What the Foundation Says It Gives You

The Solana Foundation and its affiliates, such as Monke Foundry, distribute tens of millions in grants each year.

This week, the public debate about the support of the builders in Solana came to light, when Vibhu Norby, chief product officer of the Solana Foundation, sent a detailed denial, in which they cited the 650 million dollars collected by the alumni of the Colosseum program and tens of millions of non-equity grants, as well as the network’s lead in all communication ideas.

Vibhu’s post came as criticism of founder’s rights by other members of the crypto community quickly expanded into a debate over whether the Foundation is doing enough for its founders.

What Solana Foundation does

In an X post published on March 24, Norby addressed what he called “blatant inaccuracies” in recent online discussions about Solana’s support for the builders. First, he said that projects from the Colosseum accelerator alone raised more than $650 million in business capital. In addition, he said the ecosystem runs several hackathons each year, including three since January, where they offer prize pools worth millions of dollars.

In addition, the Foundation executive noted that programs such as Superteam offer grants of up to $10,000, and early-stage founders are able to receive additional funding, including $50,000 for Y Combinator participants building in Solana.

There’s also a $2 million prediction markets fund in partnership with Kalshi, as well as open grants for open source projects and those focused on social good, with check sizes around $40,000.

Norby also pointed to inequitable funding, saying that the Foundation and its affiliates such as Monk Foundry, Metaplex, Wormhole, and Bonk distribute tens of millions each year in grants without taking a fraction of the ownership.

If we look at distribution, the Foundation has grown more than 300 companies in the Solana ecosystem by X since January 1, per post. As an example, the tweet mentioned a recent live event on mtndao, where one team, Tapestry, reported that there were thousands of new downloads of their app after the Solana Foundation streamed and interrupted their Demo Day presentation.

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According to Norby, the organization also has ten regular podcasts, produces hundreds of videos every year, and uses a creative group of more than 50 influencers known as Luminaries, all of which has led Solana to beat all other networks in total visibility and engagement on X and LinkedIn.

Criticism of Solana’s founders

Earlier in the week, Chase, a crypto developer at Solana, argued that many of Solana’s founders grew up comfortable and privileged.

The post drew mixed reactions, with some, such as investor Mike Dudas, saying the tone from the Foundation sounded “very strange” given that “almost nothing has reached the expected peak of the last round.” He also added that the founders he met were “grinding, hungry, and far from careless.”

Another post, DoubleZero founder Austin Federa, admitted that attrition is indeed a real problem but said that this does not only apply to founders but also affects the Solana Foundation and its core development community. Chase later clarified that his tweet was not intended to encourage builders to work hard without expecting a handout.

Meanwhile, after a long slide that saw SOL trade in the mid-$80s, the token was changing hands near $92 at the time of writing, up nearly 4% in the past 24 hours and nearly 8% in the 30 days. However, year-to-date, it is still down more than 34%, which has helped keep it about 69% below its all-time high of $293 set a year ago.