Solana Taps Binance, Polygon Veterans for Institutional Push

The Solana Foundation has hired two veterans from major crypto companies to help build out its institutional and payment business. Rachel Conlan, former Binance executive, is now the chief strategy officer, while Jamal Raees, a veteran of Polygon Labs, is the general manager of payments.

These hires come as the Solana network is preparing to test a significant upgrade to its consensus algorithm, which will reduce transaction finality from 13 seconds to around 150 milliseconds. The Alpenglow testnet has already been deployed, allowing developers to test this new design.

In related news, Switchboard's September 25 support deadline for Solana oracles is looming, and it remains unclear who still relies on its prices after this deadline. This deadline was initially a six-day migration warning but has now turned into a test of the network's price feeds.