Sang Kim
Sang Kim is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Fragmetric Labs, a liquid restaking protocol built on the Solana blockchain. He is also an active participant in decentralized governance, with a history of contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem and a formal proposal to serve as a delegate for the Jito Foundation. [1] [2]
Education
Sang Kim earned a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Biology & Chemistry, with a minor in Computer Science and Engineering, from Seoul National University, where he studied from March 2015 to February 2022.
He later completed a Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering at the same institution, from March 2022 to February 2024, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence, PyTorch, and related skills. [10]
Career
Sang Kim identifies himself as a lifelong engineer. Before focusing on the Solana ecosystem, he was involved in Ethereum protocol governance. During this time, he participated in technical discussions surrounding EIP-4337, an Ethereum Improvement Proposal related to Account Abstraction. He also contributed to the code implementation for EIP-6900, which focused on modular smart contract accounts and plugins, giving him direct experience with decentralized development processes. Kim stated he became active in the Solana ecosystem in 2021.
In 2024, Kim co-founded Fragmetric Labs alongside Sol Zac, assuming the role of Chief Operating Officer. The company, headquartered in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, was established to develop liquid restaking infrastructure on Solana. The executive team also includes Daniel Kim as Chief Technology Officer. In the company's early stages, Sang Kim took a hands-on role, personally managing the Fragmetric X (formerly Twitter) account for its first three months.
Under his leadership, Fragmetric Labs secured a $12 million Seed funding round on March 25, 2025. The round was led by RockawayX and included participation from investors such as Hypersphere Ventures, Robot Ventures, and Amber Group. The project demonstrated significant growth, with its Total Value Locked (TVL) surpassing $237 million by June 9, 2025. The company completed its Token Generation Event (TGE) for its native FRAG token around July 1, 2025. Following the TGE, Kim commented on his team's philosophy, stating, "I think one of the biggest problems in this industry is that many teams see the TGE as an exit rather than a beginning. Fragmetric team completed TGE yesterday and is already back at work today, building the next features." [3] [2] [1] [4] [10]
Angel Investing
In addition to his role at Fragmetric, Sang Kim is an active angel investor in the cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (DeFi) sectors. His investment activity is tracked on platforms like CryptoRank, which shows a focus across several areas within the DeFi ecosystem. [5]
His investment interests are distributed across the following categories:
- Automated Market Maker (AMM);
- Decentralized Exchange (DEX);
- Staking;
- Trading Strategies;
- Yield Aggregator.
Publicly tracked investments include a May 31, 2025, investment in Neutral Trade, which raised $2 million, and a July 2, 2025, investment in Perena. Through his investing activities, he has co-invested alongside other notable figures and funds in the space, including Joe Takayama, Skyland Ventures, Nicolas Rémond, and DeFi Dad. The above information is based on his publicly tracked investment portfolio. [5]
Governance Participation and Philosophy
On May 2, 2025, Sang Kim submitted a proposal on behalf of Fragmetric Labs to become a governance delegate for the Jito Foundation, a key entity in the Solana staking ecosystem. In the proposal, he outlined his philosophy on decentralized governance and his vision for the Jito network's future. He expressed a strong commitment to active participation, stating, "We view governance not as a passive responsibility, but as a commitment to ship what the community decides." [2]
Views on Validator Delegation
Kim advocates for a balanced approach to validator delegation that prioritizes both performance and network decentralization. He proposed a "tiered delegation model" for managing the JitoSOL stake pool. Under this model, a majority of the stake (e.g., 70%) would be allocated to high-performance validators that optimize for Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) and uptime, while the remaining portion (e.g., 30%) would be delegated to smaller or more decentralized validators that meet a minimum performance threshold. He also argued for making geographic and IP address diversity an explicit criterion for validator selection to enhance the network's global resilience. [2]
Views on DAO Resource Allocation
In his proposal, Kim suggested that the Jito DAO's resources, including its treasury of JTO tokens, should be strategically allocated across three key areas to foster ecosystem growth:
- DeFi Adoption: Use JTO incentives to bootstrap the utility of JitoSOL and Validator Restaked Tokens (VRTs) across the Solana DeFi landscape, including lending markets, automated market makers, and other yield-generating products.
- Builder Ecosystem: Allocate token grants to developers building on Network Control Networks (NCNs) and to open-source contributors. He also recommended organizing hackathons focused on MEV and validator tooling to spur innovation.
- Community Growth: Fund localized Jito-focused events in key global cities and support a network of ecosystem ambassadors and educators to expand the community's reach.
His stated goals as a potential delegate were to expand Jito's staking and restaking ecosystem, provide rapid technical support for approved governance proposals, and contribute Fragmetric's perspective to guide the DAO's long-term vision. [2]
Interviews
Lightspeed Interview #01
On September 2, 2025, Sang Kim was interviewed on the YouTube channel Lightspeed in an episode titled “Solana DeFi Summer Is Coming.” The discussion focused on Fragmetric, a liquid restaking protocol co-founded by Kim on the Jito ecosystem, and his views on the development of Solana’s decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.
Kim described how Fragmetric combines multiple liquid staking tokens into a consolidated pool, aiming to reduce liquidity fragmentation and expand yield opportunities. He noted that Decentralized Autonomous Treasuries (DATs) may become key participants in this process by allocating large-scale treasury assets to restaking products. In his assessment, Solana’s technical infrastructure, particularly Jito’s tip router and the Switchboard oracle, creates yield flows that differ from those found in Ethereum’s environment.
The interview also covered Fragmetric’s Token Generation Event and the challenges associated with maintaining token value and total value locked during periods of market contraction. Kim explained how strategies such as point farming were used to encourage participation in the early stages. He also commented on the cryptocurrency market in South Korea, mentioning retail trading activity, practices such as “potari” arbitrage, and the role of domestic exchanges, including Upbit.
In outlining future plans, Kim referred to the introduction of yield-bearing stablecoins, Bitcoin-related products, and expanded integration with other Solana-based DeFi protocols. He described restaking not as a short-term yield mechanism but as an element of infrastructure intended to mature over time and support blockchain security as well as broader financial applications. [11]