Solana Policy Institute President Kristin Smith to Lead Blockchain Association

Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute (SPI), the group that advocates for the Solana SOL$121.72+0.3% ecosystem in Washington, will become interim CEO of the Blockchain Association on October 17, 2026. The Blockchain Association announced on September 25 that CEO Summer Mersinger will step down on October 16 and stay on as an advisor through the end of the year. Smith, already the association's board president, is not giving up her Solana job: SPI said she will "continue to serve in her full capacity as President of SPI."

Kristin Smith's dual role at the Blockchain Association and Solana Policy Institute

From October 17, the person who runs Solana's dedicated policy shop will also run the Blockchain Association, one of the crypto industry's main trade groups. Smith confirmed the arrangement herself, writing that she will step in as interim CEO "while continuing to serve as President of @SolanaInstitute." The Block also reported that her SPI role "is not changing" and that the association post is an additional one.

The Blockchain Association's own release does not mention SPI; the dual role was confirmed by SPI and by Smith.

For Solana builders, the practical effect is that one person now carries SPI's agenda into both rooms. SPI's issues include developer protections and market structure, and Smith has argued them in public before: she urged the Senate to keep open-source developer shields in the CLARITY Act, a provision aimed at protecting non-custodial software developers from money-transmitter prosecution. Smith framed the two jobs as one mission, writing on X that SPI and BA share the goal of "clear rules that let this technology thrive in the U.S."

Kristin Smith returns to the Blockchain Association she helped build

Smith is going back to an organization she started with. She was the Blockchain Association's first employee in 2018, when it was "a handful of pioneering companies," and the association's release says she served as CEO until 2025 before taking the SPI role. In the same release, Smith said of her predecessor: "Summer took the helm at the most consequential moment in crypto policy history, and she met it."

Summer Mersinger's record and the CLARITY Act backdrop

Mersinger, who was sworn in as a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner in March 2022 according to The Block, led the association's advocacy for the GENIUS Act, the federal stablecoin law signed in July 2025. The association's release credits her team with more than 300 meetings with congressional and agency staff in 2026 and seven member fly-ins on Capitol Hill. In her own statement, Mersinger said "for the first time, the industry will have clear rules of the road thanks to the work we've done with the SEC, CFTC, and this Administration," and that she would share more about her next move "in the near future." Neither she nor the association gave a reason for the timing.

The handover also follows a setback for the CLARITY Act, the market structure bill SPI had pushed for. Its final text, which expanded protections for validators, was headed for a Senate cloture vote set for September 15. The Block reported that the bill has since stalled in the Senate and is now unlikely to become law this year.

What comes next for the Blockchain Association and SPI

SPI described Smith's job at the association as guiding it "during this transition." Neither organization gave a timeline for naming a permanent CEO. Until then, the unfinished market structure bill, the developer protections Smith has pressed for, and the association's work with the SEC and CFTC all sit with the president of Solana's own policy group.