TBW - Laszlo Szabo (Kiln): “With RailNet, we are unifying yield sources within a single and compliant framework”
The Big Whale: Could you explain exactly what RailNet is?
Laszlo Szabo: To understand RailNet, you have to see it as the "invisible" yet essential infrastructure layer for the upcoming era of on-chain finance. It is an orchestration solution that unifies yield sources—which are currently fragmented—within a single, compliant framework. If we were to map out its role, it rests on three fundamental pillars.
First, it acts as a bridge between two worlds. RailNet allows for the combination of decentralized finance (DeFi) yields and tokenized Real-World Assets (RWA), such as Treasury bills or private credit, within the same service. Second, it is a powerful standardization tool. The protocol harmonizes the entire investment lifecycle: it manages everything from the instant liquidity of DeFi to the more complex redemption windows typical of traditional assets, such as the standard T+1 or T+30 cycles.
Finally, it provides a guarantee of compliance, what we call the “Trust Layer.” For a financial institution, RailNet serves as a verifiable layer of trust. It offers a consolidated view of risk and enables auditable reporting, which is indispensable for operating under regulations like MiFID or MiCA. In short, RailNet doesn't just connect assets; it "synchronizes the clocks" of on-chain finance to provide managers with a unified and secure management experience.
Regarding this issue of time management and liquidity, what are the specific technical contributions of your infrastructure compared to existing solutions?
The major point of friction today lies in the calculation of Net Asset Value (NAV). In traditional infrastructures, when a manager initiates a redemption on an asset with a seven-day delay, the tokens leave the wallet, but the cash hasn't arrived yet. The result: for a week, the fund's valuation is technically incorrect. This forces teams to intervene manually to correct the figures—an archaic and risky practice.
RailNet solves this through a system of "vehicles." Every transaction or withdrawal request is encapsulated in a specific token that represents the real-time status of the operation. The redemption period is thus integrated directly into the contract code. This ensures a NAV that is always accurate and transparent, calculated directly on-chain. For an institution, this means the end of manual adjustments and a major step forward for auditability and reporting.
“The idea is not to replace the manager, but to provide them with institutional-grade analytical tools”
How are regulators and fund managers receiving this total transparency?
For an asset manager, eliminating manual calculations drastically reduces operational risk and vulnerabilities tied to human intervention. From a regulator's perspective, it offers unprecedented visibility: they have a real-time view of exactly how client assets are allocated.
However, technical transparency isn't enough; you also need to know how to interpret risk. Our clients must evaluate collateral quality, smart contract security, or Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratios. This is why we hired the former CEO of Credora to build comprehensive "data rooms." The idea is not to replace the manager, but to provide them with institutional-grade analytical tools. This level of rigor is what allows us to collaborate with leading players like CoinShares.
What are the specifics of the partnership with CoinShares, and what strategic challenges does this integration address?
CoinShares rejected the simplistic approach of lending vaults, which has become commoditized in the market. Their ambition is to build "pension-style" or "all-weather" asset management capable of weathering any cycle. In practice, they allocate capital into lending protocols but diversify primarily into tokenized real-world assets.
The major innovation lies in the use of tokenized equities. Unlike the common practice in DeFi, where they serve as collateral for borrowing, CoinShares uses them as a direct allocation to capture dividend yields. Eventually, the goal is to aggregate private credit, money market funds, and real estate within a single vehicle. For the investor, this represents a significant gain in efficiency: a single entry point for a complex multi-asset strategy, whereas previously one had to manage multiple fragmented subscriptions.
The current market seems to be fragmenting by protocol, with players highly specialized in solutions like Morpho. Is RailNet betting on an agnostic approach instead?
Absolutely. Focusing on a single protocol exposes you to specific risks: underlying code vulnerabilities, risks associated with interoperability bridges, and the volatility of yield incentives. Our infrastructure does not reject these protocols; it encompasses them.
RailNet allows managers to use these lending pools as one building block among many, while significantly broadening their allocation scope. It is a complementary approach that transforms a technological silo into a global allocation tool.
Are other partnerships of CoinShares' magnitude in the works?
Yes, we will be announcing the arrival of another top-tier asset manager within the next two to three weeks. Our strategy is clear: we target "Tier 1" players who are already regulated.
Today, most DeFi curators lack an institutional risk management culture, whether it's regarding reporting, guardrails, or oversight. By collaborating with major TradFi names that possess licenses and solid balance sheets, we provide essential security. In a context where on-chain vaults still operate in a regulatory gray area, the reputation and solidity of the manager are the best guarantees for the end investor.
“We have rebuilt what is, by far, the most secure platform on the market”
We cannot ignore the subject of security. How did you react to the breach last September, and how have you managed to restore trust with your partners and prospects?
At the time of the incident, we were already the largest independent staking platform in the world, with $18.5 billion under management. In three years, we had surpassed legacy competitors because we were at the forefront of automation. But that success made us a target. We faced an extremely sophisticated state-sponsored actor. At the time, our security team consisted of four people—5% of our workforce—which proves we hadn't under-invested, but we showed the market that nobody is infallible.
Since then, we have rebuilt what is, by far, the most secure platform on the market. We retained 95% of our clients based on the promise of this overhaul. A large portion of our engineering team dedicated themselves to enforcing "clear signing," which didn't exist on staking dashboards. We also strengthened endpoint surveillance and monitoring for our teams' terminals. Now, if a collaborator inadvertently downloads a compromised package, our team detects it instantly. Finally, we have secured our validation keys to the same level as cold storage funds.
Has this experience changed your market approach?
It has pushed us to be more selective. We have reduced the number of supported protocols to focus on those with the most traction. Furthermore, we chose to over-communicate our findings. Many of our competitors have actually modified their own technical stacks based on what we shared. This has reinforced our conviction that DeFi is the new horizon for yield infrastructure.
What are your product priorities and financing plans for the next 12 to 18 months?
Financially, the company is well-capitalized. There are no plans for a funding round in the short term. On the product side, we are set to deliver new "permissioned" staking protocols like ARK, Tempo, or Canton, which integrate the privacy and compliance layers that institutions are demanding.
Regarding DeFi, 2026 will be the year of on-chain asset management. We will announce new Tier 1 managers and create hybrid DeFi/RWA products that are impossible to replicate in traditional finance. We are also expanding into new segments, such as payments. We just signed with MiniPay in Africa: 15 million users who previously never had access to yield. A user in Nigeria will now be able to access, via their wallet, the same quality of financial product as a Wall Street hedge fund, thanks to our infrastructure. That is true global financial inclusion.
You are working increasingly with TradFi players. What are the main points of friction during the onboarding of these institutions?
There are two major obstacles: compliance and risk. For compliance, we offer three levels.
The first is KYT (Know Your Transaction): even without KYC at the vault entry, we must guarantee that funds do not come from sanctioned wallets or those linked to illicit activities. We use geofencing at the wallet level.
The second level is for regulated actors like CoinShares under MiCA: they require KYC at the vault entrance while subsequently allocating to either permissioned or non-permissioned DeFi.
Finally, the third level is end-to-end KYC for the world's largest banks: they only touch pools where every participant is identified. The challenge remains liquidity, which is naturally lower in these closed pools.
And regarding risk management, how do you reassure these players who are accustomed to very strict frameworks?
Once compliance is validated, the institution wants to understand where the yield comes from. We provide them with programmable data rooms. There, they can analyze the identity of the issuers behind products like Ondo or Superstate, audit smart contracts, and scrutinize liquidity ratios on Uniswap or Aave. They can even inject their own data to adjust risk parameters. Once they are comfortable with these two pillars—compliance and risk—the barriers fall, and capital flows begin to arrive, starting with proofs of concept and moving toward growing allocations.