Solana Foundation Caught in Perps Market Controversy Over Alleged 'Kingmaking'
Solana's perps market has been at the center of a heated debate over the role of the Solana Foundation in supporting certain projects.
In August, Flash.Trade founder Anas Khader shut down his perps exchange, citing three reasons: team misalignment, exhaustion from running a bootstrapped exchange, and the Solana Foundation's backing of a rival project called Phoenix.
Khader claimed that the Foundation had been supporting Phoenix to the point where it was paying for liquidity to match Flash.Trade's volumes, which were funded by the Foundation's grants or indirectly through its perps program.
Solana Foundation President Lily Liu responded by stating that the Foundation's goal is to create an open meritocracy, actively facilitating competition and letting the market decide. She argued that concentrating support behind one product would cap how much talent, capital, and users can be attracted to Solana.