Kiln

TLDR

Kiln is an enterprise staking platform that lets custodians, asset managers, exchanges, and wallets offer onchain yield to their end clients without running their own validator operations. It operates validators across 30+ proof-of-stake networks, provides a white-label SDK and dashboard for institutional integration, and layers DeFi protocol access on top of native staking. On Solana, Kiln runs validators holding roughly 2.5% of total network stake, making it one of the larger institutional validator operators on the chain.

Core Mechanism

Kiln's core product is Validators-as-a-Service — the company runs and maintains validators on behalf of institutional clients who either stake their own assets or pass staking through to their end users. The architecture separates custody from operation: a client's funds stay in their wallet or custodian environment while Kiln handles node uptime, software upgrades, slashing avoidance, and reward collection.

The platform has three main distribution modes:

Enterprise (B2B): Institutions integrate via the Kiln Connect API or SDK. This gives programmatic access to validator management, reward reporting, and transaction crafting across multiple chains through a single interface. Clients such as Fireblocks, BitGo, and Ledger embed this into their own custody or product stacks so their users never interact with Kiln directly.

White-label Widget: A no-code option that lets exchanges and wallets embed a branded Earn section into their interface in a day. The widget handles staking flows, reward tracking, and unstaking UI without the client writing custom integration code.

Direct Dashboard: Kiln's own institutional dashboard where asset managers and treasuries can monitor staked positions, track rewards in real-time, rebalance across chains, and pull standardized accounting reports.

On top of native staking, Kiln layers Kiln DeFi — access to protocols like Aave, Morpho, Compound, and Spark for stablecoin and token yield, and an OmniVault product for automated yield optimization. This positions Kiln as a unified onchain yield layer rather than a staking-only provider.

Solana Validator Infrastructure

Kiln runs over 1,500 validators on Solana mainnet and holds approximately 2.5% of total network stake, one of the larger institutional footprints on the chain. The company operates two primary public validators:

• Kiln1 (DdCNGDpP7qMgoAy6paFzhhak2EeyCZcgjH7ak5u5v28m): 5% commission, 100% MEV rebates returned to delegators with off-chain compounding
• Kiln2 (HCvnhbT3Sn5RsueDisWzzn5FkW8tAqoQK1dr7cvAVzin): 7% commission, 7% MEV commission

Stake activation and deactivation both take up to one epoch (approximately 2.5 days). Rewards are distributed at each epoch boundary. Staking is non-custodial: assets move into Stake Accounts owned by the staker's address, not by Kiln. Users can split accounts to partially unstake without moving the whole position.

The platform advertises up to 7.73% Gross Reward Rate (GRR) on Solana as of mid-2026. There is no meaningful minimum — retail users can stake as little as 0.01 SOL through the Kiln dApp with compatible wallets (Phantom, Ledger, Sollet, WalletConnect), while institutions use the API path through Fireblocks or direct integration.

SIMD-0123 and Alpenglow

Kiln's Solana infrastructure is positioned to benefit from two upcoming protocol changes. SIMD-0123 will introduce native on-chain stake reward pools that let validators distribute priority fees and MEV revenue directly to delegators at epoch boundaries, eliminating the current reliance on off-chain agreements. Kiln has signaled it will implement the reward pool mechanism on its validators automatically for stakers. The Alpenglow upgrade, which reduces finality from roughly 13 seconds to 150ms by moving votes off-chain and replacing Proof-of-History with local clocks, requires node software upgrades that Kiln handles operationally without action from stakers.

Supported Networks and Tokens

Kiln supports 30+ proof-of-stake networks including Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos (ATOM), Avalanche, Cardano, Near, Tezos, Aptos, and over 20 others. Reward rates across networks range from roughly 1.7% to 30% depending on protocol inflation and total staked supply. No Kiln-native token exists; the platform earns revenue through validator commissions and enterprise SaaS fees rather than tokenomics.

Institutional Partnerships

Kiln's client base spans the major institutional layers:

• Custodians: Fireblocks, BitGo, Ledger Enterprise
• Asset managers: VanEck (powers staking for VanEck's Solana Strategy, announced October 2024), CoinShares
• Exchanges: Binance, Bitpanda, Crypto.com
• Wallets and fintechs: Trust Wallet, Ledger Live, Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe)

In February 2026, Kiln was added as a node operator in Lido v3, reflecting its position in the liquid staking ecosystem.

Security and Audits

Kiln holds SOC 2 Type II certification, renewed in June 2026, covering security, availability, and confidentiality controls. The company reports zero slashing events across its Ethereum validator fleet (22,000+ validators, roughly 3% of the Ethereum network) and 99.95% effective uptime on Solana with zero penalties recorded. Smart contract deployments are audited, though Kiln's Solana staking relies primarily on native Stake Account mechanics rather than custom contracts.

In September 2025, Kiln initiated an orderly voluntary exit from all of its Ethereum validator nodes after a vulnerability in a Kiln-provided API was exploited to gain unauthorized access to wallets used in SwissBorg's Solana Earn program, resulting in roughly $40M in losses to SwissBorg. Kiln stated that no validator keys or staking capital were at risk; the exposure was in an API integration layer. SOC 2 certification was subsequently renewed in 2026 following a security review.

Team and Funding

Kiln was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Paris, with offices in London and Singapore. The company is led by CEO Laszlo Szabo and COO and co-founder Thomas de Phuoc, with Manfred Touron as an advisor.

The company has raised $39.7M across three rounds. Its most recent funding was a $17M round closed in December 2023, led by 1kx with participation from IOSG, Crypto.com Capital, Wintermute Ventures, KXVC, and LBank. The raise was notable for closing during a period of limited venture activity in crypto infrastructure.

Solana Fit

Kiln is one of a small set of institutional validator operators on Solana with documented enterprise client deployment, audited infrastructure, and API-first integration for custodians. Its VanEck partnership — covering staking for an institutional Solana strategy — illustrates the kind of counterparty access that distinguishes it from retail staking pools.

With SIMD-0123 and Alpenglow arriving, Kiln's infrastructure positioning allows it to offer native fee-sharing at scale to institutional delegators, replacing the off-chain arrangements that currently govern most validator-to-delegator MEV distributions. For Solana's validator economy, a platform that routes institutional stake through standardized API channels and absorbs the operational burden of network upgrades represents a meaningful part of the ecosystem's path toward broader capital market participation.