Unchained's own timeline records the company as "founded by Joe Kelly and Dhruv Bansal" in 2016, and lists him as Co-Founder and CEO.
The business the company built runs on one structural idea: a vault where the client holds two keys and Unchained holds a third, so no single party can move funds. Because Unchained already holds a key in a shared vault, it can lend against bitcoin without taking custody of it. The first such loan was originated in 2017, per the company's own timeline, and the entity behind the lending business, Unchained Capital, Inc., carries NMLS ID 1900773.
That distinction became load-bearing in 2022, when lenders that had taken custody of client coins failed and their customers became unsecured creditors.
This entry covers the role as the company states it.