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

As one of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency field, Anatoly Yakovenko founded one of the most widely used blockchain platforms, Solana. Based on available information and the number of tokens he personally holds, along with his equity stake in Solana Labs, it is estimated that his net worth in 2026 could range between $500 million to $1.2 billion, with the wide range primarily due to recent significant fluctuations in the price of Solana tokens.

Anatoly Yakovenko's Early Life

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

Anatoly Yakovenko's academic background focused on distributed systems and compression algorithms, which later proved to be crucial for his innovations in the blockchain space. According to LinkedIn disclosed information, after graduation, he smoothly joined Qualcomm, where he worked on operating system-level software and distributed systems for over a decade, truly earning his "keep." However, this experience at a leading communications technology company also equipped Anatoly Yakovenko with a deep expertise in building large-scale, high-throughput systems.

During his time at Qualcomm, Anatoly Yakovenko also participated in the research and development of technologies that required coordination across multiple devices while maintaining precise timing. This challenge conceptually resembled the consensus mechanisms in blockchain. He later worked briefly at Dropbox, further deepening his understanding of the challenges of distributed computing in consumer-facing application domains.

How Anatoly Yakovenko Got Involved in Cryptocurrency?

Like many others, Anatoly Yakovenko initially got involved in cryptocurrency through Bitcoin mining. It is reported that he and a friend used the profits from mining to subsidize the graphics processing unit costs for a side project they were developing together. This experience also allowed him to witness firsthand the scalability limitations of Bitcoin and Ethereum, which could only process a small number of transactions per second, leading to bottlenecks and high fees, seemingly at odds with mainstream applications.

Anatoly Yakovenko did not view these limitations as inherent flaws of blockchain technology; instead, he began to further explore whether technologies from other fields could solve the throughput issues. 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 white paper that elaborated on the "Proof of History" technology, a cryptographic method used to create verifiable time passage between events. This innovation enables network validators to process transactions in a predetermined order without extensive communication between nodes, thus significantly increasing potential throughput, which forms the foundation of the Solana blockchain.

Quickly, Anatoly Yakovenko recruited former Qualcomm colleagues Greg Fitzgerald and Stephen Akridge to assist in building a prototype. The team officially established Solana Labs in 2018 and secured initial funding for development. One of Solana's co-founders, Raj Gokal, also joined the project shortly after the release of the "Proof of History" white paper, serving as Chief Operating Officer of Solana Labs (as shown in the image above of Solana's core founding team). Solana Labs launched its first testnet in 2018, followed by a mainnet beta in March 2020, entering the market at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anatoly Yakovenko's On-Chain Holdings Tracking

Upon the launch of Solana, a total of 500 million SOL tokens were minted, with 12.5% allocated to the founding team, which includes Anatoly Yakovenko. A Solana address starting with "9QgXq" is widely rumored to be associated with Anatoly Yakovenko (as shown in the image below), though this has yet to be confirmed. The wallet holds over 136,725 SOL tokens, most of which are staked. Early transactions transferred millions of SOL tokens into this address. This wallet address has existed for over five years, and if it indeed belongs to one of Solana’s co-founders, then the value of the SOL tokens he holds would exceed $11 million.

Furthermore, tracking the historical transaction records of Anatoly Yakovenko's staking account reveals that large SOL transactions have been made to several Solana addresses. For example, between August and November 2024, over 3 million SOL tokens were unstaked and transferred, with more than 1.5 million SOL tokens still staked at multiple addresses including 9E8zG, JQ5jC, A6mJn, and 7pgzZ. If these addresses also belong to Anatoly Yakovenko, then the value of the SOL tokens he holds would far exceed the current estimate, potentially nearing $122 million based on current prices.

Another address suspected to be linked to Anatoly Yakovenko is the Solana domain toly.sol, as his username on X is Toly. Tracking this domain reveals that its owner is an address starting with "86xCn," which currently holds various tokens worth over $1.3 million. However, the value of this address primarily consists of tokens with low liquidity, so the actual liquid value of its holdings is only about $16,500, equivalent to 203.8 SOL.

Anatoly Yakovenko's Off-Chain Holdings Tracking

In addition to holding tokens, Anatoly Yakovenko also possesses a significant equity stake in Solana Labs, the company currently responsible for the development of the Solana protocol and its related infrastructure. Although the specific ownership stake has not been publicly disclosed, it is estimated that he holds approximately 5% to 10% of Solana Labs' shares.

As a private company, Solana Labs' valuation has not been publicly disclosed. Solana Labs has previously conducted multiple rounds of funding, with investors including well-known venture capital firms such as a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Polychain Capital, and Multicoin Capital, which have pushed the company's valuation into the billions. Many estimate its value to be between $5 billion and $8 billion. Based on these valuations, Anatoly Yakovenko's equity stake is estimated to be worth between $250 million and $800 million, not including his personally held tokens.

Although Solana Labs' company valuation is still partially tied to the market performance of the SOL token, the dual ownership structure of personally held tokens and company equity provides some diversification for Anatoly Yakovenko's wealth. While the price of SOL tokens may fluctuate significantly, the company equity represents a more stable asset, especially as Solana Labs' business scope expands beyond protocol development to other blockchain infrastructure projects.

Besides holding shares in Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko is also an active angel investor, having invested in over 40 companies. Some of these companies have grown into giants within the Solana ecosystem, including liquid staking service providers Jito Labs, Solayer, perpetual DEX Drift Protocol and Infinex, as well as staking infrastructure project Helius.

Who Holds the Most Solana?

As an emerging blockchain, Solana has made significant progress since its inception. Today, the distribution of Solana tokens shows a diverse profile, with holders including institutional investors, exchanges, founders, and retail participants. Major institutional holders include the Solana treasury company, cryptocurrency exchanges holding tokens on behalf of users, Solana ETFs, and staking service providers.

However, based on the existing data analysis, the largest holder of SOL tokens is likely the auction winner of the FTX bankruptcy. Following the collapse of the centralized exchange FTX, its held SOL tokens were auctioned as part of the liquidation process. During this process, 41 million SOL tokens were sold, with Galaxy Digital and Pantera Capital acquiring the majority. Despite these tokens being subject to lock-up and vesting plans, approximately 60-70% of the sold SOL tokens have been unlocked and may have already been sold. Considering this, Galaxy Digital likely still holds about 6-8 million SOL, while Pantera might hold about 3-5 million SOL.

In 2025, the Solana treasury company became the focus of attention. Due to the highly transparent token holdings, the largest SOL holder is the Solana treasury company Forward Industries (as shown in the image below), which currently holds 6.9 million SOL tokens (valued at $583 million), accounting for 1.115% of the total SOL supply. Other Solana treasury companies are far behind, with the nine companies after Forward Industries collectively holding only 1.5% of the total SOL supply.

Regarding custody service providers, some centralized exchanges also offer SOL token custodian services for users. For example, Binance's latest reserve proof shows that the exchange holds over 24.2 million SOL tokens. Similarly, ETF providers have also become one of the primary holders of SOL tokens, with the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) holding over 5.5 million SOL tokens, making it the largest spot SOL ETF currently.

Among individual holders, although Anatoly Yakovenko may rank high, he might not hold the most SOL tokens as other co-founders and early team members of Solana Labs also received a considerable number of SOL token shares. Additionally, some early private investors may even hold more SOL than the co-founders of Solana Labs.

Anatoly Yakovenko's Net Worth Fluctuates With the Market

Over time, Anatoly Yakovenko's net worth is likely closely related to Solana's market performance, experiencing wild fluctuations in its stock price (the graph below shows the recent price trends of Solana tokens). In November 2021, when the SOL price reached a cyclical high of about $260, the total value of the tokens and company equity he held may have pushed his net worth over $2 billion, possibly even nearing $3 billion, depending on the value of his shares in Solana Labs.

On the other hand, the cryptocurrency bear market of 2022 severely compressed Anatoly Yakovenko's asset value as the SOL price temporarily dropped below $10, causing the value of the tokens he held to decline by over 95% from its peak. The network interruptions during this period, along with Solana's close association with FTX and Alameda Research, further negatively impacted token prices and ecosystem sentiment. Assuming Anatoly Yakovenko's net worth trends align with market fluctuations, then his net worth may have dipped below $10 million during the bear market.

However, as the market returned to a bull run between 2023 and 2025, Anatoly Yakovenko's net worth will likely grow as well, combined with the increasingly mature valuation of Solana Labs' equity (currently estimated between $4 billion and $10 billion), likely pushing Anatoly Yakovenko's net worth back into the multibillion-dollar range.

At the beginning of 2026, the cryptocurrency market experienced a sharp decline, with Solana prices also dropping below $100. Anatoly Yakovenko's net worth estimate basically holds stable between $500 million and $1.2 billion, with the exact amount depending on the liquidity of the tokens held and the valuation of the equity stake in Solana Labs.

Conclusion

As of early 2026, Anatoly Yakovenko remains one of the core architects of the digital economy, with his net worth fluctuating along with the maturation of the Solana ecosystem. Although the crash in the cryptocurrency market at the beginning of 2026 has reduced his wealth from its multibillion-dollar peak, his financial situation remains robust, primarily due to his equity in Solana Labs and a range of early investment projects.

From a hard-working engineer at an internet company for a decade to a crypto billionaire who built a blockchain sufficient to rival Bitcoin and Ethereum, Anatoly Yakovenko's influence on the crypto industry is evident. Solana has evolved from an initially fast blockchain to a hub that integrates functions such as institutional finance, stablecoin payments, and trading, yet everything seems to have just begun.

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