Reserve Co-Founder Nevin Freeman: From Bitcoin Skeptic to Stablecoin Pioneer

Nevin Freeman is the co-founder and CEO of Reserve Protocol, an asset-backed stablecoin platform that aims to provide value for people in high-inflation economies. He first encountered Bitcoin in 2011 and concluded it was too volatile to work as everyday money, leading him to build Reserve instead.

Freeman has a background in technology and finance, having co-founded RIABiz, a trade publication for independent financial advisors, in 2009. After leaving RIABiz, he co-founded MetaMed Research, a personalized medical research company, followed by Paradigm Academy, a Bay Area company builder that trained and recruited founders.

In 2017, Freeman co-founded Reserve Protocol with Matt Elder, who serves as the protocol's chief technology officer. The platform initially focused on stablecoins backed by baskets of collateral rather than a single asset. In January 2024, Reserve launched two additional companies, ABC Labs and Confusion Capital, to support the protocol's growth.

Freeman has been vocal about the need for decentralized finance to address global financial infrastructure and regulatory friction. He compared the effort to eliminate inflation through decentralized finance to a 'SpaceX-to-Mars' level mission during his closing keynote at Reserve's Monetarium 2 conference in July 2025.