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Dylan M.

Startup Founder & Angel Investor

Dylan Macalinao is a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) space, serving as the Co-Founder and CEO of Saber Labs. Alongside his brother Ian Macalinao, he established Saber Labs, which focuses on providing a cross-chain stablecoin exchange built on the Solana blockchain. This platform has gained recognition for its efficient trading mechanisms and has attracted significant investment, including a seed round of $7.7 million led by Race Capital in early 2021.13

Background and Education

Dylan holds a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Pennsylvania and has a background in product design and development. Before founding Saber Labs, he was a Founder-in-Residence at Solana Labs, where he contributed to the growth of the Solana ecosystem. He also held the position of Head of Product & Design at Abacus Protocol and interned at the Picower Institute for Learning & Memory at MIT.23

Contributions to DeFi

Under Dylan's leadership, Saber Labs has positioned itself as a key player in the DeFi sector, facilitating seamless asset transfers across different blockchains. The platform's innovative algorithm allows for low-slippage trading, making it attractive to liquidity providers.1 Additionally, Dylan has been involved in launching Protagonist, a crypto venture capital fund aimed at investing in early-stage web3 protocols.3

Recent Developments

In January 2023, Dylan and Ian Macalinao were reported to be under investigation by the Department of Justice due to allegations of manipulating financial metrics through interconnected products during the cryptocurrency market's peak.4 Despite this scrutiny, their contributions to DeFi continue to be significant, with Saber Labs recognized as one of the leading decentralized exchanges on Solana.13

Highlights

Jul 12 · linkedin

Excited to finally announce Protagonist—our inaugural $100M early-stage crypto fund and incubation lab!

Protagonist is both sector and blockchain agnostic. So far, we've announced investments in crypto finance, NFT infrastructure, and a new scalable layer-1 blockchain.

Leveraging our cumulative experiences as founders across billion-dollar Web2 companies and crypto protocols alike, we bring both practical advice and hands-on collaboration to the founders we invest in.

If you're working on something cool in crypto, or you're pre-idea with a strong track-record of building, I'd love to chat! My DM's are open.

Related Questions

What inspired Dylan Macalinao to co-found Saber Labs?
How did Dylan Macalinao's role at Pipe influence his work at Saber Labs?
What are some key achievements of Saber Labs under Dylan Macalinao's leadership?
How does Saber Labs' cross-chain stablecoin exchange work?
What is the significance of Saber Labs becoming the first Solana-based decentralized exchange?
Dylan M.
Dylan M., photo 1
Dylan M., photo 2
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Location

Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex