What a surprise! On the evening of June 16, Solana Foundation Chairman Lily Liu @calilyliu and OKX Chinese made their first live video broadcast, hosted by OKX Mercy @Mercy_okx. Lily Liu not only shared the rapidly advancing new narrative of ICM, the current status of PayFi, and the evolution of Memecoin, but also revealed the team’s talent philosophy... I can’t help but write down these key points and share them with you!
Core content sorting, enjoy~
Solana has never supported MemeCoin, it is completely a spontaneous evolution of the ecosystem
Looking back at the evolution of crypto assets, from ICO, NFT to todays Memecoin, Lily Liu pointed out that Solanas ability to foster innovation and give birth to this ecosystem is mainly due to the combined advantages of its network performance, liquidity, user base and community culture. Interestingly, Memecoin is not a product of deliberate encouragement or strategy by the Solana Foundation, but the result of the spontaneous evolution of the ecosystem - Solanas characteristics just happen to be the most suitable for this type of asset. From a technical point of view, Memecoin has actually become a performance test of the Solana network: a truly decentralized public chain needs to be able to stably carry high concurrent transaction volumes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For example, Solana has withstood the test in the global trading wave of TRUMP tokens, and Memecoin is a typical application that verifies the strength of the public chain.
ICM is not just a new trend in 2025, it is the vision of the Bitcoin white paper
Lily Liu explained that ICM (Internet Capital Markets) is most appropriately translated as Internet Capital Markets. But ICM is not just a new concept, it echoes the original intention and mission of blockchain: to expand the accessibility of international financial resources. Over the past decade, blockchain has emphasized the financial empowerment of buyers: allowing more than one billion people living in countries with underdeveloped economies or imperfect financial systems to expand their wealth management methods and obtain personal financial opportunities through Bitcoin or stablecoins. However, the needs of sellers have been relatively ignored. In fact, a large number of companies and issuers also face the dilemma of lack of global liquidity access. Even in a mature and highly liquid market like the United States, the access threshold for IPOs is still very high. The entire process is not only narrow and costly, but also usually requires a one to two year preparation period.
ICM aims to solve this pain point through on-chain infrastructure: allowing individuals and institutions around the world to have equal access to the liquidity of the capital market, transactions are not restricted by time, are open 24/7, are not restricted by geography, and do not rely on centralized rules. ICM is not just a new trend in 2025. On the contrary, it is the vision contained in the Bitcoin white paper: to allow 5.5 billion Internet users around the world to participate in ICM through their wallets.
PayFi is still in a very early stage
Lily Liu believes that on-chain payment is still in a very early stage, although this idea has existed since the birth of Bitcoin. There are three main reasons why we have not really realized on-chain payment in the past 15 years: lack of high-performance chains at the technical level: if the gas fee of $1 is $2, this experience is obviously unacceptable. At present, only Solana has real performance advantages in speed and cost; lack of active developer community: without developers, there will be no wallets, payment applications, and no new product forms; insufficient stablecoin usage and on-chain integration: user pricing thinking is still based on fiat currency, and real payment circulation must rely on the mature infrastructure of stablecoins.
Solana stays ahead because of “versatility”
Lily Liu emphasized that Solanas biggest advantage lies in its versatility, which can carry multiple different types of applications and tracks at the same time. In the past four years, Solana has been in the first or second position in almost all mainstream tracks that have gained market attention on the chain. From DeFi to NFT, to DePIN, consumer applications, payments, Memecoin, games-regardless of how the industrys focus switches, Solana can almost respond quickly and maintain a core position. This is why Solana particularly emphasizes the importance of basic layer capabilities when promoting the concept of ICM. Solana has adhered to the non-sharding architecture route since 2018, although many people believed that this was not achievable at the time. The most critical point in the financial market is unification of liquidity, and Solana is the only chain designed for liquidity unification from the architectural layer.
In community capitalism, every contributor is a shareholder
Lily Liu admits that there are huge differences between companies in the crypto industry and traditional companies. Traditional companies usually set clear business goals around core products and pursue profit maximization. In the crypto world, the starting point is completely different. What Bitcoin really subverts is not just currency, but the ownership structure - it brings a new model of community capitalism. In community capitalism, if you contribute to the ecosystem, whether it is code, content or products, the contribution itself can be converted into shares, not just wages. Each participant is both a contributor and a potential stakeholder, which is completely different from the structure of traditional companies where investors are investors and employees are employees.
Whether it is a foundation employee or a community member, everyone is encouraged to have a founders mindset. This spirit is not dictated by processes, but is rooted in the culture of community capitalism. Lily Liu does not want to see roles that just wait for tasks to be assigned, but hopes that everyone can be like entrepreneurs in their own fields, proactively find breakthroughs, and move forward in a one-stop manner. This is why the Solana Foundation team has always been kept between 70 and 75 people. They work on technology, growth, and support operations, but they are not the headquarters or the parent company. The Solana Foundation is more like a town hall in a small city, a coordinator of the ecosystem rather than a controller.
Finding the 10X People
There is a common saying in the technology industry called 10X Engineer, which means that a top engineer can generate ten times the value of an ordinary engineer. When looking for people, Lily Liu is also looking for 10X People, and not limited to engineers - 10X Growth, 10X BD, 10X Product, and even 10X Community Leader, these are the types of talents they want. Because 10X people are essentially Founders rather than Employees. A team with 10 such talents may be more efficient than a team of 100 ordinary employees. This is why they like the small and strong team structure - this kind of team is faster, easier to coordinate, clearer in responsibilities, and easier to break through.
Global development relies on Superteam and Solar localized organization
With rich international experience (studied in Chile, and later worked in China, Europe, South Africa, Indonesia, Singapore, etc.), Lily Liu can more easily understand different cultures and look at problems from multiple perspectives. She believes that although blockchain technology is essentially open and borderless, the cultural background, usage habits and acceptance level of each place are still very different. Therefore, Solana created localized organizational forms such as Superteam and Solar. Unlike the international expansion model of headquarters + branches of traditional companies, Solana adheres to the concept of Founders, not employees - not outsourcing work or setting up branches, but activating and supporting local ecology. They pay more attention to culture, media, community, developers, and especially individuals with founder thinking.
The next core vision is to become the Best Place for Capital
Lily Liu said that Solanas next core vision is to become the Best Place for Capital. This is specifically reflected in two aspects: one is the aggregation of all assets - whether it is Memecoin, traditional financial assets, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, or DePIN and other types of assets, they can all find a foothold on the Solana chain; the second is full-scenario use - from high-frequency arbitrage transactions to the most basic payment applications, they can all be realized on Solana. She believes that the development direction of OKX is highly consistent with Solana - from the initial focus on transactions, it is gradually expanding to payments and more scenarios. Therefore, she looks forward to deeper cooperation between the two parties at multiple levels in the future: I hope to see more high-quality assets from OKX deployed in the Solana ecosystem in a wrapped form; based on these assets, jointly explore more usage methods, such as DeFi, payment, and RWA scenarios.
Disclaimer
This article is for reference only. This article only represents the authors views and does not represent the position of OKX. This article is not intended to provide (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) an offer or solicitation to buy, sell or hold digital assets; (iii) financial, accounting, legal or tax advice. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of such information. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins and NFTs) involves high risks and may fluctuate significantly. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. Please consult your legal/tax/investment professionals for your specific situation. Please be responsible for understanding and complying with local applicable laws and regulations.
