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Membrane Labs builds institutional-grade digital asset credit infrastructure, offering an operational layer for managing loans, repo, collateral, and settlement across diverse custodians, exchanges, and wallets. The company’s modular platform integrates capabilities for pre-trade counterparty limits, real-time risk analysis, comprehensive collateral management, and robust post-trade settlement via its CustodyLink™ Network, alongside a specialized Stablecoin Repo (StableRepo™) product. This technology stack is designed to streamline complex digital asset workflows and enhance operational control for financial institutions.
The company was founded by Carson Cook, who identified a critical need for robust infrastructure to support institutional engagement in the burgeoning digital asset trading and lending markets. Prior to establishing Membrane Labs, Cook founded Tokemak, an Ethereum-based decentralized finance protocol, bringing a deep understanding of blockchain and decentralized finance ecosystems to the venture. His insight centered on mitigating the inherent complexities and risks associated with institutional digital asset operations.
Membrane Labs primarily serves institutional digital asset lenders and trading desks, providing them with essential tools to manage exposure, enforce controls, and scale their operations efficiently. The company's vision is to standardize credit workflows in the digital asset space, offering solutions that increase efficiency, reduce counterparty risk, and ensure regulatory compliance, thereby enabling institutions to navigate and grow within this evolving financial landscape.
Membrane Labs has raised $24.0M across 2 funding rounds.
Membrane Labs has raised $24.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Membrane Labs has raised $24.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $4.0M Membrane - Seed in November 2023.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 1, 2023 | $4M Seed | — | Acequia Capital, Cortical Ventures, Index Ventures, Mango Capital, Pentagram Ventures, Alexis LE Quoc, Amirhossein Malekzadeh, Justin Ziegler | Announced |
| Oct 1, 2023 | $20M Series A | — | Infinite Capital, True Ventures, Vayner RSE, Belvedere Trading, Brevan Howard Digital, Electric Capital, Flow Traders, Framework Ventures, GSR, Jane Street, Jump Crypto, Point72 Ventures, QCP Capital, TWO Sigma Ventures | Announced |
Membrane Labs has raised $24.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
Membrane Labs's investors include Acequia Capital, Cortical Ventures, Index Ventures, Mango Capital, Pentagram Ventures, Alexis Le-Quoc, Amirhossein Malekzadeh, Justin Ziegler, Infinite Capital, True Ventures, Vayner RSE, Belvedere Trading.
Membrane Labs builds a digital asset prime infrastructure suite for institutions, automating loan lifecycle management, treasury operations, cross-custodian settlements, and real-time risk analysis to bridge traditional finance and crypto.[1][2][4] It serves crypto lenders, trading firms, banks, and funds—such as Ledn—solving operational inefficiencies like manual reconciliations, counterparty risks, and fragmented post-trade workflows in digital asset trading and lending.[1][3][5] With over $10 billion in loan bookings processed and rapid team growth to nearly 60 developers, Membrane demonstrates strong momentum in scaling institutional crypto operations.[3][6]
Membrane Labs was founded in 2019 by Carson Cook (CEO and co-founder, ex-McKinsey consultant with a PhD in physics and electrical engineering) alongside venture studio Hibbard Road Partners (HRP), initially as Lattice.[2][6] Cook left McKinsey in 2018 to launch Fractal, a crypto market maker, but faced infrastructure gaps in netting, settlement, and compliance for institutional trading, prompting collaboration with HRP after months of research.[2] Early focus on core settlement evolved into a full platform for loans, treasury, and risk, driven by Cook's frustration with crypto's operational complexities compared to traditional finance.[2][6]
Membrane rides the institutional adoption of crypto trend, providing prime brokerage-like infrastructure amid post-2022 credit crises that exposed risk gaps in lending and trading.[1][2][3] Timing aligns with maturing digital assets, where TradFi players demand compliant, scalable tools for on-chain operations without building from scratch—fueled by regulatory clarity, ETF approvals, and billions in AUM shifting to crypto.[2][6] Market forces like fragmented custodians, blockchain speed, and counterparty exposures favor Membrane's unified platform, which influences the ecosystem by enabling efficient credit desks and reducing systemic risks for lenders handling $10B+ volumes.[3][5]
Membrane is poised to dominate as the go-to operating system for institutional crypto credit, expanding its Risk Engine and fiat rails while leveraging partnerships like Circle and Bitpulse for broader adoption.[3][5][6] Trends like tokenized assets, RWA growth, and AI-driven risk will amplify demand, potentially evolving Membrane into a full prime broker alternative. Its influence could reshape crypto lending resilience, tying back to its origins in solving real-world trading frictions for a more efficient digital finance layer.[2][3]
