Solana Co-Founder Admits He Uses Claude in Meetings

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko revealed onstage at a recent industry event that he frequently tunes out of meetings to watch Anthropic’s Claude generate code, calling artificial intelligence a massive force multiplier for expert software developers.

How AI and Agentic Coding Boost Developer Productivity

“AI has been a great force multiplier for somebody who’s an expert,” said Yakovenko, sharing his perspective on agentic coding after more than 15 years of professional software development. “Now I can just watch Claude churning through its thing and I can almost smell when it’s going off the rails.”

The tech executive admitted that this technology often captures his full attention during corporate discussions. “If people are in a meeting with me and I’m not paying attention,” he continued, “it’s because I’m watching Claude.”

Solana’s Surging Revenue and the Bitwise ETF Launch

Yakovenko’s focus on development comes during a highly successful period for the Solana cryptocurrency protocol, which has outperformed many of its competitors this year. The network recently announced $2.85 billion in annual revenue, a milestone driven primarily by high-volume crypto trading platforms. Adding to this momentum, asset manager Bitwise launched the first Solana exchange-traded fund (ETF) just one day before Yakovenko’s stage appearance, pulling in nearly $70 million of inflows on its first day.

Why Traditional Finance Understands Blockchain

Yakovenko attributed this mainstream success to traditional finance professionals warming up to blockchain technology. “If you are a back-office finance person, you actually get crypto much, much faster,” Yakovenko stated. “Finance people deal with settlement risk all the time. They deal with banking risk all the time.”

The Trumpcoin Controversy and the Nature of Open Protocols

Despite financial success, the ecosystem faces scrutiny over politically charged tokens, specifically the Solana-hosted Trumpcoin. Critics argue the token has funneled an estimated $350 million to the president, sparking allegations of bribery. These concerns have intensified following high-profile presidential pardons for Tron founder Justin Sun and Binance founder Changpeng Zhao.

Addressing these concerns, Yakovenko emphasized that as an open-source protocol, Solana’s creators cannot control what tokens are launched on the network. “I could send you an email with a link to Trumpcoin or Fartcoin,” Yakovenko argued, comparing blockchain infrastructure to standard internet communication. “And both of those are protocols, both the email and the underlying protocol that creates that market.”

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