unicorns

Dec 24 2020

5 crypto unicorns that charged onto the blockchain scene in 2020

A number of decentralized finance protocols experienced volatility around the $1 billion mark in 2020, briefly making some of them unicorns in the crypto space. Though the 2020 numbers are comparable to the number of projects that emerged as unicorns during the 2017 initial coin offering boom, Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss said in September that DeFi protocols have more staying power:

“Back then, money was raised on shitcoin white papers written in a coffee shops. DeFi is already live and working in the wild. Billions of dollars are at work earning positive yield. This isn’t hypothetical vaporware, this is real.”

Aave

This platform pays users interest on locked funds in exchange for loans. Aave was one DeFi project to reach $1 billion in market capitalization in 2020, but its value has dipped under crypto unicorn status a few times following news of a $6 million flash loan exploit. The protocol’s own LEND token — which has migrated to a new AAVE token — surged after Aave received an Electronic Money Institution license from the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority in August.

The DeFi protocol unveiled its second version earlier this month, which will reportedly make improvements on flash loans and the use of collateral for reconciling loans.

Yearn.finance

The market capitalization of YFI reached $1 billion in August before hitting an all-time high on Sept. 12. Though many consider YFI to be one of the top tokens in DeFi, it hasn’t regained its crypto unicorn status since September. At the time of publication, the token’s market capitalization was roughly $750 million.

Interest in the Yearn.finance DeFi platform has surged since it launched its native token, YFI, in July. The yield aggregating platform provides liquidity through smart contracts and offers interest to liquidity providers.

Synthetix

Synthetix is a decentralized exchange built on the Ethereum blockchain through a series of smart contracts. However, Synthetix does not offer trading between crypto assets like tokens and stablecoins, but rather between “Synths” created by using another asset as collateral.

This DeFi platform passed $1 billion in total value locked in August. Its Synthetix Network Token (SNX) made substantial gains this year, having hit its all-time high of $7.74 on Sept. 11, rallying more than 400% from its price at the beginning of 2020.

Harvest Finance

Harvest Finance may have had one of the briefest stints as a crypto unicorn this year. The DeFi protocol collected as much as $1 billion in total value locked before a hacker was able to launch an attack on Harvest’s liquidity pools, draining $24 million. News of the exploit caused the total value locked of the protocol to drop almost half a billion dollars in 24 hours.

Operating similarly to Yearn, Harvest Finance is an automated yield management system that allows users to earn interest after supplying certain crypto assets for lending.

Chainalysis

Outside of DeFi projects, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has expanded rapidly in 2020, raising its total valuation to more than $1 billion following a $100 million financing round last month. The firm develops investigative tools that enable companies, governments and law enforcement agencies to monitor blockchain transactions and track suspected illicit activities.

Special mentions

There were other crypto unicorns that popped up in 2020, as well. With Bitcoin (BTC) rising to more than $23,000 for the first time in history and Ether (ETH) passing $600 for the first time in two years, this year has been rather bullish for major digital assets and new DeFi projects.

Filecoin was one of the fastest blockchains to gain and lose crypto unicorn status this year. After the network launched its mainnet on Oct. 15, Filecoin’s FIL token surged 118% to reach a market cap of just over $1 billion before the price plunged nearly 80%. FIL’s market cap didn’t return to the same level until a month later and currently stands at $1.3 billion.

Polkadot followed the same pattern as Filecoin, with its DOT token quickly growing to a market cap of more than $5 billion. The blockchain has been live since May as a permissioned “proof-of-authority” network but launched its mainnet in late July. Polkadot does not directly compete against the Ethereum network and allows multiple blockchain networks to exist on its protocols.

5 crypto unicorns that charged onto the blockchain scene in 2020

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Dec 11 2020

Vouched Announces $3M Funding Round to Accelerate AI-Based Identity Verification Platform

Vouched, a developer of proprietary artificial intelligence and computer vision for end-to-end identity verification and real-time fraud detection, announced on Thursday it has raised $3 million through its latest funding round, which was led by Flying Fish Partners.

Founded in 2018, Vouched describes itself as a proprietary AI/CV/ML that powers real-time visual ID verification to onboard customers and drive revenue for customers across town or around the world. The company noted it accelerates revenue growth and provides a “seamless” user experience by rapidly and securely verifying and onboarding end users through a sophisticated, end-to-end visual ID verification and fraud detection solution.

“Vouched serves disruptive startups, fast-growing unicorns, and the Fortune 1000 enterprise. Focused on regulated and security sensitive industries, more than 50 companies in banking and financial services; healthcare and telemedicine; and gig and sharing economy companies rely on Vouched for identity verification.”

While sharing more details about the company, Vouched Co-founder and CEO, John Baird, stated:

“The ability to see a person and verify their identity online is required for complex regulated activities such as Know Your Customer (KYC) in banking and the rise of Know Your Patient (KYP) in healthcare and telemedicine. Increasingly, security-sensitive transactions such as peer-to-peer sharing of expensive goods like motorcycles, cars and RVs also depend on identity verification. We are helping to meet those growing needs.”

Vouched went on to add that it’ll use the investment round’s funds will further accelerate the growth of its identity proofing platform across the banking, fintech, and healthcare verticals.

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Oct 12 2020

AngelList India Launches New Fund, iSeed Southeast Asia, the First Regional Fund Backed by Naval Ravikant and Other Top Investors

Utsav Somani, partner at AngelList India, has revealed that they’re launching a new fund, called iSeed Southeast Asia. Somani notes that the project is being led by Wing Vasiksiri and it’s reportedly backed by Naval Ravikant, the co-founder, chairman and former CEO of AngelList, and several other major global operators.

Vasiksiri writes in a blog post that iSeed SEA is Southeast Asia’s very first micro-fund that’s backed by top global founders. He confirms that the fund serves as an extension of iSeed India and it’s managed by him with assistance from Utsav Somani.

He also mentions that the fund’s backers include Naval Ravikant (Founder & Chairman of AngelList), Kunal Bahl (Founder & CEO of Snapdeal), Jonathan Swanson (Founder & Chairman of Thumbtack), and more. Vasiksiri claims that they’ve raised more than $2 billion from major VCs and have a lot of experience with scaling tech firms.

He adds:

“We created a Knowledge Council of world-class operators to help our portfolio founders. The council includes Sriram Krishnan (ex-Product at Twitter), Prasanna Sankar (Cofounder of Rippling), Sahil Lavingia (Founder of Gumroad), and Anne Dwane (Founder of Village Global), amongst others. They’ve committed to working with our portfolio founders to bring best practices from the U.S. to India and Southeast Asia.”

He continues:

“Southeast Asia is emerging as the fastest-growing tech ecosystem. With a population of over 670M across 11 countries, 13 unicorns have emerged and many more will be built in the coming years. I am excited to watch this ecosystem unfold and to bring my investing experience and network back home.”

Many new Fintech companies and businesses have been launched by Southeast Asian countries. Indonesia based digital commerce marketplace provider Tokopedia recently won the “Best Companies to Work for in Asia” Award. The financial inclusion rate in Indonesia has reached record highs, but there are still serious problems that need to be addressed such as the rise of illegal Fintech businesses.

Southeast Asian countries are increasingly adopting digital payments, but regulatory issues may slow adoption, according to recent statements from a Fintech executive.

Digital banking competition in Southeast Asia should intensify as there’s been a boom in Fintech investments, according to an August 2020 report.

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