ChainNextGen is a DeFi engineering studio founded in San Francisco, February 2026. We build production-grade protocols for clients — and we're developing our own DeFi product in parallel. Smart contracts, audits, and launch ops scoped to real customer requirements.
From architecture and audits to production deployment — client builds and our own DeFi protocol in parallel.
2 client protocol builds active Q2 2026
01 — 06
DeFi Protocol Studio
Production lending markets, AMMs, and yield vaults built to client specifications — architecture, Solidity, audit coordination, deployment planning, and monitoring. We ship what your requirements doc asks for, not a template fork.
Manual audit, fuzzing, and invariant testing for protocols heading to production. Clear severity ratings, remediation support, and re-review — focused on lending, vaults, and governance systems.
Production cross-chain modules for clients who need omnichain asset flows — messaging design, rate limits, pause mechanisms, and relayer monitoring built to spec.
Emission schedules, ve-token mechanics, and DAO tooling designed against client constraints — modeled for mercenary capital and governance capture before you commit to token design.
Technical due diligence and architecture reviews for founders and investors. Honest scoping of what's buildable in your runway — tied to real customer or product requirements.
Client production builds and our own DeFi protocol — work from our first months since February 2026.
In development
Vault · Client buildArbitrum
Arc Yield — Production Vault
Client: Pre-seed DeFi team
ERC-4626 yield vault with strategy router and emergency pause — built to client requirements. Architecture signed off April; production contracts in active development with Foundry coverage above 90%.
Build in progressStatus
Apr – Aug 2026Timeline
Requirements doc → architecture delivered in 3 weeks
Production contract suite in review
Client-target launch window Q4 2026
Delivered
Lending · AuditEthereum L2
Helix Lending — Security Audit
Client: Stealth DeFi startup (NDA)
Full manual audit of isolated lending market contracts — reentrancy paths, liquidation logic, and oracle dependencies. All critical and high findings remediated and re-verified.
Audit completeStatus
Mar – May 2026Timeline
Audit report delivered in 18 business days
Zero open critical findings post-remediation
Client cleared for production deployment planning
Active development
Lending · YieldEthereum, Arbitrum
ChainNextGen Vault — Our DeFi Protocol
Client: Internal product
Our flagship DeFi product — isolated lending markets paired with a yield router. Economic model v2 running; production contracts under internal review; August audit sprint booked ahead of planned launch.
Own protocolStatus
May 2026 – ongoingTimeline
Core architecture locked May 2026
Production contract v0.4 in internal QA
Target public launch Q4 2026
Delivered
TokenomicsChain-agnostic
Helios DAO — Tokenomics
Client: Pre-TGE governance project
Emission schedule, ve-token mechanics, and treasury allocation per client brief. Simulated LP behavior and governance quorum scenarios before legal review.
Spec deliveredStatus
May 2026Timeline
Tokenomics memo & simulation models delivered
Governance spec handed to client counsel
Client proceeding to contract phase
Product roadmap
Building the future of on-chain finance
Founded February 2026 — a transparent view of where we've been and where we're going.
Feb 2026Completed
Genesis
ChainNextGen incorporated in San Francisco
Core team assembled — protocol, security, and economics
First paying client signed within three weeks
Mar – Apr 2026Completed
Client Delivery
Audit practice live — first lending protocol review delivered
Arc Yield client engagement kicked off
Foundry testing toolkit open-sourced on GitHub
May – Jul 2026In progress
ChainNextGen Vault
Own DeFi protocol in active development — isolated lending + yield router
Production contracts under internal review · economic simulation v2 live
August audit sprint booked · launch planning for Q4 2026
Parallel client vault build for Arc Yield on schedule
Q3 2026Upcoming
Production Launch
ChainNextGen Vault production launch target
First client mainnet deployment with monitoring stack
Public audit checklist v1.0 release
Q4 2026Upcoming
Scale
Second concurrent client protocol slot open
Cross-chain module for fintech pilot client
Institutional readiness offering out of design phase
H1 2027Upcoming
Research & Ecosystem
Intent-based DeFi research track
Vault v2 feature roadmap based on live usage
Grants program feasibility study
Life at ChainNextGen
Building from zero
Founding sprint, audit nights, and production reviews — our first months in SF.
February 2026
Founding Sprint
San Francisco, CA
First two weeks — whiteboards, incorporation docs, and walking into our ChainNextGen SF office for the first time.
March 2026
First Client Kickoff
San Francisco, CA
Arc Yield requirements session — one table, three engineers, customer spec on the whiteboard.
April 2026
Audit War Room
SF Hub
36-hour audit sprint on a client lending protocol — pizza, Foundry, repeat.
May 2026
ETHGlobal Denver
Denver, CO
Three of us shipped a cross-chain demo in 48 hours — our first conference as a team.
June 2026
Vault Sprint Review
San Francisco, CA
Internal review of ChainNextGen Vault contract v0.4 — economics, security, and launch checklist on one whiteboard.
Daily
Deep Work
San Francisco, CA
Async-first — focus blocks, headphones on, shipping production contracts.
Client voices
Trusted by builders worldwide
"ChainNextGen scoped our vault build against our actual requirements — no template, no fluff. Production contracts on schedule for Q4."
Sarah LinFounder, Arc Yield
"Their audit was thorough and practical — findings we could fix before launch planning, not a generic checklist."
Amelia TorresCTO, Helix Lending
"Honest advisory on what was buildable in our runway. Saved us months of over-scoping."
Daniel OkoroAngel investor & protocol advisor
Leadership
Meet the team
Protocol engineers, auditors, and economists — the people you work with from day one.
Alexandra Chen
CEO & Co-Founder
Former protocol engineer at early-stage DeFi startups. Stanford CS. Leads client delivery and ChainNextGen Vault product direction.
Marcus Okonkwo
CTO & Co-Founder
Previously built cross-chain tooling at an L2 infrastructure team. 12 years in distributed systems and production Solidity.
Thomas Berg
Head of Security
Smart contract auditor with 40+ reviews across lending and vault protocols. Formal verification and fuzzing specialist.
James Whitfield
Head of DeFi Engineering
Solidity engineer focused on AMM and vault design. Previously shipped two production protocol launches.
Robert Walsh
Head of Tokenomics
PhD Economics, LSE. Models emissions and governance for client and internal products — simulation before spec.
David Kim
Head of Institutional
Former digital assets analyst at a bulge-bracket bank. Bridges TradFi compliance requirements with on-chain product design.
Engineering notes
From the protocol bench
Architecture decisions, simulation results, and audit prep — written by the engineers shipping ChainNextGen Vault and client builds.
Architecture2 min read
Why we chose isolated markets over pooled lending for ChainNextGen Vault
Pooled lending optimizes capital efficiency. Isolated markets optimize survivability when one asset blows up. Here is the trade-off we made for v0.4.
Marcus Okonkwo · CTO & Co-Founder
LendingRiskADR
Smart contracts1 min read
YieldRouter v0.4: routing deposits without rehypothecation risk
Vault deposit() now calls routeDeposit() with explicit pool caps. A walkthrough of the call path we wired for internal QA.
James Whitfield · Head of DeFi Engineering
SolidityYieldRouterVault
Economics1 min read
Economic simulation v2 before our August audit
How we stress ETH drawdowns, oracle delay, and mercenary LP behavior before auditors arrive — and what we changed after sim v2.
Robert Walsh · Head of Tokenomics
SimulationRiskAudit prep
Security1 min read
Foundry invariants we run before every client handoff
A minimal invariant suite that caught reentrancy and share-price drift on a client vault — copy the pattern, not the prose.
Thomas Berg · Head of Security
FoundryInvariantsAudit
Engineering1 min read
Building an internal protocol lab for senior reviewers
Why we built a Fastify dashboard with deposit/borrow playgrounds instead of PDFs for technical recruiting.
Alexandra Chen · CEO & Co-Founder
ToolingRecruitingAPI
Smart contracts1 min read
Liquidation bonus tuning in IsolatedMarket
Why our bonus curve changed twice in June — and the sim paths that forced the second revision.
Remote worldwide — HQ in San Francisco. Small team, production contracts, August audit on the calendar.
EngineeringFull-time
Senior Protocol Engineer
ChainNextGen Vault · Remote · Worldwide
Own core lending and router contracts through audit and launch. You will extend IsolatedMarket, YieldRouter, and vault accounting — with Foundry coverage as the definition of done.
5+ years software engineering, 3+ years production Solidity
Shipped at least one DeFi protocol to mainnet or audited testnet
Split time between client audits and vault hardening ahead of August. Manual review, fuzz harness design, and remediation re-review — not checkbox scanning.
3+ years smart contract security or equivalent audit track record
Foundry, Slither, and invariant design in daily workflow
Clear written findings with severity and exploit path
