Mert Mumtaz
Mert Mumtaz is a blockchain infrastructure entrepreneur who is co-founder and CEO of Helius, a SolanaSolanaSolana is a proof-of-stake (PoS) public blockchain designed for high throughput and low latency, with SOL as its native token; it was developed by Solana Labs and launched Mainnet Beta in March 2020. It is known for design choices such as its Proof of History clock and parallel execution, suffered several network-wide outages in its early years, and became one of the crypto industry’s focal points in events including the FTX collapse, U.S. SEC lawsuits, and the listing of Solana ETFs.Open the full entry infrastructure and developer platform, and previously worked as an engineer at CoinbaseCoinbaseCoinbase is a U.S. operator of crypto asset trading platforms, founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, whose listed parent is Coinbase Global, Inc.; it went public through a direct listing on Nasdaq (ticker COIN) in April 2021 and joined the S&P 500 in May 2025. It provides crypto trading, custody, staking, and stablecoin-related services, launched USDC with Circle, develops the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, and acquired the crypto options exchange Deribit in 2025; its venture investing operates as Coinbase Ventures.Open the full entry.
Contents5 sections
Key facts
2022Co-Founding Helius
Before Helius, he worked as an engineer at Coinbase on its ledger, trading infrastructure and Solana integration teams.[1]
Helius was founded in 2022, with Nicolas Pennie, its COO, and Liam Vovk, its CTO, as fellow co-founders; investors listed on the company’s website include Founders FundFounders FundFounders Fund is a venture capital firm founded in San Francisco in 2005 by Peter Thiel and his former PayPal colleagues Ken Howery and Luke Nosek. Run by partners who were entrepreneurs themselves, it argues that founders should keep more control and is known for betting on difficult technology projects in areas such as space, defense, and artificial intelligence. It was Palantir’s first institutional investor, has invested in SpaceX many times since 2008, and its other notable investments include Facebook, Airbnb, Stripe, and Anduril; as of March 2026 it had raised nine early-stage funds and four growth funds.Open the full entry, Haun VenturesHaun VenturesHaun Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2022 by Katie Haun, a former U.S. federal prosecutor and former general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. It focuses on digital assets, financial infrastructure, and related frontier technologies; it raised $1.5 billion across two funds at launch and a further $1 billion in 2026.Open the full entry, Foundation Capital and angel investors such as Anatoly Yakovenko.[1][2]
June 10, 2026Helius Announces Acquisition of Light Protocol
On June 10, 2026, Helius announced the acquisition of Light Protocol, a Solana privacy company, aiming to deliver a fully onchain, programmable privacy layer for Solana.[3]
As of October 2026: CEO of Helius
Helius’s website says that as CEO he leads work on Solana privacy, LanaAI, the Orb block explorer and experimental projects, and mentors founders in the Helius Startup Launchpad and judges hackathons.[1]
Helius offers Solana RPC nodes, the transaction-sending service Sender, the gRPC streaming service LaserStream, webhooks and digital asset APIs.[2]
Related Organizations, Websites, and Public Accounts
Helius: Official website: https://www.helius.dev/ (opens in a new window)[2]
X: Public account: https://x.com/mert (opens in a new window)[1]