From "Ox and Horse" to Crypto Billionaires: Solana Leader Toly's Wealth Revealed

Author: 0xKira, Arkham

Compiled by: Moni, Odaily Planet Daily

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

As one of the most influential figures in the cryptocurrency field, Anatoly Yakovenko founded Solana, one of the most widely used blockchain platforms in the industry. Based on available information, including his personal token holdings and Solana Labs’ equity stake, his net worth in 2026 is estimated to be between $500 million and $1.2 billion. The wide range is mainly due to recent significant fluctuations in Solana’s token price.

Early Life of Anatoly Yakovenko

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 showed early talent in 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 U.S. for this field.

His academic background focused on distributed systems and compression algorithms, which later proved crucial to his innovations in blockchain. According to LinkedIn disclosures (see below), after graduation, he joined Qualcomm, where he worked on operating system-level software and distributed systems for over a decade. This experience gave him deep expertise in building large-scale, high-throughput systems.

During his time at Qualcomm, Yakovenko also participated in R&D projects requiring coordination across multiple devices and precise timing, challenges conceptually similar to blockchain consensus mechanisms. He briefly worked at Dropbox, further deepening his understanding of distributed computing challenges in consumer-facing applications.

How Did Anatoly Yakovenko Enter the Cryptocurrency Space?

Like many others, Yakovenko’s initial foray into crypto was through Bitcoin mining. He reportedly and his friends used profits from mining to subsidize the cost of GPUs for their side projects. This experience exposed him to Bitcoin and Ethereum’s scalability limitations, as these networks could only process a small number of transactions per second, leading to bottlenecks and high fees—hardly suitable for mainstream applications.

Rather than viewing these limitations as inherent flaws of blockchain technology, Yakovenko began exploring whether other fields’ technologies could address throughput issues. Drawing inspiration from his telecom background, especially the concept of using time itself as a reliable reference point in distributed systems, he started developing new ideas.

In November 2017, he published a white paper detailing “Proof of History,” a cryptographic technique for creating verifiable passage of time between events. This innovation allows network validators to process transactions in a predetermined order without extensive communication between nodes, significantly boosting potential throughput. The Solana blockchain is fundamentally built on this concept.

Soon after, Yakovenko recruited former Qualcomm colleagues Greg Fitzgerald and Stephen Akridge to help develop a prototype. The team officially founded Solana Labs in 2018 with initial funding for protocol development. One of Solana’s co-founders, Raj Gokal, joined shortly after the “Proof of History” white paper was released, serving as COO of Solana Labs (as shown in the above diagram). Solana Labs launched its first testnet in 2018, followed by a mainnet beta in March 2020, entering the market during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On-Chain Holdings of Anatoly Yakovenko

When Solana launched, 500 million SOL tokens were minted, with 12.5% allocated to the founding team, including Yakovenko. A Solana address starting with “9QgXq” is widely rumored to be linked to Yakovenko (see below), but this has not been confirmed. This wallet holds over 136,725 SOL tokens, most of which are staked. Early transactions transferred millions of SOL tokens to this address. The wallet has been active for over five years. If it indeed belongs to Yakovenko, his holdings would be worth over $11 million at current prices.

Additionally, tracking the staking account’s transaction history shows large SOL transfers—over 3 million SOL unstaked and transferred between August and November 2024. More than 1.5 million SOL remain staked across multiple addresses, including 9E8zG, JQ5jC, A6mJn, and 7pgzZ. If these addresses also belong to Yakovenko, his total holdings could be far higher, potentially approaching $122 million at current market prices.

Another suspected connection is the domain toly.sol, associated with Yakovenko’s X (formerly Twitter) username Toly. The owner of this domain is an address starting with “86xCn,” holding tokens worth over $1.3 million. However, most of these tokens are illiquid, with a real-world value of approximately $16,500, equivalent to about 203.8 SOL.

Off-Chain Holdings of Anatoly Yakovenko

Beyond tokens, Yakovenko also holds significant equity in Solana Labs, which develops the Solana protocol and related infrastructure. While exact ownership percentages are undisclosed, estimates suggest he owns roughly 5% to 10% of the company.

As a private company, Solana Labs’ valuation is not publicly available. The company has raised multiple funding rounds from prominent VCs like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Polychain Capital, and Multicoin Capital, pushing its valuation into the billions. Many estimate its worth between $5 billion and $8 billion. Based on these figures, Yakovenko’s equity could be worth between $250 million and $800 million, excluding his personal token holdings.

Although Solana Labs’ valuation is partly tied to SOL’s market performance, holding both company equity and tokens diversifies Yakovenko’s wealth. While SOL’s price can fluctuate wildly, company shares tend to be more stable, especially as Solana Labs expands beyond protocol development into other blockchain infrastructure projects.

In addition to his holdings in Solana Labs, Yakovenko is an active angel investor, having invested in over 40 companies. Some have become major players in the Solana ecosystem, including staking service provider Jito Labs, Solayer, perpetual DEX Drift Protocol, Infinex, and staking infrastructure project Helius.

Who Owns the Most Solana?

Since its inception, Solana has made significant progress. Today, SOL distribution is diverse, with institutional investors, exchanges, founders, and retail participants holding tokens. Major institutional holders include Solana’s treasury, crypto exchanges holding user tokens, Solana ETFs, and staking providers.

Based on available data, the largest holder of SOL is likely the bidder in the FTX bankruptcy auction. After FTX’s collapse, its SOL holdings were auctioned as part of the liquidation process. About 41 million SOL tokens were sold, with Galaxy Digital and Pantera Capital acquiring most of them. Although these tokens are subject to lock-up and vesting, approximately 60-70% of the sold tokens have been unlocked and may have been sold. Considering this, Galaxy Digital might still hold around 6–8 million SOL, and Pantera around 3–5 million SOL.

By 2025, the Solana treasury will be a key focus. The largest SOL holder within the treasury is Forward Industries, which owns 6.9 million SOL (worth about $583 million), representing 1.115% of total supply. Other treasury holdings are much smaller, with the next nine largest accounts holding only about 1.5% combined.

In terms of custodial services, some centralized exchanges also offer SOL custody. For example, Binance’s latest proof of reserves shows over 24.2 million SOL tokens held. ETF providers are also major SOL holders; for instance, the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) holds over 5.5 million SOL tokens, making it one of the largest spot SOL ETFs.

Among individual holders, Yakovenko’s ranking may be high, but he might not hold the most SOL personally. Other co-founders and early team members of Solana Labs also received substantial SOL allocations. Additionally, some early private investors may hold larger amounts than the founders.

Yakovenko’s Net Worth Fluctuates with the Market

Over time, Yakovenko’s net worth is likely closely tied to Solana’s market performance, which has experienced significant volatility (see below for recent price trends). In November 2021, SOL hit a peak of around $260, potentially pushing his combined holdings and company equity above $2 billion, possibly nearing $3 billion, depending on the valuation of his Solana Labs shares.

In 2022, the crypto bear market severely reduced his assets. SOL’s price briefly fell below $10, causing his holdings’ value to drop over 95% from the peak. Network outages and the close ties between Solana, FTX, and Alameda Research added further negative sentiment. If Yakovenko’s net worth tracked market fluctuations, it could have dipped below $100 million during the downturn.

However, as markets recovered from 2023 to 2025, his wealth likely grew again, especially with Solana Labs’ increasing valuation—estimated between $4 billion and $10 billion—potentially pushing his net worth back into the billions.

In early 2026, the crypto market faced a sharp decline, with Solana’s price dropping below $100. Yakovenko’s net worth is estimated to be between $500 million and $1.2 billion, depending on token liquidity and Solana Labs’ valuation.

Summary

As of early 2026, Anatoly Yakovenko remains a key architect of the digital economy. His net worth fluctuates with Solana’s ecosystem development. Despite the market crash in early 2026 reducing his wealth from its peak, his financial position remains solid, thanks to his holdings in Solana Labs and early investments.

From a hardworking engineer in a network company to a crypto billionaire building a blockchain rivaling Bitcoin and Ethereum, Yakovenko’s influence on the crypto industry is evident. Solana has evolved from a high-speed blockchain to a hub integrating institutional finance, stablecoin payments, and trading. Yet, it seems only just beginning.