There is a conspiracy theory circulating that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a secret backer of Solana.

As the theory goes, Solana founder Anatoly Yakavenko is a Ukrainian immigrant to the US, and for that reason, might be easily swayed by a powerful government agency.

Not only that, he’s not antisemitic and may even be Jewish himself. Given that speculation around Jewish control of various aspects of society is deeply rooted in conspiracy circles, this alone is enough to make claims about Yakavenko’s supposed CIA backing easier to swallow.

Solana famously also sold early allocations of its native SOL token to groups of wealthy, well-connected, and powerful venture capitalists. This, according to the theory, violated the principles of the Cypherpunks and may well have been a way for the CIA to gain alliances at the upper echelons of society.

Read more: Has CZ followed a Solana news account while in prison?

One thing is true: The CIA is active in crypto

Critics of Solana note that the CIA has numerous crypto operations, such as its secretive Swiss cryptography company, Crypto AG. As an intelligence-gathering agency, the CIA surveils communication networks such as Tor and has “a number of different projects focused on cryptocurrency,” according to its director’s own admission.

Finally, the theory that Solana is secretly an asset of the CIA is (apparently) further evidenced by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s removal of civil allegations against unregistered sales of SOL tokens. This friendly cooperation between US government agencies ostensibly indicates the involvement of the world’s premier foreign intelligence agency.

Read more: ‘Dead’ Solana DeFi platform still holds $43M of Alameda Research funds

According to conspiracy theorists, all of this explains Solana’s curious rise to power, market-beating rally, and ability to survive beyond its initial dismissal as a so-called ‘Sam coin.’ Prior to the collapse of FTX, most people simply assumed that Solana was useful primarily because Sam Bankman-Fried supported it.

However, Bankman-Fried is now in prison, and Solana has rallied over 11X since his empire collapsed in November 2022.