Cryptocurrency
Making real-world blockchain solutions possible — Solana co-founder Raj Gokal
Raj Gokal, co-founder of blockchain protocol Solana and chief operations officer of Solana Labs, started his career in venture capital with a focus on high-growth tech business.
For seven years, Gokal focused on health tech, first with wearable sensors using Bluetooth Low Energy as a wireless protocol, then leading product management at Omada Health. He aimed to address the fractured, challenging United States healthcare system but “encountered challenges with health plans and regulators, leading me to recognize the industry’s persistent issues,” he told Cointelegraph.
After meeting Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and seeing his “vision to resolve scalability in crypto,” Gokal immersed himself in the crypto industry. “The journey has been rewarding over these past five years.”
Recently, Gokal sat down for an interview with Cointelegraph to discuss Web3, scalability, tokenization and more.
Cointelegraph: There has been a noted absence of substantial real-world use cases in the Web3 domain. This contributes to the perception that there’s no product-market fit for the industry. What are a few real-world use cases Web3 is currently prioritizing?
Raj Gokal: A real-world use case that comes to mind is decentralized physical infrastructure networks, or DEPIN. Developers often lead the way, as seen with projects like Helium, which established a decentralized 5G network with 1.5 million hotspots before transitioning to Solana. Similarly, Hivemapper launched its decentralized maps, utilizing a distributed global workforce equipped with dashcams. This is now an alternative to a centralized organization like Google deploying tens of thousands of cars that it owns to map the roads.
The Hivemapper network remapped 8% of the world’s roadways in just a few months, which is very much a real-world application of Web3 on Solana. These ventures showcase the viability and significance of leveraging low-cost, scalable blockchain technology to create innovative solutions. Developers across the world come together without any central authority and create successful business models with tangible value.
CT: Your ambition was to resolve scalability challenges within Web3. What architectural considerations are essential when building real-world solutions on layer-1 platforms?
RG: The benefits of parallelized transaction processing and validation are foundational, offering various advantages for developers and users. Solana pioneered these features, optimizing for speed with 400-millisecond block times and near-instant confirmations. We hear testimonials from users that a transaction was completed on Solana even before they could switch tabs. This fast, seamless experience builds trust and user satisfaction. Additionally, low transaction costs are crucial.
Compatibility and composability are essential, too, allowing various applications to work together. Decentralization is a linchpin, ensuring longevity and reliability. For instance, on Solana, we have close to 3,000 validators and the highest Nakamoto coefficient of 33 across all blockchains. While achieving these feats within a decentralized, high-performance network is challenging, it has been achieved through rigorous effort and innovation.
There are several such architectural decisions that make real-world solutions possible on blockchains. It is often not just one feature — it is the convergence of several architectural considerations that make it viable and scalable.
I also think blockchain networks must be battle-tested across multiple cycles. As ecosystems thrive through difficult market conditions, it provides developers, users and investors confidence that the network is here to stay.
CT: Let’s move on to Web3’s approach to mobile and payments. Solana has taken steps to introduce Solana Pay. You also recently launched the Saga phone. What are the motivations behind this, and how does it impact the broader mobile and payments landscape?
RG: The Solana Saga phone has shown that there is a huge opportunity for handset and operating system makers to create a sandbox where developers can build what they want with token incentives and without any restrictions on nonfungible tokens. Since the launch of the Saga, Apple and Google have eased their stance on digital assets in their application stores.
We have seen similar initiatives in the past, when Tesla created a new market for electric vehicles. It started with the Roadster, which initially only sold a few thousand cars. But over time, it has made it a more accessible mass-market product. We should see a similar trajectory for Web3-friendly mobile phones over the coming years, and Saga is just the beginning.
Solana Pay, on the other hand, operates at the crossroads of fostering a more accessible and open payments ecosystem. If you look at the Bitcoin white paper, the initial purpose of Bitcoin and the whole idea of digital money was to facilitate permissionless peer-to-peer online payments. That was the initial vision for cryptocurrencies.
By providing an alternative platform, Solana aims to influence these giants to adopt more user-centric and app-friendly frameworks. As for Solana Pay itself, it’s designed to enable any developer to integrate QR code-based payment features across various contexts, whether in point-of-sale systems, mobile apps or web-based services.
This has sparked initiatives like Decaf in over 30 countries, focusing on cross-border remittances. Sling, another Solana-powered platform, competes with Venmo on a global scale. Over the next few years, we can anticipate an upsurge in grassroots and enterprise-driven solutions that leverage crypto for payments.
CT: Let’s talk about real-world asset tokenization. While this area holds immense potential, it hasn’t fully taken off. What are the barriers preventing the widespread adoption of real-world asset tokenization, and how can these hurdles be overcome?
RG: Real-world asset tokenization indeed presents enormous opportunities, especially in sectors like real estate. Initiatives such as Parcl and Homebase are pioneering this space, though it requires time for adoption. For instance, Homebase is focused on individual properties that are tokenized and fractionalized so that you can get rental income that is globally accessible to anyone.
This space is about providing assets that people actually want and then making sure the narrative is good enough to win mindshare and convince users that real-world asset tokenizations are now something that’s possible. The idea looks sound on paper, but often, it takes time to execute, and we just need founders who are good at carrying the messaging for this space and have strong product skills. Success hinges on creating accessible, user-friendly, trustworthy platforms that offer real value to users, but also in delivering the narrative to the target users.
Over the next few years, the collective efforts of dedicated teams and the introduction of innovative platforms will likely drive increased adoption and establish a strong presence in the market.
CT: What strategies can mitigate risks associated with potential outages or technical difficulties within the Web3 ecosystem?
RG: Addressing liveness [i.e., the guarantee that a protocol can exchange messages between the network nodes, allowing them to reach a consensus] and reliability issues is essential to ensure seamless operations in real-world applications. The industry has learned from mistakes committed in the past and has actively implemented solutions to minimize outages. This will be critical for institutional adoption, as they will want to see reliable infrastructure before embracing this innovation at scale.
Networks like Solana have made significant strides in enhancing liveness and minimizing potential issues. Collaborative efforts between multiple validator clients, diverse solutions and continuous refinement of the ecosystem have led to increased stability and dependability. While the Web3 space is still evolving, the focus on these aspects will likely lead to even greater reliability over time.
CT: What would you define as a product-market fit for layer-1 protocols and the broader Web3 ecosystem? What would the user experience look like in your view?
RG: I think there are two stages of product-market fit. One is where founders and developers are able to either fund themselves or get funding to launch products that work toward end-user product market fit. And I believe we have achieved that level of product-market fit. Even in the depths of the bear market, you still see quality teams get funded, things are getting pushed forward, and new products are being launched.
Then, there is the second level, which is end-user product-market fit. And I would say that is a stage where the majority of the value that users are getting is not speculative from buying and holding assets but is from earning by contributing to networks, where the value is being shared back to the user. That’s why sectors like DEPIN, even though there are not 100 DEPIN examples, are happening. Users are using their hardware to earn money in crypto by supporting a network that adds real-world value to users. It’s exciting, and I’ll admit that it’s early.
Bitcoin’s stagnation continues as the asset has made little to no attempt to move away from the $108,000 level.
While most larger-cap alts have produced insignificant gains, TON and BONK have emerged as the biggest gainers on a relatively calm Sunday morning.
BTC Calm at $108K
It has been a quiet period for the primary cryptocurrency. In fact, the latest major price moves came about two weeks ago – on June 23 and 24 – when it dumped to $98,000 before it soared past $105,000 a day later as the Middle East war was going rampantly.
Ever since then, though, the asset has been stuck in a tight trading range between $105,000 and $110,000. It tested the lower boundary on Wednesday, where the bulls stepped up and pushed it south toward the upper one.
On Thursday, BTC showed signs of a breakout attempt when it spiked to a multi-week peak of $110,500, but the bears stepped up at this point and didn’t allow a surge to a new all-time high.
The landscape has been somewhat unchanged since then, as bitcoin quickly returned to $108,000 and has not moved from that level for a few days. Its market capitalization stands strong at $2.150 trillion, while its dominance over the alts is at over 63% on CG.
BONK on the Run
As the graph below will demonstrate, most larger-cap alts are slightly in the green on a daily scale. Such minor increases are evident from the likes of ETH, BNB, SOL, TRX, DOGE, ADA, BCH, LINK, and XRP. In contrast, HYPE and PI have lost some traction over the past 24 hours.
The biggest gainers are TON and BONK. The former has risen by over 9% and sits at $3, while the meme coin has exploded by 20% and now trades at $0.000022.
The cumulative market cap of all crypto assets has remained relatively stable at $3.4 trillion on CG.
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Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.
TL;DR
- Ripple’s cross-border token had a stellar Q4 24 and early Q1 25 but stalled in the following months, and its consolidation phase has not ended yet.
- However, analysts are adamant that the asset can unlock major gains, as long as it reclaims a key resistance level.
The key resistance level for $XRP is $2.38. Breaking above it could trigger a major move! pic.twitter.com/mwpqKBxJKV
— Ali (@ali_charts) July 4, 2025
Basing his analysis on XRP’s UTXO, Ali Martinez determined that this pivotal level is situated at $2.38, where the fourth-largest cryptocurrency faced several rejections in the past few months. However, a conclusive breakout above it could send the token flying, he added.
Shortly after, the analyst with almost 140,000 followers on X indicated that XRP can surge to $2.6 as long as it reclaims $2.33.
BitGuru also outlined the significance of the same two major resistance lines, saying the asset was rejected at the lower one after it confirmed an “inverse head and shoulders and triple bottom pattern.”
With XRP now testing the $2.23 support, the doors open for a surge back to $2.33 as long as it can remain above it, BitGuru added.
Elite Crypto’s analysis is similar to that of Martinez, as they noted that XRP is “showing a strong bullish setup.” They added that “the price is consistently respecting the horizontal support and now approaching the downtrend resistance.”
The analyst predicted that a breakout from this obstacle could result in a massive price surge for Ripple’s token, perhaps to and above the $3.4 all-time high.
$XRP is showing a strong bullish setup as the price is consistently respecting the horizontal support and now approaching the downtrend resistance. A breakout from this zone could lead to a sharp upward move toward the $3.50 range which has acted as a previous resistance level.… pic.twitter.com/TRXv9tYe3n
— Elite Crypto (@TheEliteCrypto) July 5, 2025
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June was a lackluster month for crypto market gains amid global uncertainty looming over international tariff policy and the future direction of US central bank rates.
US Stocks Outpaced Ethereum In June
For the 30 day window ending Friday, Jun. 27, the S&P 500 Index gained +4.25%.
The push overcame serious resistance from the tariff nail biters and took the broad US stock benchmark to a historic record close Friday.
But after running from $76,200 on 4/8 to $111,600 on 5/22, a +46% gain in a little over a month, Bitcoin’s price took some time to cool down in June. The cryptocurrency charted minor gains, which could be seen as a positive in the face of massive international turmoils and geopolitical shocks.
Meanwhile, Ethereum corrected by 24% before bouncing off the Jun. 22 support to finalize a 2% loss for the 30 days ending Friday, Jun. 30th. So does ETH have a problem that Bitcoin doesn’t?
Not really.
Ethereum is a smaller currency by market cap, about 14% of Bitcoin’s size. Traders still perceive it as a more speculative bet. So it tends to move in the same direction as BTC — by larger percentages.
That means on the way down, losses are frequently greater. But on the way up, gains are often greater too.
For example, during the crypto market’s rally from early April through early June, Bitcoin made a +46% gain. But during the same rally, Ethereum gained +100%, rising from the $1,400 handle to the $2,800 level.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Rainbow Charts
Double rainbow all the way across the sky?
Bitcoin is by and large the biggest leading indicator for the rest of the crypto market’s prices, including Ethereum. It appears to have a long ways to go before topping out this year or next.
Based on popular and authoritative analysts’ price targets for Bitcoin in 2025, it’s pacing to enter July and Q3 at 50% to 66% of its peak price before this cycle is over.
That means it could double or gain by half again its June price levels before the year is over.
Standard Chartered, Bernstein, Galaxy Digital, and Peter Brandt all expect $150,000 to $200,000 for BTC sometime in the next six months.
Bitcoin’s long-term price trend rainbow chart confirms these projections.
Meanwhile, Ethereum’s own long-term trend chart is shaping up to signal a three-peat of a multi-year trend.
If it happens the way it did the last two major market cycles, this Ether prices could be primed to rise by more than Bitcoin’s during the next big monthly rally.
If it turns out to be Bitcoin’s final push for its peak on this cycle as market watchers expect, Ethereum’s gains could signal the start of this cycle’s alt season in meme coins and Layer 2 app tokens.
In addition to the market technical setup for ETH prices in Q3, here are four further bullish signals supporting the leading smart contract platform’s price gains in July.
1. Who Will Win Ethereum L2 Fee Wars?
Ethereum’s price has taken time to absorb the shock of the Dencun upgrade on Mar. 13, 2024.
The upgrade lowers rates for Layer 2 apps to lock in tranches of transaction updates with the base layer chain.
In the 15 months since, developers have deployed a number of new apps with currencies that offer Ethereum services for lower fees.
The base chain’s fee revenue dropped from $30 million annually to $500,000 by Q1 of this year.
That saves users money, but a lot of Ethereum stakers who had their money parked in staking contracts to earn that fee revenue felt inclined to move it somewhere that it could still earn returns on their savings.
This is a massive factor in Ethereum’s sluggish price growth compared to Bitcoin’s over the past year. But it’s not that the latter is falling behind its competitors like Solana and Ripple.
When factoring in the growth of the post-Dencun L2 coins on Ethereum— like Mantle (MNT), POL (POL), Arbitrum (ARB), Optimism (OP), Movement (MOVE), and Starknet (STRK)— the money mostly didn’t leave Ethereum and go to its competitors. It went to another layer, powered by and supporting the base chain.
For that reason, Ethereum may be undervalued by a large number of the cryptocurrency market’s headline readers that don’t understand what happened.
Ethereum Identity Crisis?
Some have referred in the mean time to this awkward stage in Ethereum’s growth as an identity crisis. It’s an open platform and anyone can build on it in any way that the code can handle.
The question for Vitalik Buterin and crypto market investors who show up to value early is:
Will one of the slew of Ethereum scale and fee apps, some new app we haven’t heard of yet, or an upgrade be what implements the best ultra long term, future proof, platform-wide standardizations that define the network’s global advantages?
Find the answer to that question and you’re doing some real work.
2. SharpLink $30M ETH Buy
In another positive development, the corporate treasury race that started for Bitcoin supplies continues to rock the Ethereum markets.
SharpLink Gaming, bought another $30 million worth of ETH just before the Ether price chart threw a small cup and handle pattern. But why does this matter? Well, let’s see what happened to STrategy.
Led by founder and executive chairman Michael Saylor, Tyson’s Corner, Virginia-based Strategy Inc. and Bitcoin have both benefited from the company’s pivot in 2020 to simply pile up as much BTC as it can hold on to forever.
As a result of the cryptocurrency’s increasing popularity with investors since then, MSTR stock rallied 566% in under 11 months from $63 per share on Jan. 5, 2024 to a price peak of $420 on Nov. 22, 2024.
Over that same time, the S&P 500 Index rallied 27% from the 4697 level to 5969.
Every $100 spent on Strategy stock on Jan. 5 last year could be sold for $666 dollars on Nov. 22, paying back buyers $566 for saving their $100 with MSTR shares for a term of 11 months.
That’s like a downpayment on a new car lease with a high credit score.
Meanwhile, $100 spent on an S&P 500 ETF would have returned buyers $27. That’s more like a cheap dinner out for two. All for the same hundred bucks and the same 11 months.
That suggests regulated Wall Street investors wanted on to the Bitcoin bandwagon and found a way in Strategy stocks. Seeing the bullishness of corporate finance, Internet crypto markets were now racing Strategy to accumulate a scarce supply of BTC tokens.
Now, SharpLink is doing it again with ETH. The company’s stocks spiked over 8 days in late May from $3.76 per share to just under $80 a share as Wall Street rewarded the former gaming company for pivoting to accumulating a regulated corporate Ether treasury.
3. $39M ETH Whale Bite
Meanwhile, an Ethereum whale took a $39 million chomp out of the crypto dip on 6/22.
Ethereum’s forward outlook was too good for this whale not to bite at that 24% off discount tag.
Every token is a vote with a daily trading value that fluctuates on a global open market of crypto exchanges. Participants “vote” by locking, unlocking, moving, and swapping currencies, as often as they like, any time they like.
When crypto investors take Ether tokens off a crypto exchange, the remaining supply of ETH tends to attract higher prices at the point of sale. But when they stake ETH for yield, it creates even more support.
4. Bit Digital Drops $34M BTC for ETH
Not to be outdone by SharpLink, publicly traded, New York-based blockchain company Bit Digital, announced on 6/25 it is giving up $34 million worth of BTC tokens to move the proceeds into Ether and develop staking strategies.
They might profit well from determining in advance of the overall market which of the Ethereum scale and fee coins will deliver the most yield and gains together over timespans relevant to their balance sheet and calendar.
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