A High School Grad’s Unlikely Crypto Journey
Nick Manannikov just finished at Brooklyn Technical High School—something he admits still feels a little surprising. Sitting near the school, the 18-year-old shrugged when I asked how he managed it. “Somehow,” he said, laughing. For most of his senior year, he’d been juggling school with running a crypto business, flying to conferences, and even spending weeks at a time in Salt Lake City for mtnDAO, a Solana-focused event.
Classroom attendance wasn’t exactly his strong suit. But he’s leaving behind something unexpected: the school’s first Solana validator, set up through his company, Shark Labs. It’s a way for students to get real experience with blockchain nodes, he explained. Right now, the validator handles around 15,000 staked SOL.
From Political Refugee to Crypto Founder
Manannikov’s story starts far from Brooklyn. His family fled Russia as political refugees just before he started high school, after his father refused pressure from figures tied to the government. They had two days to pack. Once in the U.S., Manannikov mixed coding skills with a knack for hustling—running bots on Kick to scoop up giveaways, then diving into crypto, first with NFTs, later with memecoins.
A big break came when he turned a profit on a Solana NFT collection called “Deez Nuts.” That cash became the seed for Shark Node, his RPC business. It’s done well enough that he’s skipping college to focus on it full-time. He shares an office on Broadway, and the company’s already in the black.
Pivoting to Validators—and a Missed Connection
Last fall, Shark Labs expanded into running Solana validators. To make it work, they needed entry into the Solana Foundation’s Delegation Program, which supports smaller operators. At Breakpoint, a key conference, they just missed a chance to talk to a Foundation contact. But Manannikov isn’t the type to wait around. When he heard Solana’s executive director, Dan Albert, would be at Solana Boston, he booked a ticket.
It’s a scrappy approach—one that’s defined his career so far. And for a kid who “somehow” graduated, he’s already building something most adults wouldn’t dare try. Whether it’s sustainable, who knows? But right now, he’s not slowing down.
