Solana is no longer just a blockchain for meme coins or speculative trading. Under the leadership of Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation, the network is being repositioned as foundational infrastructure for what she calls “internet capital markets”—a decentralized, globally accessible financial system that empowers individuals to convert labor into lasting capital.
In a recent presentation at the 2025 Web3 Festival in Hong Kong and an exclusive interview, Liu laid out a bold vision for blockchain’s role in reshaping economic participation, especially for younger generations locked out of traditional wealth-building systems.
From Meme Coins to the “Everything Chain”
“Solana has evolved from being the DeFi chain to the NFT chain, the gaming chain, the payment chain, and recently the meme coin chain,” Liu explained. “When you sum all that up, Solana is the everything chain.”
While meme coins briefly propelled Solana’s price to a high of $290 in January—before correcting over 60% to around $120—Liu views these assets as just one fleeting phenomenon in a much broader ecosystem. “Meme coins are just one type of asset. There will be something else—there’s always going to be the tulip market and the beanie baby market. That’s been going on for a really long time. That’s just what humans do with or without blockchain,” she noted.
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Despite short-term volatility, Solana’s Total Value Locked (TVL) reached an all-time high in April 2025. This milestone underscores sustained confidence in the network’s utility beyond speculative trends, signaling strong institutional and retail adoption across decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, and real-world asset tokenization.
The Growing Crisis of Capital Access
Liu brings a rare blend of experience from both traditional finance and Web3. As a co-founder of Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase in 2018) and former CFO of Chinaco Healthcare Corporation, she has navigated complex financial systems across the U.S. and China. This background informs her critique of today’s capital markets.
“Fifty years ago, it took 25 hours of labor to buy one share of the S&P 500. Today, it takes 195 hours,” Liu stated during her keynote. This stark shift illustrates how capital accumulation has become increasingly inaccessible to average workers, while financial risks are socialized through rising national debt.
The consequences are especially acute among younger generations. In countries like South Korea and China, skyrocketing housing prices have made homeownership unattainable without generational wealth transfers. “In Korea and China, the parents’ generation has retained the upside of a major asset class like housing,” Liu observed. “Young people’s ability to convert hours of labor into capital and freedom later in life has become extremely limited.”
In China, societal expectations compound the pressure: young men are often expected to own an apartment before marriage, yet median salaries make this impossible without parental support. This systemic exclusion fuels economic anxiety and erodes trust in existing financial institutions.
Blockchain as Global Financial Infrastructure
Liu sees blockchain not as a speculative tool but as the foundation for a new global financial infrastructure—one that unifies wealth, transactions, and capital access for over five billion internet users.
“What crypto is doing is providing this unified infrastructure to unify the wealth, the transactions, the financial coffers of five and a half billion people,” she explained.
Unlike traditional financial systems that require extensive documentation, credit checks, and geographic exclusivity, blockchain enables near-instant access through a simple crypto wallet download. This shift lowers barriers to entry and democratizes participation in global markets.
Solana’s high throughput and low transaction costs make it particularly well-suited for this mission. By enabling fast settlements and scalable dApps (decentralized applications), Solana supports everything from micro-investments to cross-border remittances—functions traditionally reserved for banks or accredited investors.
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Community-Based Capitalism and the Ownership Economy
One of Liu’s most compelling arguments is that blockchain introduces a third economic model beyond capitalism and communism: community-based capitalism.
“For 100 years, we’ve accepted that ownership is either corporate or state-controlled,” she said. “Bitcoin showed us there’s another way—where value accrues to participants, not just shareholders or governments.”
This model fosters an ownership economy, where early contributors to a network—developers, users, validators—can share in its long-term success. Contrast this with traditional platforms like Uber: early drivers helped bootstrap the network but received only hourly wages, with no equity or future upside.
In blockchain ecosystems like Solana, token incentives align contribution with ownership. Users who stake tokens, provide liquidity, or build on the network are rewarded directly—not just through fees, but through governance rights and value appreciation.
Governance in Action: The Inflation Debate
Solana’s commitment to community-driven economics was recently tested during a contentious governance discussion about reducing inflation. While lower inflation could improve network security efficiency, Liu cautioned that it might undermine Solana’s appeal as a yield-generating asset.
“Dynamic yield on an asset makes it a worse asset,” she emphasized. “If you have an asset yielding a fixed percentage annually, you price that very differently than one with variable rates.”
This debate highlights a core principle: economic design on blockchains must balance technical efficiency with user incentives. In Solana’s case, maintaining predictable yields helps attract long-term participants—especially crucial in emerging markets where alternative savings vehicles are scarce.
The Road Ahead: Universal Basic Opportunity
Looking five years forward, Liu envisions Solana enabling universal basic opportunity—a paradigm shift from welfare-based models like universal basic income (UBI) to systems where individuals earn equity through participation.
“This isn’t about handouts,” Liu clarified. “It’s about creating pathways where your time, skills, and contributions translate into real ownership.”
Imagine students earning tokens for learning on decentralized education platforms, creators monetizing content directly through NFTs, or gig workers accumulating stakeable assets instead of disposable income. These scenarios represent a future where labor consistently converts into capital.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: What does Lily Liu mean by “internet capital markets”?
A: Internet capital markets refer to a decentralized financial system built on blockchain that allows anyone with internet access to participate in investing, saving, borrowing, and earning yields—without intermediaries like banks or brokers.
Q: How is Solana different from other blockchains in promoting financial inclusion?
A: Solana combines high speed, low fees, and developer-friendly tools to support scalable applications in DeFi, payments, and asset tokenization—making it accessible even in regions with limited banking infrastructure.
Q: What is “community-based capitalism”?
A: It’s an economic model where value is distributed among active participants in a network—such as users, developers, and validators—rather than being captured solely by corporate shareholders or centralized authorities.
Q: Can blockchain really solve wealth inequality?
A: While not a complete solution, blockchain lowers barriers to asset ownership and enables new forms of compensation through tokens and staking rewards—offering more equitable paths to wealth creation.
Q: Is Solana moving away from meme coins?
A: Not necessarily—but meme coins are seen as temporary cultural phenomena. Solana’s long-term focus is on sustainable use cases like DeFi, NFTs, real-world assets, and community-driven economies.
Q: How can someone get started with internet capital markets today?
A: Start by setting up a non-custodial wallet, exploring decentralized exchanges (DEXs), participating in yield-generating protocols, or engaging with communities building on chains like Solana.
Lily Liu’s vision positions Solana not just as a technology platform but as a catalyst for economic transformation. By enabling internet-scale capital markets, Solana aims to bring financial sovereignty to billions—turning passive users into owners, contributors, and stakeholders in a more inclusive global economy.
The future isn’t just decentralized—it’s democratized.