Symbiotic Team Quietly Raised $29M and then Went Live on 16 Chains | Misha Putiatin

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Misha Putiatin, co-founder of Symbiotic — the cross-chain staking protocol that quietly raised $29M in April from Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, and 100+ angels.

Rather than announce with a whitepaper, Symbiotic launched with product in hand — already live across 16 networks. Misha dives deep into why staking infrastructure today is broken, how Symbiotic is enabling universal staking without one-size-fits-all assumptions, and how the team’s 25 developers built a framework adopted by 16 protocols (and counting).

They also talk about developer culture, what most people get wrong about blockchain security, and how to break out of the crypto bubble to reach real users.

TIMESTAMPS

(0:00) - Intro: Who is Misha & what is Symbiotic

(1:02) - Symbiotic’s $29M raise: not the focus here

(3:00) - What universal staking really means

(4:15) - The origin story: 25 devs, 16 networks

(6:00) - Why Symbiotic launched product-first, not with hype

(9:15) - “Whitepaper drops” vs actually building

(11:00) - How building has changed across cycles

(13:00) - Why audits cost millions (and why they matter)

(15:00) - What “universal” staking means in practice

(17:00) - Are protocols coming to Symbiotic — or vice versa?

(19:00) - How big can this get?

(21:00) - The challenge of one-size-fits-all security

(23:00) - Where today’s staking systems fall short

(25:00) - Breaking the crypto echo chamber

(27:00) - Is blockchain security fundamentally broken?

(29:00) - Why people need to look under the hood

(30:00) - What the $29M raise will actually fund

(33:00) - Dev culture: what people don’t understand

(35:00) - The long-term vision for staking infrastructure

(37:00) - What it’ll take to coordinate cross-chain security

(38:00) - Multichain future: inevitable or idealistic?

(40:00) - Final advice from Misha: don’t rush the story

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Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141

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Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only and any views shared by anyone on the show are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this episode.

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