Solana Foundation President Lily Liu rejected claims the foundation is acting as a kingmaker in Solana's perpetual futures market, saying it is pursuing an "open meritocracy" that lets the market decide which teams win. The debate escalated after Flash.Trade founder Anas Khader said he shut down his Solana perps exchange on Aug. 7 in part because of the foundation's backing of another team, later naming Phoenix and alleging it had received support through grants, a claim he did not document. Liu countered that the foundation's job is to attract talent and capital to Solana, not choose winners, while critics argued the public perps program's preference for fully onchain designs already tilts the field toward venues such as Phoenix. The discussion comes as Solana's perps market remains small relative to Hyperliquid's lead, with DefiLlama showing $1.34 billion in 24-hour Solana volume versus Hyperliquid's $4.45 billion, and as SOL traded at $75.74, far below its January 2025 peak.