Comparing Cryptobanks — TenX, Monaco, Change, Polybius, TokenCard, Bankera

4 min readAug 25, 2017

August 15th, 2017

Recently there have been several high profile ICOs from Asia & Europe that aim to to solve the problem of cryptocurrencies not really being usable in everyday life yet. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been a fascination for its stored value utility but people realise fast that it is hard to connect this revolutionary technology to “real world transactions”.

In 2017, these “crypto banks” have raised in total of 150 million USD. TenX raised 80 million USD (245,832 ETH), Polybius raised 32 million USD (12 379 BTC), Monaco raised 25 million USD (71,392 ETH) and TokenCard raised 13 million USD. Two high profile ICOs that are still minting their coins in 2017 are Change & Bankera raising 75 million USD and 210 million USD respectively.

We have done an extensive analysis of the 6 leading “crypto banks”, comparing these companies in areas that we believe will be the the success factors in this industry.

We found that crypto banks could be most effectively compared on operational, product-specific and credibility variables. From the operational side we found that product status and regulatory environment will play the most important part. Platforms which require significant regulatory approval or a difficult to obtain license, have been downgraded due to the increased risk profile and uncertainty.

Product-wise it is about the services offered, fees and the amount of cryptocurrencies accepted. The third, most important factor is credibility where we looked at endorsements from reputable institutions and previous work done by the team.

POST-ICO CRYPTO BANKS ANALYSIS

Our analysis shows that the clear winner in the post-ICO category is TenX. Whereas Polybius has clearly more sophisticated concept in terms of different service offering, this also translates to higher risk of setbacks. TenX already has a working product and a significant following. Furthermore, TenX has the backing of Vitalik Buterin and Fenbushi Partners — that is a strong signal of confidence. Monaco and TokenCard are lagging behind with their expensive and subpar product offerings. Polybius has yet to launch the product, but according to our analysis, it has high potential if it can execute on its ecosystem play detailed in its whitepaper. Our analysis is also supported by the quick raise of TenX PAY token market capitalisation that has already made it to the Top 20 list of all cryptocurrencies.

PRE-ICO CRYPTO BANKS

There are two main challengers for TenX and Polybius, that are yet to launch their ICO. Change will be raising 75 million USD in its ICO on September 16th and Bankera will be raising 210 million USD on September 28th. We believe that these two companies stand out from the crowd due to their well-written whitepapers and professional teams. We do acknowledge that Change ICO has a higher potential due to the more capable team and the endorsement from the e-Residency program of Estonian Government. Change’s team has been in various media outlets including CNBC and has a more sophisticated marketplace concept. Our analysis is also supported by the questionnaire of 16 Crypto Whales who graded Change ICO 4.7, while Bankera ICO was graded at 4.1. The main factors pointed out in the questionnaire were that Change’s fund-raising amount is much more reasonable than Bankera’s (210 million USD was even called absurd by one), Change’s marketplace model allows it to go-to-market much faster, as opposed to applying and waiting for a banking license, which takes years according to Bankera’s whitepaper. Change also has a Testing Prototype and a strategic partnership with the Estonian e-Residency. On the other hand, Bankera’s partner is Spectrocoin, which is an existing crypto payments provider which claims 300K users (it must be mentioned the Bankera team failed to present proof of this). However, the exact relationship between Bankera and Spectrocoin remained confusing when speaking with the team on Slack (the team called it a “partnership”, “same companies”, “different companies”, “group” within a short time window).

All information for this analysis has been obtained from either the respective companies’ whitepapers, websites and community groups (Slack & Telegram).

Comparing Cryptobanks — TenX, Monaco, Change, Polybius, TokenCard, Bankera

Written by CryptoJudgemnt