Kyle Samani, co-founder and managing partner of Multicoin Capital, recently shared insights during an interview with Frank Chaparro regarding his renewed bull thesis on Solana. With Multicoin being one of Solana’s earliest backers since its seed round in 2018, the firm is reaffirming its belief that Solana is uniquely positioned to power the future of decentralized finance (DeFi) and payment systems.
Samani emphasized that Multicoin’s perspective on the cryptocurrency market has evolved significantly over the years. “We’ve fundamentally recognized that these systems are financial systems, first and foremost,” he stated. “We need to be focused on investing in things that are fundamentally tied to innovations in finance.”
During the conversation, Samani reflected on the current decline in venture capital funding within the crypto sector, which he attributed to an essential reassessment of utility and real-world application. Citing data from DeFiLlama, he noted that venture inflows have fallen below levels seen in 2017–2018, highlighting the impact of increasing regulatory clarity.
He argued that this downturn is a necessary market correction away from overfunded projects lacking viability. “People, LPs, have funded crypto venture funds with the implicit implication that crypto will substantially impact all parts of the economy. And I have a narrower view — I think it will have a very high impact in financial services. Otherwise, I generally don’t care,” Samani articulated.
This recalibrated outlook has prompted Multicoin to concentrate on areas where product-market fit is emerging, notably in stablecoins, real-world assets (RWAs), decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), and cross-border payment solutions. “We have these areas now where there’s definitive market fit,” Samani highlighted, referencing initiatives like Felix Pago’s remittance network in Mexico and rising interest in crypto-native labor marketplaces utilizing stablecoin payouts.
Solana’s Edge: Speed and On-Chain Order Books
A key element of Multicoin’s current thesis is the recognition that Solana is unmatched in its ability to deliver the speed, throughput, and cost structure essential for supporting global financial applications effectively. “If you look at core L1 infrastructure, Solana is the fastest horse today,” Samani asserted. He conveyed optimism, stating that after five years since the mainnet launch, Solana is approaching the ability to provide fully on-chain order books that can compete functionally with centralized exchanges.
“Latency was not low enough. The chain would fall over […] But as the chain has gotten more stable, as latency has come down, as throughput is increased, that’s made it more usable for on-chain order books,” he explained. Samani anticipates an inflection point within the next three to six months, wherein on-chain order books will become viable options for both makers and takers, competitive with platforms like Binance and Coinbase.
To unlock this potential, Samani advocates for “conditional liquidity,” an innovation he believes is now attainable due to the maturity of the Solana ecosystem.
Ethereum Vs. Solana
Samani articulated a stark contrast between Solana’s specialized focus on financial applications and Ethereum’s more generalized approach. “Ethereum’s core problem is they’re not optimized for anything,” he stated. “The definition of focus is saying no to things. And they absolutely refuse to do so.”
While Ethereum pursues roll-up-centric scaling, Samani expressed skepticism over the challenges inherent in both intra- and inter-roll-up operations. “All of the rollups we have today are entirely centralized in their operations,” he noted. “Ethereum started off with maximum decentralization […] and the path to scaling is to centralize and then re-decentralize. It strikes me as bizarre.”
Conversely, he believes that Solana’s monolithic architecture, which emphasizes low latency and high throughput, is ideally suited for facilitating the backbone of Internet-native capital markets. “You have to be focused on latency, throughput, and gas cost,” he remarked. “Bitcoin and Ethereum from inception were always like, ‘Oh my God, scarcity.’ Solana’s perspective has always been, ‘Let’s let Moore’s Law do its thing and run a billion transactions in parallel.’”
Regulatory Winds Shifting
Samani also highlighted a significant evolution in the regulatory landscape, mentioning the White House Crypto Summit where he participated alongside prominent industry figures. “It was really awesome for me to see that they committed two hours, they sat there with us, they listened, they took notes, and they were asking really good questions,” he relayed.
In his view, this renewed dialogue with Washington is already affecting capital flows. Multicoin has noted interest from some of its largest Limited Partners (LPs) — traditionally focused on venture funding — for their liquid hedge fund product. “Three of our largest LPs have all called us since the election and said, ‘Hey, we would like to explore your liquid fund.’ We feel pretty good that the tides are shifting,” Samani indicated.
He reiterated that, from a risk-reward perspective, investing in liquid markets, particularly in high-performing tokens like Solana and its ecosystem projects, now present compelling opportunities. “My general belief today is that the easiest money to be made in crypto is buying liquid names that are the winners in their respective areas.”
Five years after supporting Solana’s initial development, Multicoin Capital remains steadfast in its conviction. “We underestimated the difficulty of on-chain order books,” Samani confessed. “But we never gave up on it, and I think we’re pretty close now.”
As of press time, SOL was trading at $140.
