Bryan Pellegrino is a Canadian entrepreneur and angel investor best known as the co-founder and CEO of LayerZero Labs, the team behind the omnichain interoperability protocol LayerZero. Before entering the technology sector, Pellegrino spent years as a professional high-stakes poker player – a career that sharpened his analytical thinking and risk management instincts. He later transitioned into software engineering and co-founded LayerZero in 2021 alongside Ryan Zarick and Caleb Banister, building one of the most widely integrated messaging protocols in Web3.
His angel investing activity runs in parallel with his operational role at LayerZero. He backs early-stage crypto and infrastructure projects, typically writing small checks into teams he knows personally or protocols that integrate with the LayerZero ecosystem. No formal fund structure has been publicly disclosed. Total AUM figures are not available in public records. The eight portfolio investments attributed to Pellegrino in aggregate data reflect individual angel positions rather than a managed vehicle.
Notable investments
A specific public list of Pellegrino's personal angel positions has not been disclosed in regulatory filings or press releases as of early 2026. His closest confirmed investment-adjacent activity is LayerZero Labs itself, which raised $135 million in a Series A (March 2022) at a $1 billion valuation – led by Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and FTX Ventures – and a subsequent $120 million Series B (April 2023) at a $3 billion valuation. Projects that have publicly cited LayerZero integration – including Stargate Finance, a cross-chain liquidity protocol co-launched by the LayerZero team – represent his most visible footprint in the ecosystem.
Public information about Pellegrino's individual angel portfolio companies is limited. No verified list of his personal investments with deal sizes has been published as of this writing.
Team
Pellegrino operates as a solo angel rather than through a partnership structure. As CEO of LayerZero Labs he works closely with:
- Ryan Zarick – co-founder and CTO of LayerZero Labs, responsible for core protocol architecture.
- Caleb Banister – co-founder of LayerZero Labs, focused on engineering and protocol design.
These are colleagues at LayerZero rather than investment partners. No dedicated investment team or analyst staff has been publicly reported.
Recent activity
The most significant recent development in Pellegrino's orbit was the launch of the ZRO governance token in June 2024, which distributed tokens to LayerZero protocol users who paid a $0.10 donation per transaction as a Sybil-resistance mechanism – a controversial decision that generated significant community debate. LayerZero also ran a large-scale Sybil-detection campaign in 2024, working with external security researchers to identify and remove airdrop farmers from eligibility. Pellegrino was publicly vocal throughout both processes, defending the methodology on social media and in interviews.
On the angel investing side, no new positions have been publicly announced in the 12–18 months to early 2026. His investment pace appears opportunistic rather than systematic.
Pellegrino remains one of the more prominent operator-turned-angels in the cross-chain infrastructure space. His edge as an investor comes from deep protocol-level knowledge and a large network of founders built through LayerZero's integrations across 70-plus blockchains. Whether he scales angel activity into a more structured vehicle is an open question. For now his public identity is defined by LayerZero far more than by a standalone investment practice.
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