Lily Liu

Lily Liu is an entrepreneur, operator, and investor recognized for her leadership in blockchain technology and decentralized finance. Liu serves as president of the Solana Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on the decentralization, growth, and security of the Solana network. At Solana, she has advanced the vision of blockchain as foundational infrastructure for a globally integrated financial internet, supporting payments, savings, investment, and new markets at internet scale.

Before her work in cryptocurrency, Liu built a career in finance and operations across multiple continents. She began as a summer analyst at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, then joined McKinsey & Company as a senior associate, working on performance transformation projects in risk management for financial institutions, operational enhancements in the energy and transportation sectors, and post-merger integration planning. Liu also worked at KKR in New York. She served as chief financial officer of Chinaco Healthcare, where she contributed to the development of a 500-bed private hospital in China.

Liu first encountered Bitcoin in Shanghai after reading Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper, which continues to influence her approach to blockchain and digital assets. She co-founded Earn.com, an early crypto company focused on programmable money and online incentives, which was later acquired by Coinbase. Liu is also co-founder of Anagram, a founding team member of Osmosis, and an advisor to Brave.

During her tenure at Solana, the network has experienced significant growth in developer participation, application revenue, network usage, and on-chain asset creation. As president, Liu introduced Solana Actions and Blinks, innovations designed to integrate blockchain transactions into everyday internet use. She has supported collaborations with institutions such as Western Union to expand blockchain applications in payments and stablecoins, emphasizing blockchain as a technology platform for the financial system, with liquidity, speed, and cost as core elements of future financial infrastructure. Liu has also served as a board member at Airtm and joined the board of Ledger.

Liu is known for her focus on practical outcomes, emphasizing performance, costs, latency, and adoption as prerequisites for financial inclusion and global coordination. She frequently speaks at blockchain and finance conferences, sharing insights into decentralized systems and the future of finance. In interviews, Liu discusses her background in traditional finance and her transition to the crypto sector, highlighting the importance of community ownership and the role of decentralized finance in building an on-chain economy accessible to billions. Liu holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and international relations from Stanford University and studied East Asian studies at Harvard University.