Albert Castellana is a Spanish blockchain entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of GenLayer Labs, the research and engineering company developing GenLayer. GenLayer is an AI-native blockchain protocol designed to resolve outcomes that conventional deterministic software cannot easily settle, including disputes between autonomous AI agents. Castellana has worked across blockchain infrastructure, decentralized finance, staking, and decentralized governance since entering the crypto industry in 2013.
Early Career and Blockchain Background
Castellana has described an early interest in software and financial markets. In a 2026 GenLayer documentary, he said he began coding at age 14 and was running an investment fund in Barcelona by 21. Public biographies describe him as having a computer science background, while records from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya's Faculty of Informatics document his involvement in its technology community, including serving as president of ForumTI in 2014.
He entered the cryptocurrency sector in 2013 and subsequently became involved in Barcelona's developing blockchain ecosystem. Castellana co-founded Atraura Blockchain and later participated in the NEM ecosystem as a product contributor and council member of the NEM.io Foundation. Contemporary NEM records identify him as a product owner on ecosystem development initiatives, while later professional biographies describe him as a co-founder of the foundation.
NEM and Radix DLT
By 2018, Castellana had left the NEM Foundation council and joined Radix DLT, where he led product development as Chief Product Officer. His work at Radix expanded his experience across Layer 1 blockchain design, token economics, developer infrastructure, and decentralized finance.
It was also at Radix that Castellana worked with Edgars Nemše, who would later become one of his co-founders at StakeHound and GenLayer Labs. The relationship reflects a career progression in which Castellana moved from blockchain governance and protocol product development toward DeFi infrastructure and, eventually, AI-native coordination systems.
StakeHound and Badger DAO
In 2020, Castellana co-founded StakeHound, a platform designed to make staked Proof-of-Stake assets usable within DeFi through liquid staking tokens. He also became a co-founder and product adviser to Badger DAO, an Ethereum-based project created to expand the use of tokenized Bitcoin within decentralized finance.
StakeHound's development was disrupted in 2021 after the company said a custody-provider key-management incident made 38,178 staked ETH inaccessible. StakeHound subsequently discontinued its liquid staking activities and pursued legal remedies. Castellana has cited the resulting disputes, legal expenses, and slow resolution process as an important influence on the problem GenLayer was later designed to address. Public professional records continued to associate him with StakeHound after the suspension of its liquid staking service, including later board-level documentation.
GenLayer Labs and AI-Native Dispute Resolution
Castellana co-founded GenLayer Labs in 2023 alongside a team that includes Edgars Nemše and José María Lago. The company develops GenLayer, a blockchain protocol in which independent validators use different artificial intelligence models to evaluate subjective information and reach consensus on outcomes.
GenLayer's Intelligent Contracts are designed to process natural language and information from the internet, extending blockchain applications beyond purely deterministic execution. The architecture targets use cases such as AI-agent agreements, dispute resolution, prediction markets, claims assessment, and other transactions where interpretation or judgment is required.
GenLayer raised a $7.5 million seed round in 2024 led by North Island Ventures, with participation from investors including Arrington Capital and Node Capital. The protocol subsequently progressed through a multi-stage testnet program. As of September 2026, GenLayer remained in pre-mainnet development, with Testnet Bradbury focused on AI inference, model routing, validator behavior, and security.
Industry Role
Castellana's career spans multiple phases of the crypto sector, from early Layer 1 governance and product development to liquid staking, Bitcoin DeFi, and AI-agent settlement infrastructure. He has also contributed commentary on AI governance and digital legal systems through the Forbes Technology Council. His Forbes council profile is currently marked inactive.
