Kevin Li is an entrepreneur and investor active in blockchain and financial technology. He is the co-founder and CEO of Saturn Labs and has held roles in research, venture capital, and blockchain organizations. ^[3]

Education

Li earned a degree in Statistics and Data Science from UC Santa Barbara and a Master of Science in Engineering and Data Science from the University of Pennsylvania. ^[5]

Career

Li co-founded and served as CEO of Keo Plus Ai from November 2019 to December 2023, an education technology startup focused on AI-driven learning platforms. In 2024, he worked as an analyst intern at NLVC from March to September, gaining experience in venture investing. In 2025, he held multiple roles, including serving as the DATs Lead at Artemis from May to September, a Research Analyst at ParaFi Capital from September to November, and Co-Director of Investments at Penn Blockchain from January 2025 to January 2026. In September 2025, he co-founded Saturn Labs, where he serves as CEO. ^[6]

Saturn

​Saturn is a financial protocol that issues a stablecoin and related yield-bearing assets designed to connect traditional financial instruments with blockchain-based systems. Its core product, USDat, is a dollar-pegged stablecoin initially backed by tokenized U.S. Treasury assets, while sUSDat is a staked version that provides exposure to yield generated by Bitcoin-linked credit instruments such as STRC. The protocol is structured to separate stability and liquidity from yield generation, allowing users to hold a stable asset or access returns through staking. Saturn’s design is based on the concept of using Bitcoin as a foundational collateral layer for credit creation, with the goal of making these credit-based yields accessible and usable within on-chain financial applications. ^[1]

Presentations

Digital Credit

At Strategy World 2026 in March, Li discussed how onchain digital credit was rapidly developing, especially from 2024 onwards, with the adoption of Bitcoin in global capital markets and the issuance of numerous ETFs. Major financial institutions like JPMorgan and Bank of America began using Bitcoin as collateral, creating the first yield curve for Bitcoin and unlocking broader access to different investor profiles. Saturn aimed to build a digital layer of credit by introducing assets such as USDat and sUSDat—digital dollars and yield-bearing assets— which paved the way for institutional-scale DeFi yields. Li emphasized the properties of digital credit, including transparency, liquidity, and instant scalability, enabled by collateral backed by Bitcoin and by innovative mechanisms such as instant issuance via broker integration. The company identified four key unlocks with onchain digital credit: expanding investor access through stablecoins, enabling higher leverage through DeFi, creating composable yield tokens (yield and volatility tranching), and developing volatility-based products. Ultimately, Saturn believed that digital credit, especially in DeFi, would become the backbone of future finance, unlocking global access, higher leverage, and a robust yield market. To foster growth, Saturn planned to incentivize early adoption by subsidizing yields, ensuring a strong market bootstrap. ^[4]