Davide Menegaldo is a crypto and blockchain executive known for commercial and partnership work across decentralized finance and cross-ecosystem infrastructure. He is Chief Commercial Officer at Neon EVM, a Solana-based execution environment designed to help Ethereum-compatible applications and tooling reach the Solana ecosystem. His career spans early Bitcoin community activity, charity and aid-focused blockchain startups, and DeFi business development and institutional partnerships.
Overview
Menegaldo has been involved in the blockchain sector since late 2013, with interests that include Web3 product strategy, DeFi adoption, staking in proof-of-stake systems, and NFTs. In commercial leadership roles, his work typically sits at the interface of protocol teams, developers, liquidity providers, and ecosystem partners, with an emphasis on distribution, integration, and go-to-market execution.
Role at Neon EVM
Menegaldo joined Neon Labs in 2023 and leads commercial strategy as Chief Commercial Officer for Neon EVM. The project positions itself as an Ethereum Virtual Machine implementation that operates on Solana, aiming to let Solidity teams deploy and run EVM-compatible applications while leveraging Solana’s throughput and fee structure. In practice, this involves coordinating partnerships with infrastructure providers, wallets, and dApp teams, and translating protocol capabilities into adoption paths for developers and end users.
CryptoSlate coverage has highlighted Neon EVM’s efforts to simplify cross-ecosystem user experience, including updates that focus on making Solana-native wallets usable for Neon-related activity and reducing friction for users who primarily operate in the Solana ecosystem. Related reporting includes an interview on how Neon EVM blends Ethereum and Solana for application development and broader ecosystem reach.
- Interview: How Neon EVM blends Ethereum and Solana
- Neon EVM framework update for Ethereum dApp integration on Solana
DeFi and Institutional Partnerships
Before Neon EVM, Menegaldo worked at Idle Finance (idle.finance), a yield aggregation and optimization protocol in DeFi. Across multiple roles between 2020 and 2023, including Business Development Manager and Head of DeFi and Institutional Partnerships, he contributed to strategy and relationship building with other protocols and liquidity providers. His work included aligning integrations and partnerships with major DeFi primitives, including staking and scaling-focused ecosystems such as Lido and Polygon. Idle Finance has been described as reaching hundreds of millions of dollars in total value locked during periods of peak market activity, underscoring the scale of partnerships and distribution channels required for growth in DeFi.
Early Startup Work and Community Building
Menegaldo’s entrepreneurial activity dates to 2015, when he co-founded Helperbit, a blockchain-oriented initiative focused on improving transparency and efficiency for charity and humanitarian aid flows, including enabling organizations to accept Bitcoin donations. Helperbit and its disaster-relief use case received industry attention during the mid-2010s as crypto-native philanthropy and traceability became recurring themes in the sector. Alongside startup execution, Menegaldo has also been involved in local community building through participation in Bitcoin meetups and crypto conferences in Europe, reflecting the role of grassroots networks in early ecosystem formation.
He also co-founded Blockchain Education Network Italia and served as a board member, aligning with a broader trend of education-led adoption initiatives that helped onboard new developers and users during crypto’s early growth phases.
Other Ventures and Focus Areas
In addition to his executive role at Neon EVM, Menegaldo is associated with Staking Capital as a founder, reflecting an ongoing focus on proof-of-stake economics, validator infrastructure, and the operational layer of blockchain networks. Across public commentary and industry appearances, his interests consistently map to the practical challenges of adoption, including developer experience, ecosystem interoperability, and the reliability requirements needed to support production-grade applications.
Education
Menegaldo studied at Politecnico di Torino, completing degrees in energy engineering and nuclear engineering. This technical background is often relevant in crypto roles that require comfort with systems thinking, risk analysis, and infrastructure-oriented product design.
Risks and Considerations
As with many interoperability and execution-environment projects, the effectiveness of Neon EVM’s approach depends on developer adoption, tooling maturity, and sustained ecosystem support. Cross-ecosystem execution introduces operational complexity, including differences in account models, transaction semantics, and wallet standards. Platform-level risks such as network congestion, outages, or downstream infrastructure issues in underlying chains can also affect user experience. Commercial leadership in this category typically involves balancing growth goals with clear communication about technical constraints, integration requirements, and security expectations for users and partners.
