Skip to content
Blockchain LabBlockchain LabTHE VENTURE STUDIO

SERIES C · VAULTS

Gauntlet

Gauntlet, Tarun Chitra's firm, curates onchain vaults. The quant developer ships the strategy and carries the pager. The employer says the book is $1.5 billion-plus.

You are deciding whether to put models into production against client capital, three months after a $125 million Series C from a single investor that did not disclose a valuation.

The company you would actually join

Blockchain Lab analysis

Public reporting and the employer’s own releases. Not a relationship with Blockchain Lab. Not a credit opinion.

Founded
Tarun Chitra is co-founder and CEO, in The Block's July 2026 account.
Base
New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Remote. The posting does not say worldwide.
Status
Private. Series C closed 9 July 2026. Post-money not disclosed.
People
The Block: the company said it curates more than $1.5 billion and works with more than 150 fintechs and institutions. The posting says $1.5B+ client TVL. The Defiant, the same week, quoted $1.42 billion and a DefiLlama figure. The numbers are close and not identical. Do not pretend they are one audit.

Gauntlet used to be known for telling protocols how to set their risk parameters. The posting on this desk is a later business: the firm runs the vaults, and the quant developer is the person who ships a strategy into them and then gets paged. That is a trading job with a DeFi wrapper. Python, simulation, SQL, and the judgment not to trust a model you have not run against a fork. The $1.5 billion-plus line is the employer's description of other people's money. You would be closer to it than a research blog implies.

On 9 July 2026 SBI Holdings wrote a $125 million cheque as the only investor. Valuation not disclosed. The Defiant reminded readers of a 2022 mark near $1 billion on a much smaller round. A single strategic investor and a withheld price is a different cap table from a party round. It can be patient capital. It can also be a governance fact. The req appeared two weeks later. Pay is not on it. Locations are New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, or remote — remote of where, the posting does not fully say. Ask before you assume a visa.

Founders

Tarun Chitra

Co-founder and CEO

The public quant behind the firm. He told The Block he expects vaults and tokenization to outgrow stablecoins as a category. The seat is how that sentence becomes a position with a liquidation price. He is not hiring a researcher to hand a model to someone else. The posting says so.

What the company sells

Vaults

The product. Strategies for RWAs, leveraged lending, yield, cross-protocol allocation, perpetuals, prediction markets — the posting's list, not a promise that all of them are yours.

The seat

From thesis to code to deployment to the on-call. Python. Forked-chain simulation before capital moves. Risk parameters you own: caps, LLTV, VaR, de-risking.

What changed in July

A $125 million Series C from SBI Holdings alone, aimed at more stablecoin currencies and traditional-market infrastructure. The Block.

Capital

Series C

$125 million

9 July 2026. Sole investor SBI. Valuation withheld.

Prior mark

About $1 billion

2022, via The Defiant's later recap. Labeled as such.

Client book

$1.5B+ TVL

Employer-stated on the posting and to The Block. The Defiant printed $1.42 billion the same week.

This seat's pay

Not disclosed

No band on the posting.

  1. 2022

    Series B, as later coverage described it

    About $24 million at $1 billion

    The Defiant, reporting the 2026 round, said Gauntlet was last valued at $1 billion in 2022 on a raise of roughly $24 million. That is a secondary description of an old round, not the 2022 announcement re-read here. Useful as a prior mark. Not gospel.

  2. 9 Jul 2026

    Series C

    $125 million, valuation not disclosed

    The Block: SBI Holdings was the sole investor. Use of proceeds includes MXN and JPY stablecoin coverage, new products, and hiring. No post-money. Three months later the quant req, created 24 July 2026, was still up.

What should change your mind

  • Client capital. A bad parameter is not a unit-test failure.
  • Valuation withheld on a round that just closed. Your grant is a guess until they show the strike.
  • TVL figures that do not match across outlets in the same month. Ask for the definition.
  • On-call for strategies you own. The posting is explicit.

Ask them

  • What is the Series C post-money, and did SBI take a board right?
  • How is the $1.5B+ counted, and what is the drawdown policy when you are wrong?
  • Remote from which countries?
  • What share of the book would a new hire actually touch in the first quarter?

Sources

If a figure is not in those sources, it is not in this brief on purpose.

Open roles on this desk

  • Quant Developer

    A quant who writes the vault strategy, ships it, and wears the pager. The employer says it serves $1.5 billion-plus of client TVL. A 9 July 2026 Series C of $125 million did not disclose a valuation. This posting does not disclose pay.

    New York City / San Francisco / Los Angeles / Remote · board 2026-07-24