Stephen Hess is the founder of Metaplex, the leading protocol for digital assets on Solana. As a Director of the Metaplex Foundation, he drives strategy, product and ecosystem growth, supporting thousands of applications and millions of users who rely on the protocol. Metaplex now powers 99% of tokens and NFTs on Solana, and through its Genesis protocol is opening the Internet Capital Markets, giving projects and entrepreneurs the ability to launch onchain and access global capital from day one. Previously, Stephen served as Head of Product at Solana Labs, where he helped scale the application layer of the network and introduced the first liquid staking programs, bridges, stablecoins, games, token standards and ecosystem integrations.