From Code Monkey to Crypto Billionaire: Solana's Toly's Wealth Exposed

Source:Arkham

Compiled by: Odaily (@OdailyChina); Translator: Moni

Anatoly Yakovenko (@toly), the creator of the Solana blockchain, has become a leading figure in the blockchain industry and a well-known billionaire. This article will delve into his personal wealth.

As one of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency space, Anatoly Yakovenko founded Solana, one of the most widely used blockchain platforms in the industry. Based on available information, the quantity of tokens he personally holds, and his equity stake in Solana Labs, his estimated net worth for 2026 could range between $500 million and $1.2 billion. The wide range is primarily due to the significant recent volatility in the price of the SOL token.

Anatoly Yakovenko's Early Life

Anatoly Yakovenko was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to the United States with his family in the early 1990s, settling in Illinois. He demonstrated an early aptitude for computer science and engineering, eventually earning a degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the top institutions in the field in the US.

His academic background focused on distributed systems and compression algorithms, technical areas that later proved crucial to his innovations in blockchain. According to his LinkedIn profile (see image below), after graduation, he joined Qualcomm, where he worked for over a decade on operating system-level software and distributed systems, gaining extensive experience. This tenure at a leading communications technology company allowed him to accumulate deep expertise in building systems that handle massive scale and high throughput.

During his time at Qualcomm, Anatoly Yakovenko also worked on technologies requiring coordination across multiple devices while maintaining precise timing—a challenge conceptually similar to blockchain consensus mechanisms. He later had a brief stint at Dropbox, further deepening his understanding of distributed computing challenges in consumer-facing applications.

How Did Anatoly Yakovenko Enter the Cryptocurrency Space?

Like many, Anatoly Yakovenko's initial foray into cryptocurrency began with Bitcoin mining. Reportedly, he and a friend used mining profits to subsidize the cost of GPUs for a side project they were developing together. This experience also gave him firsthand exposure to the scalability limitations of Bitcoin and Ethereum. These networks could only process a handful of transactions per second, creating bottlenecks and high fees, seemingly incompatible with mainstream adoption.

Rather than viewing these limitations as inherent flaws in blockchain technology, Yakovenko began exploring whether techniques from other fields could solve the throughput problem. He drew inspiration from his telecommunications background, particularly the concept of using time itself as a reliable reference point in distributed systems.

In November 2017, Anatoly Yakovenko published a whitepaper detailing the "Proof of History" (PoH) technique—a cryptographic method for creating verifiable time passage between events. This innovation allows network validators to process transactions in a predetermined order without requiring extensive communication between nodes, significantly increasing potential throughput. The Solana blockchain is fundamentally built upon this concept.

Soon after, Yakovenko recruited former Qualcomm colleagues Greg Fitzgerald and Stephen Akridge to help build a prototype. The team formally established Solana Labs in 2018, securing initial funding to develop the protocol. Raj Gokal, another co-founder of Solana, joined the project shortly after the Proof-of-History whitepaper was released, serving as COO of Solana Labs (the core founding team is shown in the image above). Solana Labs launched its first testnet in 2018, followed by a mainnet beta in March 2020, entering the market during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tracking Anatoly Yakovenko's On-Chain Holdings

At its launch, Solana minted 500 million SOL tokens, with 12.5% allocated to the founding team, including Anatoly Yakovenko. A Solana address starting with "9QgXq" is widely rumored to be associated with Anatoly Yakovenko (see image below), though this has not been confirmed. This wallet holds over 136,725 SOL tokens, most of which are staked. Early transactions transferred millions of dollars worth of SOL to this address. The wallet is over five years old. If it indeed belongs to Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, his SOL holdings would be worth over $11 million.

Furthermore, by tracking the historical transaction records of Anatoly Yakovenko's staking accounts, it's evident that related accounts have conducted large SOL transactions to multiple Solana addresses. For instance, between August 2024 and November 2024, over 3 million SOL tokens were unstaked and transferred. Over 1.5 million SOL tokens remain staked across multiple addresses, including 9E8zG, JQ5jC, A6mJn, and 7pgzZ. If these addresses also belong to Anatoly Yakovenko, his SOL holdings would far exceed current estimates, approaching approximately $122 million at current prices.

Another address potentially linked to Anatoly Yakovenko is the Solana domain toly.sol, as his X username is Toly. Tracing this domain reveals its owner is an address starting with "86xCn". This address currently holds various tokens worth over $1.3 million, but its value is primarily in illiquid tokens. Therefore, the actual liquid value of its holdings is only about $16,500, equivalent to 203.8 SOL.

Tracking Anatoly Yakovenko's Off-Chain Holdings

Beyond token holdings, Anatoly Yakovenko holds a significant equity stake in Solana Labs, the company primarily responsible for developing the Solana protocol and its related infrastructure. Although the exact percentage is not publicly disclosed, he is estimated to hold approximately 5% to 10% of Solana Labs.

As a private company, Solana Labs' valuation is not publicly disclosed. The company has conducted multiple funding rounds in the past, with investors including prominent venture capital firms like a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Polychain Capital, and Multicoin Capital. These investments have valued the company in the billions, with many estimating its worth between $5 billion and $8 billion. Based on these valuations, Anatoly Yakovenko's equity stake would be worth between $250 million and $800 million, excluding his personal token holdings.

Although Solana Labs' corporate valuation is still partially tied to the market performance of the SOL token, this dual ownership structure—personal tokens and company equity—provides some diversification for Yakovenko's wealth. SOL token prices can be highly volatile, while company equity represents a more stable asset, especially as Solana Labs' business expands beyond protocol development to other blockchain infrastructure projects.

In addition to his stake in Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko is an active angel investor, having invested in over 40 companies to date. Some of these have grown into giants within the Solana ecosystem, including liquid staking service providers Jito Labs and Solayer, perpetual DEXs Drift Protocol and Infinex, and staking infrastructure project Helius.

Who Owns the Most Solana?

As an emerging blockchain, Solana has come a long way since its inception. Today, SOL token distribution is diverse, with holders including institutional investors, exchanges, founders, and retail participants. Major institutional holders include the Solana Treasury companies, cryptocurrency exchanges that custody tokens on behalf of users, Solana ETFs, and staking service providers.

However, based on available data analysis, the largest holder of SOL tokens is likely the winning bidder from the FTX bankruptcy auction. Following the collapse of the centralized exchange FTX, its asset holdings of SOL tokens were auctioned as part of the liquidation process. During this, 41 million SOL tokens were sold, with Galaxy Digital and Pantera Capital acquiring the majority. Although these tokens were subject to lock-up and vesting schedules, approximately 60-70% of the sold SOL has been unlocked and may have been sold. Considering this, Galaxy Digital might still hold around 6-8 million SOL, while Pantera might hold around 3-5 million SOL.

In 2025, the Solana Treasury companies came into focus. Due to highly publicized holdings, the largest SOL holder among them is Forward Industries (see image below), which currently holds 6.9 million SOL tokens (worth $583 million), accounting for 1.115% of the total SOL supply. Other Solana Treasury companies lag far behind; the nine companies following Forward Industries collectively hold only 1.5% of the total SOL supply.

Regarding custodial service providers, some centralized exchanges also provide SOL custody for users. For example, Binance's latest Proof of Reserves shows the exchange holds over 24.2 million SOL tokens. Similarly, ETF providers have become major SOL holders. The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) holds over 5.5 million SOL tokens and is currently the largest spot SOL ETF.

Among individual holders, while Anatoly Yakovenko likely ranks high, he may not be the individual holding the most SOL. Other Solana Labs co-founders and early team members also received significant allocations of SOL tokens. Furthermore, some early private investors may hold SOL positions that even exceed those of the Solana Labs co-founders.

Anatoly Yakovenko's Net Worth Fluctuates Significantly with the Market

Over time, Anatoly Yakovenko's net worth has likely been closely tied to Solana's market performance, experiencing its dramatic price swings (the chart below shows SOL's price movement in recent years). In November 2021, when SOL reached a cyclical high of around $260, the combined value of his token holdings and company equity could have pushed his net worth over $2 billion, potentially approaching $3 billion, depending on the valuation of his Solana Labs stake.

Conversely, the 2022 crypto bear market severely compressed the value of Anatoly Yakovenko's assets. With SOL prices briefly falling below $10, the value of his token holdings dropped over 95% from their peak. Network outages during this period, along with Solana's close association with FTX and Alameda Research, imposed additional negative pressure on the token price and ecosystem sentiment. Assuming his net worth trajectory mirrored market volatility, it may have dipped below $100 million during the bear market.

However, as the market returned to a bull run between 2023 and 2025, Anatoly Yakovenko's net worth likely recovered. Coupled with the maturing equity value of Solana Labs (currently estimated between $4 billion and $10 billion), this likely pushed his net worth back into the multi-billion-dollar range.

At the beginning of 2026, the cryptocurrency market experienced a sharp decline, with Solana's price falling below $100. Anatoly Yakovenko's estimated net worth is largely maintained within the range of $500 million to $1.2 billion, with the specific figure depending on the liquidity of his token holdings and the valuation of his Solana Labs equity.

Conclusion

As of early 2026, Anatoly Yakovenko remains one of the core architects of the digital economy, with his net worth fluctuating alongside the maturation of the Solana ecosystem. Although the crypto market crash at the start of 2026 has reduced his wealth from its multi-billion-dollar peak, his financial standing remains robust, primarily due to his equity in Solana Labs and a portfolio of early-stage investments.

From a dedicated engineer working for a decade at a networking company to a crypto billionaire who built a blockchain rivaling Bitcoin and Ethereum, Anatoly Yakovenko's influence on the crypto industry is evident. Solana has evolved from a high-speed blockchain into a hub encompassing institutional finance, stablecoin payments, trading, and more. Yet, it seems everything is just beginning.