Lorien Gabel has spent decades building internet infrastructure companies, from ISPs to cloud security firms. In 2018, recognizing the transformative potential of proof-of-stake networks, he co-founded Figment, which has since become one of the world’s largest independent staking providers, offering technology and services that enable users to stake their tokens without having to use a centralized exchange or custodian.

Today, the company manages $15 billion in assets and serves over 500 institutional clients.

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Here, Gabel, who will be a speaker at Consensus Hong Kong, discusses Figment’s expansion into Asia, bitcoin staking experiments and his company’s careful process for deciding which new crypto networks to support.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

What led you to start Figment?

This is the fourth company my co-founders and I have built together over three decades. Our previous ventures were all in internet infrastructure. When we started exploring blockchain in 2018, staking was barely a thing — Tezos had launched, and Ethereum was still only discussing it. But we saw a natural alignment between our expertise in network security, cloud infrastructure and scaling B2B solutions and what proof-of-stake (PoS) could become. If PoS gained traction, we believed our experience in building secure, institutional-grade networks would be invaluable.

We originally planned to start a fund, and now we do have a VC fund. But the fund didn’t come first — the staking infrastructure company did, and then we launched Figment Capital. We basically took a flyer on proof-of-stake, believing it had some advantages over proof-of-work, and we were lucky enough that it actually worked and took off.

How large is Figment now?

We currently manage $15 billion in staking assets and serve 500 institutional clients.

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Author: Mason Marcobello