Alexander Ray, our partner in the CTDG initiative and founder of Web3, Albus Protocol and JPool, has passed away.

For our team, this is not only the loss of a respected developer in the Web3 space, but also the loss of a close and trusted partner with whom we have worked side-by-side in strengthening the authentication infrastructure and staking systems in the Solana ecosystem as part of the CTDG initiative.

The Web3 community has lost a builder whose contributions deserve to be named openly and gratefully.

For us, his absence has helped us build long-term systems – both professionally and personally – through the work we've shared, the decisions we've made together.

Alexander Ray was not just an engineer, inventor or protocol architect. He was a man who truly strengthened the ecosystem he touched and reflected a deep focus on integrity, reliability and long-term value in his collaborative approach.

This article is not a formal announcement. It's a recognition of what he built, how he worked, and why his absence will be deeply felt by the teams and networks that helped him.

For those of us who had the privilege of working with him, his influence was unmistakable—not because he sought visibility, but because he consistently made his work better.

Celebrating the work and legacy of Alexander Ray

Ray was known for his work on consumer DeFi convergence, staking infrastructure, tokenization and on-chain, focusing on building long-term financial systems rather than short-term speculative products.

Prior to crypto, Ray spent over two decades working in enterprise software, cloud infrastructure and financial systems, including roles at Deutsche Bank Frankfurt and General Electric. His background in large-scale enterprise architecture and financial systems shaped Web3's approach—he approached blockchain not as a market cycle, but as the future global financial infrastructure.

Ray's first big step into Web3 engineering came with the creation of Point Group, a venture developer studio and umbrella organization that developed several blockchain infrastructure projects. Rather than operating as a single product company, Point Group has served as a platform to build and expand protocol-level initiatives in staking, compliant DeFi, and on-chain financial infrastructure.

At PointGroup, Ray was directly involved in the creation of several notable Web3 projects, including JPool, Solana's native liquid storage pool; Albus Protocol, a privacy-preserving compliance layer for decentralized finance; and Alula, Stellar's native lending protocol focused on chain lending and capital efficiency.

JPool became one of the most popular liquid staking platforms on Solana, allowing users to hold SOL and receive JSOL, a liquid staking token that can be freely used throughout the Solana DeFi ecosystem. Through a smart delegation system, JPool distributed shares across a wide pool of validators and helped Solana move away from a locked-in, passive model to a fluid and hybrid format. Public data indicates that JPool manages more than 170 validators with assets of more than 1.3 million SOL shares, making it among the largest liquidity pools on the network.

Alongside building infrastructure, Ray has worked on one of the most complex challenges in crypto – decentralized finance. As CEO and co-founder of Albus Protocol, he focused on real-world assets and institutional DeFi flows, setting the compliance standard for public blockchains. Albus has developed a privacy protection compliance system that incorporates regulatory logic directly on the chain, allowing platforms to meet KYC and regulatory requirements without exposing raw personal data. The project became a key component of the regulated infrastructure for tokenized asset platforms and on-chain markets.

Beyond product development, Ray has played an active role in shaping industry conversations around tokenization. As a member of the Forbes Business Council, he has written and spoken about on-chain identity, compliant tokenization, and the future state of consumer DeFi, and appeared at European Web3 events on infrastructure and institutional adoption.

In all of his projects – JPool, Albus Protocol and the wider Point Group portfolio – Ray has built on a consistent philosophy: prioritizing infrastructure over infrastructure, listening over infrastructure, adapting to shortcuts and long-term sustainability over speculation. The systems he helped design continue to operate today in the stock, real estate, and real estate markets.

We are very grateful for Alexander Ray's partnership and the work we shared on the Solana track under the CTDG initiative together. This partnership is an important part of our team's professional legacy.

Alexander Ray is remembered as a developer who worked at the intersection of Web3's most difficult areas – decentralization, regulation and real financial infrastructure. His legacy lives on in the live protocols, staking systems and compliance rails that continue to support users and institutions in the blockchain economy.