Solana Foundation President Lily Liu Highlights Blockchain's Role in Global Capital Access

ChainCatcher reports live: Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation, delivered a keynote speech at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival. From a macroeconomic perspective, she noted that global production, users, and resources are distributed worldwide, but capital formation is not—only 20 stock exchanges across 14 countries account for 94% of the global market capitalization of approximately $145 trillion, with two-thirds concentrated in the United States. This means that around 180 countries have virtually no access to capital markets and must rely on debt rather than equity financing, denying their citizens pathways to ownership. She presented a vision of an “Internet Capital Market,” where any asset, anywhere, can raise capital from anyone globally, priced in U.S. dollars and settled on an open infrastructure. Stablecoins are the critical infrastructure enabling any country to participate in the global financial system, while Solana provides the underlying settlement and execution layer. She contrasted this vision with the widely discussed “Universal Basic Income” (UBI) in the AI era, proposing “Universal Basic Ownership” (UBO)—blockchain enables anyone with a smartphone to hold a stake in their nation’s economy, establishing a fundamental digital-era property right without requiring everyone to be placed on a welfare system.