Mert Mumtaz
Mert Mumtaz is the co-founder and CEO of Helius, a company that builds developer tools and trading infrastructure for Solana. His work spans blockchain data access, transaction infrastructure and developer support.
Career and Helius
Before founding Helius, Mumtaz worked as an engineer at Coinbase on its ledger, trading infrastructure and Solana integration teams. He co-founded Helius in 2022 with Nicolas Pennie and Liam Vovk.
At Helius, Mumtaz leads work on Solana privacy, LanaAI, the Orb block explorer and experimental projects. He also mentors founders through the company’s Startup Launchpad and participates in hackathons and industry conferences.
Developer infrastructure and writing
In a June 2023 essay, Mumtaz described how Helius expanded from parsing blockchain activity into operating RPC infrastructure, the services applications use to read data and submit transactions. He attributed the change to problems the team encountered with reliability, cost and performance when using outside providers.
Mumtaz also writes about the company’s operating approach. His January 2026 Helius manifesto describes its focus on internet markets and emphasizes speed, direct communication and product execution.
Public commentary
Mumtaz comments publicly on blockchain development, markets and financial privacy. In January 2026, CryptoSlate’s coverage of Zcash’s governance dispute reported that he reaffirmed a long-term $10,000 ZEC target. He viewed the former Electric Coin Company team’s departure as a potential benefit for development. The report gave no target deadline or detailed valuation model. This historical market view does not establish an official role with Zcash.
