validators agree on the order of events without waiting for each other. He published a whitepaper in 2017, recruited Greg Fitzgerald and Stephen Akridge (also ex-Qualcomm engineers), and founded Solana Labs.
The name Solana comes from Solana Beach, California, where the founders used to surf.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Solana Labs builds the core technology and products on the Solana blockchain. The blockchain itself generates revenue through transaction fees (paid in SOL tokens).
Solana Labs specifically earns through products built on top: Solana Pay (payment processing), Solana Mobile (Saga phone), and enterprise consulting. The Solana Foundation (a separate nonprofit) manages ecosystem grants and validator programs.
The SOL token's value drives the economic model — as the ecosystem grows, SOL demand increases.
THE PRODUCTS
Solana Blockchain (Layer 1, 65K+ TPS), Solana Pay (payment protocol), Solana Mobile/Saga Phone, Solana Token Extensions, Firedancer (new validator client by Jump Trading), Solana Actions & Blinks (blockchain transactions from any URL).
HOW THEY GREW
Solana grew by being aggressively cheaper and faster than Ethereum. A transaction on Solana costs a fraction of a cent versus dollars on Ethereum.
This made it the default chain for high-frequency use cases: NFT minting (millions of compressed NFTs), memecoin trading, DeFi, and mobile apps. The Solana hackathon program attracted thousands of developers.
They also made unconventional bets — the Saga phone (a crypto-native Android phone) was mocked but created a dedicated mobile user base. Partnerships with Visa, Shopify, and Google Cloud added enterprise credibility.
THE HARD PART
Outages nearly killed Solana's credibility. The network went down completely at least seven times in 2022 — validators would get overwhelmed by spam transactions and the whole chain would halt for hours.
For a blockchain that marketed itself on speed and reliability, this was devastating. The FTX collapse in November 2022 was even worse — Sam Bankman-Fried and Alameda Research were the biggest backers of Solana's ecosystem.
SOL's price crashed from $260 to $8. Many declared Solana dead.
The comeback to $200+ by 2024 is one of crypto's greatest redemption arcs.
MONEY TRAIL
2018 · Led by
$NaNM raised
2019 · Led by
$NaNM raised
2020 · Led by
$NaNM raised
2021 · Led by
$NaNM raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Polychain Capital, Multicoin Capital, Alameda Research/FTX, Jump Trading, Solana Foundation
Head-to-Head
Compare Solana Labs vs another company.