NENEW ECONOMIESNov 10, 2025· 1:06

OUT NOW: Solana's Founding Story | Anatoly Yakovenko

Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder and CEO of Solana, tells the story of how his eureka moment—a calculation showing Solana could achieve 1,000 to 10,000 times more throughput than Ethereum or Bitcoin—led to a manic four days and eventually to a blockchain that processes in a single month as many transactions as Ethereum does in its lifetime. He details the brutal fundraising process, requiring 1,000 meetings to secure the first major check, and the near-catastrophic moment during Solana's biggest conference (1,600 developers, sold out) when FTX collapsed on the flight back, threatening the entire ecosystem. The episode explores Anatoly's vision for decentralized finance beyond speculation and the challenges of building a truly open on-chain financial system.

  1. 0:00Intro
  2. 0:09The Vision
  3. 0:27Raising Capital
  4. 0:41FTX Collapse
  5. 0:57How It Began

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Transcript

Intro0:00

Host0:00

Solana. One of the biggest crypto success stories. You had this crazy idea, basically, to potentially change the future of finance. People must have thought you were absolutely crazy.

Anatoly Yakovenko0:09

Yeah. I was manic for like 4 days after that Eureka moment popped into my head. I did my calculation and it was 1,000 to 10,000 times more throughput than Ethereum or Bitcoin at the time. And to give folks a perspective, in a single month Solana does as many transactions as Ethereum does in its lifetime.

The Vision0:09

Host0:26

I mean, that's crazy.

Raising Capital0:27

Anatoly Yakovenko0:27

But yeah, there's a bunch of challenges. Getting a lead on that first major check-in is probably the biggest hurdle. I mean, it was terrible. It basically took me 1,000 meetings. And because it's crypto, there was no standard of safe that you can give people quickly.

We had probably one of the worst "oh shit" moments in the industry. During our biggest conference we ever had, 1,600 developers show up for this conference, we sold out of tickets, and on the flight back, FTX collapsed. This is like a massive collapse that could take down the whole ecosystem.

How It Began0:57

Host0:57

This must have been like a heart attack stage, no? So how did it all begin?