Announcing Riva Labs: A Tech Firm Dedicated to Onchain Apps Development

Riva Labs was born from a shared passion for building onchain apps.

Over the past decade, the crypto industry has grown from a niche for hobbyists into a global sector that now involves some of the world’s largest corporations and institutions.

The entrance of giants like BlackRock, Visa, JPMorgan, Shopify, PayPal, and Stripe no longer raises eyebrows.

In this new context, and after years of work on infrastructure and various experiments, we believe the timing is right. There’s finally a great combination of tools and opportunities to build onchain apps that solve real problems, serve broad user bases, and achieve true product-market fit.

The Riva Labs team is made up of smart contract developers, blockchain researchers, full-stack engineers, designers, and product builders that, after more than six years of working together, decided to create a company focused entirely on capturing this opportunity.

Our mission is clear: drive real-world adoption of crypto through valuable onchain apps, protocols, and user experiences.

We want to push the boundaries of what’s possible technologically, mathematically, and in terms of crypto product design.

To achieve this, we combine experimentation, deep research, and strong opinions to guide our work. In a space driven by hype and inflated claims, Riva Labs stays focused on what matters: finding PMF without compromising the original ethos of crypto.

How We Work

Riva Labs operates across two main verticals:

• Internal Projects: We ideate, build, and launch ventures that reflect our views on where onchain tech should go.
  
  

• Partner Collaborations: We selectively work with partners whose mission aligns with ours, helping them build onchain solutions.

In addition, we occasionally take on research and advisory roles when the subject is close to our core interests and expertise.

We’re currently developing and researching several key areas: account abstraction, onchain consumer apps, DeFi (and particularly AMM design), autonomous AI agents, cryptographic signature schemes, and the use of DeFi primitives in energy markets and RWAs.

The name Riva Labs comes from the Italian word “riva”, which means shore. Our logo, a turtle made of interlocking blocks, symbolizes the moment when turtles leave the shore: a metaphor for crypto’s transition from its niche origins into broader mainstream use. It captures both the uncertainty and the excitement of what lies ahead.

We’re beyond excited to begin this journey. If you're a potential partner interested in working with us, or an investor curious about what we're building, don’t hesitate to get in touch.