Background: technical excellence without narrative
AlphaLab Capital began as a highly technical proprietary trading firm, focused on high-frequency and quantitative strategies across digital asset markets. The firm built deep expertise in market microstructure, latency optimization, and risk management, quietly becoming profitable and resilient through multiple market cycles. However, AlphaLab intentionally maintained a low public profile. This discretion suited a pure trading operation, but it became a constraint as the firm’s ambitions expanded beyond proprietary HFT.

By 2022, AlphaLab Capital was increasingly acting as a liquidity provider to external venues, collaborating closely with protocols and exchanges, and investing early in infrastructure and application-layer startups. The AlphaLab brand—functional, inward-facing, and research-oriented—no longer reflected the scope or visibility of what the firm had become.

The problem: credibility at scale requires identity
As AlphaLab moved into market making and venture investing, it encountered a signaling gap. Founders, exchanges, and institutional partners evaluate not only balance sheets and execution quality, but also brand clarity, long-term alignment, and perceived permanence. The name “AlphaLab Capital” suggested an experimental trading shop rather than a foundational liquidity and capital partner.

Rebrand strategy: Caladan as a platform
The rebrand to Caladan marked a deliberate shift in self-definition. Caladan positioned itself as a long-term participant in global markets—one that provides liquidity, capital, and strategic support to the ecosystems it operates in.

Visually and narratively, the rebrand favored restraint and confidence: minimalism over flash, institutional tone over trader culture. The name change also decoupled the firm from a single strategy class (HFT), allowing market making, venture capital, and strategic partnerships to sit under a unified umbrella.

Execution: aligning brand with operating reality 

- Naming workshop  

- Branding Strategy 

- Visual Identity completed with Juan Mantz

- GTM Strategy 

Outcome: from quiet trader to ecosystem actor
Post-rebrand, Caladan emerged as a recognized market maker and investor, known for both technical depth and long-term alignment. Today it does over $170 billion a year in trading volume, and has invested in over 70+ top blockchain startups.