Building State Street for Digital Assets: How Lagoon Is Powering the On-Chain Vault Economy

In Episode 50 of Chain Reactions, Blake sits down with Nadia Sergujuk, Co-Founder of Lagoon, the permissionless vault management infrastructure that wants to become the State Street of digital assets. With a background spanning Danish law schools, PWC Legal in London, hedge funds managing $10B+ in AUM, and VC investing in deep tech, Nadia brings a rare cross-disciplinary lens to one of the fastest-growing categories in DeFi.We cover:– How Nadia went from law school in Copenhagen to hedge funds in London to co-founding an on-chain vault protocol– What vault management infrastructure actually is and why every stablecoin dollar eventually needs one– Why Lagoon's team put their own capital in first and how word of mouth drove early traction– The stablecoin explosion, neo banks in emerging markets, and why the digital dollar is eating the world– Privacy on-chain, the rise of institutional chains, and what keeps Nadia up at night (hint: quantum computing and the triple bubble)We also get into regulation as a tailwind, why Japan is the most slept-on institutional market in crypto, the innovator's dilemma facing Western Union and Visa, and why founder-led marketing beats KOLs every time.Timestamps00:00 – Going live and Nadia joins from the Swiss Alps04:00 – From law school in Denmark to hedge funds in London06:30 – First exposure to Bitcoin in 2016 (and not buying it)08:20 – COVID, DeFi summer, and going all in on crypto09:30 – Meeting co-founder Remy at a conference in Bogota11:27 – What is Lagoon? Vault management infrastructure explained13:30 – Why permissionless and open source matters for trust16:26 – Business model: 10% of vault fees plus SaaS services18:00 – Go-to-market: putting your own money in the vaults first20:45 – BlackRock, Fidelity, and the TradFi wave coming on-chain faster than expected22:23 – Why regulation is actually a tailwind for Lagoon25:36 – Japan as the most slept-on institutional crypto market28:00 – Neo banks, stablecoin yield, and serving emerging markets30:30 – Why the digital dollar is irresistible in LatAm, Africa, and Southeast Asia37:00 – Conference circuit: DAF London, DAS New York, and founder-led presence40:06 – What keeps Nadia up at night: quantum compute and the triple bubble45:23 – Chain landscape: Solana's DeFi renaissance and BTCFi's comeback48:04 – Privacy on-chain: why institutions need it and how Lagoon will enable it51:35 – Rapid fire: founder-led marketing, KOLs, Merkl, and the power of peopleShow Notes & Mentions🔗 Lagoon – Permissionless vault management infrastructure for digital assets🧵 Nadia on X🧵 Lagoon on X🏔️ DAS (Digital Asset Summit) – Upcoming in March in New York