Stefan Coolican is a Canadian executive and entrepreneur with a background spanning corporate law, investment banking, and digital asset management. He is the Co-Founder of Noble, an appchain for native asset issuance in the Cosmos ecosystem that enabled the introduction of native USDC to the Inter-Blockchain Communication network. Before founding Noble, he held senior roles at Ether Capital Corporation, where he helped establish one of the first publicly traded companies providing direct exposure to Ethereum and its ecosystem. ^[2]​

Education

Coolican graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts in 2001. He then attended the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he earned his Master of Science in Economics and Economic History in 2003. Following this, he earned his LLB and MBA from York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School and Schulich School of Business in 2007. ^[3]​

Career

After graduating from Osgoode Hall Law School, Coolican began his career at Goodmans LLP, where he worked in the corporate law practice from 2004 to 2008, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and securities law. In 2008, he transitioned to investment banking at Cormark Securities Inc., where he spent a decade advising technology companies on mergers, public offerings, and financing strategies. During this period, he developed an interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency, recognizing their potential impact on financial markets and investment practices.

In 2018, Coolican joined Ether Capital Corporation as President and Chief Financial Officer, later becoming Chief Executive Officer in 2021. The company was among the early publicly traded firms providing exposure to Ether (ETH) and the Ethereum network. During his tenure, he helped shape the company’s strategy, focusing on holding ETH, participating in staking, and investing in Ethereum-based projects.

Under his leadership, Ether Capital expanded its ETH holdings and became one of the first public companies to stake Ether on the Ethereum Beacon Chain in 2020. Coolican supported Ethereum’s transition to Proof-of-Stake and positioned the company to benefit from it by generating staking revenue and contributing to network security. He also developed the concept of “Ether as a Digital Bond,” describing staked ETH as a yield-bearing asset and highlighting Ethereum’s fee-burning mechanism as a deflationary feature.

In early 2023, after serving as CEO and later Executive Chairman, Coolican left Ether Capital to co-found Noble with Jelena Djuric and John Letey. The company was established to address liquidity fragmentation and security issues in cross-chain asset transfers within the Cosmos ecosystem. Built using the Cosmos SDK, Noble serves as an asset issuance chain, enabling the native issuance and transfer of digital assets across IBC-enabled blockchains. One of its key milestones was partnering with Circle to issue native USDC in Cosmos, enabling a unified version of the stablecoin for use across major networks such as dYdX, Osmosis, and Celestia. ^{[1] [5]}​

Interviews

Taking ETH Public

In a December 2020 Bankless podcast episode titled “Taking Ethereum Public,” Stefan Coolican and Ether Capital CEO Brian Mosoff discussed the company’s strategy as a publicly traded Canadian firm focused on Ethereum and related technologies. They described Ether Capital’s long-term approach to holding ETH and its active role in the Ethereum ecosystem through staking and decentralized finance investments. The conversation highlighted the firm’s structure as a public market ecosystem investor rather than a passive fund, enabling it to generate yield and participate directly in network activities. Coolican and Mosoff also addressed institutional adoption, the challenges of offering accessible investment vehicles, and the company’s focus on staking and future DeFi opportunities. The discussion concluded with reflections on Ethereum’s growing ecosystem and the importance of investor education in the evolving crypto landscape. ^[4]​