Sebastian Melendez is a data engineer with experience in blockchain-related research and development. He is one of the co-founders of Saturn Labs and was previously involved in academic research and startup acceleration initiatives at the Wharton School. ^[2]

Education

Melendez graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BSE in Computer Engineering in 2023. ^[3]

Career

Melendez worked as a software engineer at the UPenn Students Federal Credit Union from September 2020 to September 2021, contributing to mobile feature development and website updates. From June 2021 to October 2023, he served as a research assistant at the Stevens Center for Innovation in Finance at the Wharton School, while also co-founding Cypher Accelerator, a blockchain-focused startup accelerator. In October 2023, he joined Artemis as a data engineer, a role he held until January 2026. ^[3]

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]