New York skyline sunset with Empire State building

Our Story

Building neutral rails
for a new asset class

The operational layer for institutional digital assets

$12B+

Loans Managed on Platform

Across institutional lending programs globally

$1B+

Collateral Managed Daily

Valued and monitored in real time across asset classes

20+

Connected Custodians & Venues

Digital and traditional, via CustodyLink™

Where the idea came from

Membrane is the infrastructure for institutional digital asset credit. It gives lending desks, credit teams, and operations a single environment on which to run institutional lending programs - Bitcoin alongside stablecoins, tokenized securities alongside traditional collateral, the same workflows, the same controls, the same audit trail.

Our journey began when Membrane's CEO, Carson Cook, left McKinsey & Co in 2018 to start Fractal, a crypto-focused market maker. He quickly discovered that while the internal operations were manageable, the boundary was not. Complying with LP agreements required infrastructure that simply didn't exist.

Every institution facing the same problem was solving it internally. The internal problem was getting solved but the space between institutions was not. The operational record of what was happening across counterparties traveled by email and spreadsheet, because nothing was built to carry it.

In 2019, Membrane launched — not to compete with the firms it would serve, but to build the neutral operational layer that none of them could build for each other.

"The infrastructure existed in pieces inside every firm. What was missing was the membrane through which these firms could communicate." — Carson Cook, PhD | CEO & Founder
Carson Cook, PhD

Doctorate in nuclear physics. Former McKinsey and Company. Named inventor on two issued U.S. patents in coordinated digital asset settlement.

Founded 2019

Incorporated as Membrane Labs, Inc., a Delaware C corporation. Headquartered in Miami, Florida.

22 full-time team members

SOC 2 Type 2 certified. Series A in 2022.

Why neutrality matters

The institutions best positioned to build infrastructure are
those that don't trade on it.

When the New York Stock Exchange faced its paperwork crisis in 1968, bilateral settlement infrastructure broke under its own weight. The answer was not better bilateral infrastructure. It was the Depository Trust Company — a neutral entity with no stake in any individual transaction, trusted by every participant precisely because no single participant controlled it.

SWIFT followed the same logic. Banks needed a shared messaging network for international transfers. They couldn't use infrastructure owned by a competitor. The neutrality wasn't incidental to the design. It was the structural condition that made adoption possible.

Institutional digital asset credit and collateral markets are facing a structurally identical problem. Every major firm has built sophisticated internal workflow tooling. The boundary between those firms is now the barrier, because the systems on either side were not designed to share state.

Any orchestration layer controlled by a market participant carries a conflict that limits adoption. One bank will not route operational state through another bank's infrastructure. A borrower will not depend on their custodian’s workflow engine when that custodian also lends against the same collateral.

Membrane does not trade, does not lend, and holds no position in any transaction it orchestrates. It's the membrane through which this new asset class flows between counterparties, a continuous record that all parties can rely on.

The DTCC works because it doesn't trade. SWIFT works because it doesn't move its own money. The clearinghouse works because it's not a counterparty. Membrane plays a similar role in institutional digital asset credit and collateral markets — and the same principle applies.

2018
The founding insight. Carson Cook leaves McKinsey to start Fractal, a crypto market maker. Discovers that complying with LP agreements requires institutional infrastructure that does not exist for digital assets. Identifies the boundary problem: internal workflows are solvable, cross-firm coordination is not.
2019

Membrane is founded. Membrane Labs, Inc. (formerly Lattice) incorporated to build neutral netting and settlement infrastructure for institutional digital asset trading. Seed round closed.

2020 — 2021
Foundation Built. Core settlement capabilities deployed. First institutional clients onboarded across lending desks, custodians, and trading operations. Integration network begins connecting custodians, exchanges, and wallets.
2022

Platform Expands. Series A closed. Loan lifecycle management added to the platform. Team grows to serve a broader institutional client base.

2023

U.S. Patent No. 11,651,353 B1 issued. Platform for Coordinated Credit-Based and Non-Custodial Digital Asset Settlement.

2025

Series A extension. SOC 2 Type 2 certification achieved. $10B in total loan volume processed. CustodyLink™ network expanded to 20-plus connected venues, custodians, and chains. StableRepo™ launched. $1B+ in daily collateral value tracked.

2026

U.S. Patent No. 12,555,099 B1 issued. Second patent covering coordinated digital asset settlement. Client base expands to include both US and off-shore banks.

Neutral Rails

How We Operate

Neutral by design

Membrane holds no position in any transaction it orchestrates. We do not lend, trade, or custody assets. That structural neutrality is not a policy. It's the operating condition that makes the infrastructure trustworthy to all parties.

Custody and chain agnostic

The platform connects across custodians, wallets, chains, and venues without requiring any of them to change their underlying systems. Interoperability at the orchestration layer rather than standardization at the protocol level.

Built for the boundary

Internal workflow problems are largely solved. The hard problem is coordination between firms. Every product decision at Membrane is oriented toward that boundary — the place where two institutions' systems need to share state and currently cannot.

Auditability first

Policy logic is visible. Intervention points are preserved. Price-feed inputs are traceable. Resolution paths carry explicit reason codes. Institutions need to be able to explain what the system decided and why — to their counterparties, and to their regulators.

Client success is the metric

Membrane’s commercial position strengthens as the institutions on the platform grow their digital asset operations. The network effects are positive-sum: every new counterparty connection makes onboarding faster for every other institution already on the platform.

Institutional grade, from day one

SOC 2 Type 2 certified. Two issued U.S. patents. Built for the operational standards that regulated institutions require — because the clients we serve cannot afford infrastructure that meets a lower bar.
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See it running on your book.

Bring your loan structures, counterparty setup, custody environment, and asset mix. We'll show you exactly how Membrane handles them — across digital and traditional collateral, in the same operating environment.
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