FigureAsia 35 Under 35 · Finance
Laszlo Szabo
Age 33 · Institutional staking and digital-asset yield · France and Singapore
An institutional staking founder who has turned validator operations into an auditable product layer for wallets, exchanges and custodians.
- Age at the edition eligibility date
- 33
- Field
- Finance
- Country or region
- France and Singapore
- FigureAsia U35 Assessment
- 88.0 / 100
Profile
Career and documented record
Laszlo Szabo leads Kiln, an institutional staking and digital-asset rewards platform used by wallets, exchanges and custodians. Its work sits below the consumer interface: deploying validators, reporting rewards, managing commissions and allowing financial platforms to embed staking without building the entire operational stack. In its 2025 review, Kiln reported more than $18 billion in assets staked, a 38.7% annual increase, and more than $500 million in total value locked across its DeFi product.
Operational reliability matters more than token publicity in this field. Kiln said no Ethereum validator under its operation was slashed during 2025, renewed its SOC 2 Type II compliance and expanded its DeFi user base by 39,000. Szabo has also described APAC as one of the fastest-growing institutional markets and said Kiln's regional office had already proved effective. The figures are company-reported and assets staked are not equivalent to discretionary assets under management.
FigureAsia selection
Why Laszlo Szabo is on the list
FigureAsia selected Szabo because he has built a financial-infrastructure business around a technically demanding and risk-bearing function. The 2025 record combines scale, completed product use and an explicit reliability measure, while his own account connects executive strategy to an operating APAC presence.
The selection does not treat staking rewards as risk-free yield. Validator failure, software faults, protocol changes and asset-price volatility remain material. Szabo is recognised for the infrastructure and controls that make institutional participation possible, not for the investment performance of the underlying tokens.
Verified work
The 2025–26 record
Assets staked through Kiln passed $18 billion
Kiln reported a 38.7% year-on-year increase, more than $500 million in DeFi total value locked and 39,000 new DeFi users.
Kiln reported no Ethereum validator slashing
The company paired the reliability result with renewed SOC 2 Type II compliance and reported Solana validator rewards 4.7% above the network average.
Field context
The work in its field
Proof-of-stake networks pay rewards to validators that secure the ledger, but institutional participation requires far more than running a server. Providers must manage key security, cloud and client concentration, reporting, upgrades and the risk of slashing penalties.
The strongest operators increasingly provide an abstraction layer across multiple networks and custodians. That breadth is valuable only when accompanied by transparent controls, resilient infrastructure and a clear distinction between protocol rewards and guaranteed financial returns.
FigureAsia U35 Assessment
Assessment breakdown
88.0out of 100
Completed financial consequence
27 / 30
Assets staked through Kiln passed $18 billion is treated as a delivered financial outcome. The score is confined to the completed result described in the record and excludes projections or paper valuation.
Individual agency and execution
22 / 25
The documented role—Co-founder and Chief Executive—and the attributed actions in the profile establish accountable execution. Institution-wide results are not assigned to the person alone.
Verified reach and significance
18 / 20
Proof-of-stake networks pay rewards to validators that secure the ledger, but institutional participation requires far more than running a server. Providers must manage key security, cloud and client concentration, reporting, upgrades and the risk of slashing penalties.
Innovation and field influence
13 / 15
The record combines institutional staking and digital-asset yield with the completed work described in Kiln reported no Ethereum validator slashing. Credit reflects demonstrated practice, not a claim of novelty by itself.
Stewardship, access and Asian relevance
8 / 10
The Asian connection is explicit: Chief executive of a digital-asset rewards platform with a Singapore APAC office whose regional build-out he has discussed directly. Stewardship credit is limited to the regulatory, governance, access or stakeholder evidence described in the profile.