WillItSurvive

Kiln runs staking infrastructure so banks and exchanges can offer crypto rewards without building it themselves.

Losing its protection
Assessed 21 July 2026 · Evidence as of 21 July 2026
The structural protection is eroding.
On the recordSince 21 July 2026 · Checkable from Q2-Q3 2026 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: Railnet orchestration product must show real institutional adoption
The call

Kiln built real scale and real trust with institutions, then a partner breach and two years without fresh funding left both under pressure right as its biggest clients could build in house.

Kiln helps large companies and institutions stake cryptocurrency and earn rewards, managing around $16 to $18 billion in assets. The company built real advantages by working closely with banks and custody firms that trust its security and compliance setup, which crypto-native competitors like Lido cannot easily copy. However, its biggest customers (Coinbase Cloud, Fireblocks, Anchorage Digital) are also partners who could build their own staking services in-house, and a September 2025 security breach that drained $40 million from a partner customer called SwissBorg has damaged the trust Kiln was built on. The company has not raised new funding since January 2024 despite growing its business five times over, and is betting on a new product called Railnet launching in mid-2026 to prove it can stay ahead, but whether major partners will stick with Kiln or go independent will determine if this business has real staying power.

Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. Staking is a validator and compliance business, not a language or reasoning task, so AI models don't directly replace it. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Coinbase Cloud, Fireblocks, Anchorage Digital. These custody giants are Kiln clients today but face no barrier to building staking in house and cutting Kiln out. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Deep custodian integrations and compliance plumbing that took years to build with 200+ institutional clients.
What would change this call
Coinbase Cloud or Fireblocks announces a native institutional staking product. Would show a partner turning competitor and Kiln's moat eroding.
Railnet fails to reach $1B TVL by Q4 2026. Would show the orchestration bet is not gaining institutional traction.
Reports of client defections or lawsuits tied to the SwissBorg breach. Would show the breach caused lasting trust and revenue damage.
Key numbers
  • $16-18B in assets staked (Feb 2026)
  • No new funding round since Jan 2024 (2026)
  • $40M drained in SwissBorg breach via Kiln API (Sep 2025)
Named risks
  • September 2025 API breach drained $40M from partner SwissBorg, damaging core trust proposition. Severity: high
  • Custody giants like Coinbase Cloud and Fireblocks are clients that could vertically integrate staking in-house. Severity: high
  • No new funding round since January 2024 despite roughly 5x AUM growth since then. Severity: medium
  • Railnet, launching Q2 2026, is an unproven pivot into DeFi/RWA orchestration. Severity: medium
  • Sector consolidation, such as Bitwise's acquisition of Chorus One, signals active competitive reshuffling. Severity: medium
Rivals, as read in July 2026
RivalDirectionEvidence
Coinbase Cloud, Fireblocks, Anchorage Digitalgaining onCurrent Kiln clients not structurally barred from building in-house institutional staking as of 2026
Lido FinancecontestingDominant liquid staking protocol but structurally barred from Kiln's institutional custody/compliance niche
Chorus One (Bitwise)gaining onBitwise acquired Chorus One in 2026, consolidating staking sector into Bitwise Onchain Solutions
Figment, P2P.org, Blockdaemon, EverstakecontestingDirect staking-as-a-service competitors across institutional client base as of 2026
Questions people ask
Is Kiln profitable in 2026?
Kiln does not disclose revenue or profitability figures. It earns commissions on staking and yield rewards, scaling with its reported $16B+ AUM as of February 2026, but no public profit data exists as of July 2026.
Who owns Kiln, the staking company?
Kiln is a privately held, venture-backed French company (Kiln SAS, Paris, registration 839 230 125) with no parent company. It has raised roughly $35-39.6M total across seed and two Series A rounds, the last closing January 2024.
Was Kiln hacked?
Yes. In September 2025 an API vulnerability at Kiln let attackers drain about 192,600 SOL (roughly $40-41.5M) from partner SwissBorg's Solana Earn program, prompting Kiln to precautionarily exit all its Ethereum validators on 2025-09-10.
Who is Kiln's biggest competitor?
Kiln competes with staking-as-a-service peers Figment, Chorus One (acquired by Bitwise in 2026), P2P.org, Blockdaemon and Everstake, plus liquid-staking protocol Lido Finance, while clients like Coinbase Cloud, Fireblocks and Anchorage could also build competing in-house staking.
Could AI replace Kiln's staking business?
Unlikely directly. Kiln's core moat is regulatory posture (SOC2 Type II), custodian and exchange integrations, and multi-year enterprise workflow lock-in with clients like VanEck and CoinShares, which generic AI tools cannot replicate as of 2026.
How much money has Kiln raised?
Kiln has raised roughly $35-39.6M total: a $5M seed in May 2022, a €17M (~$17.6M) Series A in November 2022 led by Illuminate Financial, and a $17M Series A extension led by 1kx announced January 2024. No new round has been reported since.
Timeline
  • 2026-03-18CoinShares becomes first regulated EU asset manager to build strategy on Railnet
  • 2026-02-22Kiln reports $16B+ staked, 5%+ of Ethereum, $380M+ DeFi TVL; partners with Turnkey
  • 2025-12-09Kiln introduces Railnet open yield layer protocol, targeting Q2 2026 mainnet
  • 2025-09-10API breach drains ~$40M from partner SwissBorg; Kiln exits all ETH validators
  • 2025-06-18Kiln ranks #3 staking provider with ~1.5M ETH staked (~4.3% share)
  • 2025-04-09Kiln partners with Lombard, Figment, Galaxy, P2P.org on Bitcoin staking
  • 2024-01-18Kiln raises $17M Series A extension, opens Singapore APAC HQ, hits $3.1B staked
  • 2022-11-28Kiln raises €17M (~$17.6M) Series A led by Illuminate Financial
  • 2022-05-19Kiln raises $5M seed round
Revision history
21 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources