We're NOT FUCKING LEAVING!!! ft. Solana OGs

vibhu avatar
vibhu
@vibhuFeb 15, 2026

The Spaces brought together core builders and community leaders to reflect on Solana’s resilience and culture, especially through crises like FTX and today’s market volatility. Hosts Vibhu and Chase framed Solana’s edge as its culture and bear‑market discipline. Armani shared the decision to keep building despite losing most treasury on FTX, leading to Backpack and Mad Lads as emblematic of the ecosystem’s will. Raj Gokal recounted three “hardening” moments (network launch during COVID, post‑FTX, and now), arguing this cycle is already catalyzing adoption via institutions (stablecoins/RWAs) and AI agents. Mert explained why Solana’s “physics” (PoH, radio‑style architecture) made outages solvable and justified full commitment. Nom described how BONK’s airdrop restored morale and funded builders, defining a “Solana community coin” playbook. Lily Liu argued L2 roadmaps won’t deliver as envisioned; the L1 “finalists” are set and Solana is operating from strength. Brian detailed the community’s crisis execution (Serum → OpenBook, validators/RPCs keeping markets alive) and major client improvements. Kash highlighted the social layer (Superteam) and why bears are the best time to build reputation. Maddy reported record hackathons and AI‑accelerated founder velocity. Cab (Claynosaurz), MountainDAO’s Barrett/Edgar, Prophet, Solana Sensei, and Aditya showed how community hubs, IP, and local Superteam chapters sustain momentum. The message: we’re not leaving—keep shipping.

Solana culture, resilience, and builder war stories: a comprehensive recap

Context and purpose

  • Hosts Chase and Bibu convened a broad cross‑section of Solana builders, operators, and community leaders to reconnect in a bearish market and reassert the culture that differentiates Solana. The emphasis: bear markets are the best time to build, align, and cut through noise; the people who keep showing up become the next cycle’s leaders.
  • Constraints included limited stage time and a global audience (many in Hong Kong), but the goal was clear: tell real stories, capture the lore, and remind the ecosystem of why it stays and builds.

Armani Ferrante (Backpack, Mad Lads): survival through conviction and community

  • FTX collapse origin story: Armani learned about FTX’s implosion mid‑flight returning from Breakpoint (Lisbon to Miami) in Nov 2022, with ~$14.5M stuck on FTX (roughly 88–90% of company capital). Rationally, this could’ve been company‑ending.
  • Personal decision: choose to be the kind of founder who doesn’t shy from adversity. By the time he landed, he had decided to keep going—“push hard irrespective of how difficult the world gets.”
  • Faith in Solana: Having been close to the metal since 2020–2021, Armani contrasted Solana’s genuine community and differentiated systems engineering (Solana Labs, now Anza) against a long list of “VC chains” and “professor coins.” To builders close to the tech, the difference felt obvious and justified going all‑in.
  • Post‑FTX momentum: 2023 saw multiple tokens/projects reach critical milestones—Jito, Drift, Tensor, Pyth, Wormhole—and broad airdrop season across tokens and NFT communities. Mad Lads launched at a moment when much of the network had “decidedly stayed,” becoming an emblem of the ecosystem’s refusal to quit. Bonk’s launch became another inflection point.
  • Core message: This wasn’t built on hype or whitepapers alone; it rested on deserved respect/trust in real engineering and builders. Outside of Ethereum, Solana stands in a category of its own on performance and scale. History doesn’t repeat, it rhymes—expect differences this time, but the arc remains.

Raj Gokal (Solana co‑founder): three crises, one pattern—hardening and asymmetric opportunity

  • On over‑credited “rousing speeches”: Raj reframed what actually happened—founders asked each other the existential questions: Is it over? Will crypto/permissionless protocols die because of an exchange failure? The resounding answer: “No.” If an exchange collapse could kill it, it was always going to die. Instead, the industry hardens, learns, and grows next cycle.
  • Crisis # 1 (Mar 2020): Launching Solana at the onset of COVID lockdowns with minimal runway. Investors advised cancelations; the team launched anyway. In hindsight, money‑printing and macro dynamics became a tailwind; boldness was right.
  • Crisis # 2 (FTX collapse): The industry either dies or hardens. Staying meant carrying learnings into the next cycle and benefiting from the rebound.
  • Crisis # 3 (now): Asking if crypto dies is “ridiculous.” Two catalysts are already in motion: regulatory clarity + institutional participation (stablecoins, RWAs), and the explosion of crypto‑native AI agents. The bet to stay is more obviously asymmetric. Bear phases reduce noise; tourists leave; signal rises—Raj calls these his favorite times.

Mert Mumtaz (builder; Helius/infra): defending fundamentals and shipping through outages

  • Background: From Coinbase’s ETH/L2 infrastructure work (Polygon, Optimism, Ethereum) to Solana, Mert approached the debate via physics and facts, not emotion.
  • Architecture: Solana’s design resembles a radio system (reflecting Anatoly’s background), with Proof of History anchoring temporal ordering. If crypto is to work at scale, Solana’s “push physics to the limit” approach is the plausible path.
  • Outages: Real problems existed, but they were attributable and solvable. The task was to fix infrastructure and make sure people know the truth.
  • Stress‑test win: The Helium L1 migration to Solana happened the same week as Mad Lads—Mert expected an outage and pushed NFT compression toward viability. After ~30 hours of continuous work, the network held. That was the moment of deep conviction that the approach was correct.
  • Motivation: “People were wrong on the internet.” When misinformation spreads, it must be countered—sometimes bluntly—while staying anchored to fundamentals.

Nam (Bonk core contributor): reigniting excitement and defining the community coin playbook

  • Intent: Bonk aimed to provide hope and excitement during a dark holiday period—surfacing the great engineering feats and rebuilding across 2022: mSOL depeg handling (Marinade), Solend forced deleveraging, Serum’s community fork to OpenBook.
  • Developer airdrops: Helped assemble lists to reward builders broadly; the effort taught how to distribute wide rewards and unify what a “Solana community coin” means.
  • Criticism & choice: Many said Bonk should launch on Ethereum for liquidity/talent. Bonk chose Solana to spotlight its builders and apps. Legend has it many engineers lived off the Bonk airdrop for months, keeping them building.
  • Outcome: Bonk helped recapture mindshare; community coins demonstrated outsized coordination power when paired with real apps and speed.

Lily Liu (Solana Foundation): from conviction in crisis to position of strength

  • November 2022: Lily felt excited rather than doubtful—although not everyone shared that conviction then.
  • Now: A macro selloff with a reported ~$6B BTC sell wall dragged risk assets broadly; unlike 2022, this wasn’t “about Solana.” Solana approaches turbulence from strength: working network, strong ecosystem.
  • L2 roadmap reality: Recent admissions in the broader space acknowledge the seven‑year L2 vision hasn’t delivered what was promised. The window for new grassroots L1s is effectively closed; the finalists are known. Solana’s positioning, community, and tech roadmap make her “super excited”—many opportunities are unique to Solana.

Brian Long (validator/operator): keeping DeFi alive, fixing clients, and “we’re not leaving”

  • 2022 was truly about Solana: FTX left gaps—Serum’s upgrade keys weren’t controlled by the community. OpenBook was quickly forked, but many teams lost funding/treasuries overnight.
  • Market operations: With one market maker (FaceMonkey) at the outset, Brian ran cranks using his own funds to keep markets operating, leveraging his RPC infrastructure despite fees coming out of pocket.
  • Infra evolution: RPC providers “hammin’,” Agave client fixes by Anza over the last 18 months have materially stabilized performance.
  • Now: Transaction volumes are strong; the software works; the network is winning. The refrain: we’re not leaving.

Kash (Superteam): ecosystems are social products—bear markets are opportunity

  • Social layer insight: Beyond tech, blockchain ecosystems are social. Post‑FTX, Superteam organized emergency town halls and spun up the Ecosystem Call to showcase real progress while prices distracted.
  • Then vs now: Back then, they were “selling a hope and a dream” as the chain struggled. Today, Solana works at scale—high‑quality assets, teams, and products.
  • Advice: Bear markets are when you learn, build name/POW, and access founders who have time to engage. Don’t let a bear market go to waste. Superteam Earn is open; get involved.
  • Everyday proof: Using Solana stablecoins for real purchases (e.g., lunch via Jupiter) was unthinkable in the last bear—now it’s normal.

Matty Tay (hackathons): record participation and AI‑accelerated building

  • Hackathon trajectory: Even during bleak periods, hackathons hit new highs. Recent Cipherpunk was the largest ever; top‑tier project quality is up.
  • Productivity shift: “Cloud code” and AI tools materially increase founder throughput. More founders enter, and each founder builds faster.
  • Portfolio of innovation: Alongside stablecoins and TradFi integration, uniquely “cypherpunk” projects are hitting product‑market fit. The ecosystem fires on all cylinders—tradfi bridges, consumer apps, experimental products.

Cab (Claynosaurz): grit forged in crisis, choosing Solana over the crowd

  • Post‑FTX mint: Despite NFT market collapse, Claynosaurz still broke records—supported by the Solana community amid the “worst two weeks.”
  • Raj’s advice: Unicorns are forged by being battle‑tested early and never complacent. Claynosaurz lived that—hard starts, constant grit.
  • Choosing Solana: Despite pressure to mint on Ethereum, Claynosaurz selected Solana for speed, scale, and community. That bet paid off: today Claynosaurz wins industry awards against major studios (Pixar, DreamWorks, Paramount, Warner Bros, Riot Games) and stands as a leading native IP in digital collectibles—rooted in Solana’s support.

MountainDAO (Barrett & Edgar): community cohesion through the darkest hours to today’s strength

  • Early days: MountainDAO ran events across bull and bear cycles. At the pico bottom (Aug 2023), attendance dipped (single‑digit builders working late, paying for RPCs to keep lights on), but conviction held.
  • Baseline now: Despite current price pressure, baseline attendance is the highest ever—~100 people in the office, “all is normal,” builders showing up early and staying late.
  • Role: MountainDAO served as a backstop—a place where seeing others build in the darkest hour made the downturn survivable. 2023 was about forming cohesion; 2024 feels formidable.
  • Evangelism: Barrett continues onboarding builders, often one conversation at a time; Edgar captured the vibe shift—this doesn’t feel like a bear inside the builder hubs.

Profit (Metadata): physics and critical mass beat price action

  • Entry timing: Began building as FTX collapsed.
  • Reasoning: If an alternative costs $250/tx while another is 100–1000x cheaper and faster, users choose the latter. Solana has both performance and ecosystem critical mass—making it the top contender.
  • Decision: Not leaving Solana; it remains the place to build in crypto.

Solana Sensei (community voice): doubling effort to uplift, now enjoying the payoff

  • NFT trenches since 2021: FTX was the first time he doubted. He went all‑in financially and effort‑wise, and took it upon himself to uplift the community without any foundation support.
  • Recovery: Momentum returned via projects like Bonk and Claynosaurz, platforms matured, and community coordination strengthened.
  • Now: If this is a bear, it doesn’t feel like one. Transaction highs, cheap fees, working tech, more consumer apps, institutions onboarding—“there’s nothing you cannot do on Solana.”

Aditya (Superteam Global lead): local in‑groups as on‑ramps for the next wave

  • Superteam’s role: Created “in‑groups” in local communities so newcomers wouldn’t feel isolated. That cohesion helped many contributors break out (e.g., India: Yash & Aryan with Sendai; Abbas on Metadata raises now at Umbra; Irfan at Pocket; Shek building new products).
  • Accessibility: Not all leaders are accessible to newcomers by sheer scale; Superteam fills the gap with curated membership, events, Earn bounties, and a Pro tier for proof‑of‑work portfolios—even in countries without a local chapter.
  • Outlook: Superteam will keep growing; more announcements coming. Anyone willing to put in the work—developer, founder, or asset participant—should get involved.

Closing notes and broader context

  • The room recalled an iconic late‑2012 moment when an external voice publicly validated Solana at its lowest—an enduring morale boost for the ecosystem. Today’s moment is different: bear conditions are macro‑driven and Solana’s fundamentals are stronger.
  • Hosts ended with the war cry: “We’re not leaving.” Apologies to many notable builders and validators in the audience who couldn’t be brought up due to time; a repeat session may follow.

Key takeaways and highlights

  • Culture and community: Solana’s differentiator is a builder culture that shows up, eats pain, and keeps shipping—across NFTs, DeFi, infra, and consumer apps.
  • Fundamentals over narratives: Solana’s architecture and performance (Proof of History, parallelism, client improvements from Anza) have matured; outages were solvable issues now largely addressed.
  • Resilience moments: Community forks (Serum → OpenBook), market ops running on personal funds, developer airdrops (Bonk) sustaining teams, hackathons scaling participation, AI tools accelerating throughput.
  • Catalysts: Institutional on‑chain adoption (stablecoins, RWAs) under clearer regulation, plus crypto‑native AI agents—both already unfolding.
  • Social layer: Superteam, MountainDAO, and community organs create local in‑groups that onboard and retain talent, turning bear markets into proving grounds.
  • Actionable guidance: Bear markets are the best time to build reputation and proof of work—engage Superteam Earn, participate in hackathons, join local hubs like MountainDAO, and ship.