‘We’re still here, we’re still building’: Kadena Chief Business Officer discusses once-hot blockchain revitalization

“From what I heard, we had a good reputation, but people were surprised that we still existed,” Annelise Osborne, Kadena’s chief business officer, told The Block in an interview. “We got quiet after hearing a lot of news. So what I’m trying to do is show momentum.”

Osborne, a former Arca Labs executive who left the company in June, was hired before the summer to help reform the company and transition it into an operating business. To date, she has helped establish an innovation lab focused on asset tokenization, hired technology and Wall Street veterans to the board, and has begun filling roles, including 10 new business development staff.

“We have great technology, but we can’t always win. I think the hardest part is already over,” Osborne said. “Then it’s about building a business around that.”

In fact, the cryptocurrency industry is full of so-called “zombie projects” that were once on the cutting edge but were unceremoniously abandoned for one reason or another. As she explains, Osborne’s role is to bring projects with great brand names and technologies back on track and revitalized.

great fanfare

Kadena was launched with “great fanfare” in 2019 by Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino, both from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and JPMorgan. 2019This was partly due to his previous experience founding the bank’s first innovation lab and his work on the predecessor to the Chase Onyx blockchain.

The two co-founders wanted to provide a more scalable version of Bitcoin while still using the proof-of-work algorithm. Due in part to its founder’s pedigree, and the fact that it comes from JPMorgan’s Blockchain Center for Excellence and some permissioned settings, Kadena quickly rose to prominence. Business-Friendly Chain.

This appears to be a reputation Osborne wants to rely on as he redoubles the company’s efforts on real-world assets and tokenization. According to Osborne, the company is “in talks with leading asset managers to launch a range of institutional tokenization products.”

In addition to this potential financing offering, Kadena’s engineering team has been working to develop a new suite of tools, including two bridges. One connects to Ethereum and Cosmos, while the other focuses on zero knowledge. Osborne said other tools are also in the works.

“(Popejoy and Martino) recognized that if they wanted to grow and continue to make a difference, they had to focus on Kadena as a business,” Osborne said.

The project has a market capitalization of $150 million and has previously raised more than $15 million in three rounds of funding. Osborne said the company had no intention of raising more capital but would consider it “if it makes strategic sense.”

“We’re still here, we’re still building,” Osborne said.

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