Agentic coding tools have dramatically transformed the landscape for software engineers, but Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko appears to have felt this shift more than most. During his talk at TechCrunch Disrupt, Yakovenko shared that he’s grown more at ease stepping back from hands-on software development.
“AI has really amplified the abilities of those who already have expertise,” Yakovenko remarked, reflecting on his use of agentic coding after over 15 years in the field. “Now, I can just observe Claude working, and I can almost sense when it starts to go astray.”
“If you’re in a meeting with me and I seem distracted,” he added, “it’s probably because I’m watching Claude in action.”
As a co-founder of the Solana blockchain, Yakovenko has enjoyed remarkable achievements this year, even as other cryptocurrencies have faced challenges. Earlier this month, the platform reported $2.85 billion in annual revenue, primarily driven by crypto exchanges. Even more notable was the debut of Solana’s first exchange-traded fund (ETF), which launched just before Yakovenko’s appearance. Managed by Bitwise, the ETF attracted nearly $70 million in investments on its first day.
On stage, Yakovenko credited this momentum to the increasing mainstream acceptance of crypto, especially among traditional financial professionals. “If you work in finance operations, you tend to grasp crypto concepts much more quickly,” Yakovenko noted. “Finance professionals are constantly managing settlement and banking risks.”
At the same time, the crypto sector has faced heightened scrutiny for facilitating public bribery, particularly regarding the Trumpcoin token on Solana. This coin has reportedly funneled about $350 million to the former president, which many critics interpret as bribery—especially following Trump’s widely publicized pardons of Tron’s Justin Sun and Binance’s Changpeng Zhao.
However, since Solana operates as an open protocol, Yakovenko has limited influence over which tokens are supported. “I could email you a link to Trumpcoin or Fartcoin,” Yakovenko said on stage, “and both the email and the protocol behind those coins simply enable those markets to exist.”
