Xend Finance Investor Spotlight: Block Ark
Xend Finance is thrilled to share our investment spotlight with BlockArk, a global leading blockchain marketing advisory company, with focus on blockchain projects and DApps. Founded in 2017 and based out of Shenzen, China, they’ve worked with 20+ top blockchain projects globally including Ontology(ONT), Bluzelle(BLZ), Ankr Network(ANKR).
Here are some thoughts from the co-founder of BlockArk, Warren Fang
1. What are your current predictions for DeFi in 2021?
In 2020, DeFi has shown its amazing potential. The rapid growth of transaction volume and TVL on AMM DEX and decentralized lending platform reflects that DeFi has gradually become the focus of the crypto market. However, due to its high threshold and high gas fees on Ethereum Network, there are not many players using DeFi in the entire market. In 2021, as the Layer 2 solution becomes mature, and the low-threshold DeFi products that can further address liquidity requirements arise, DeFi will have more use cases in the financial market.
2. What are some things that you think must be changed to usher in mainstream adoption?
The decentralization that crypto market players discuss every day is exactly what the mainstream market can’t understand. Just as Grayscale issues GBTC to help more stock market users enter the crypto market even if they don’t need to understand cryptographic knowledge such as wallets and private keys, DeFi wants more users to participate and also needs such a medium to help with encryption. Users without basic knowledge in the market quickly enter the DeFi world, and use these DeFi products without risk and conveniently.
3. What is your thesis around crypto and Africa?
Most African countries are not large countries like China and the United States. They can have strong government endorsements and use monetary and fiscal policies to effectively maintain their financial order. Problems such as over-issued currency and lack of credit in financial institutions have caused Africans to need a decentralized financial system with credit endorsement. This is the best soil for DeFi. Through the trustless decentralized protocol, users can freely use functions such as transactions, lending, insurance, etc., and the safety of funds is guaranteed, and there is no need to worry about the risk of extreme currency over-issue and devaluation.
4. What is your thesis on Binance Smart Chain?
As we said earlier, Ethereum’s current gas fee is extremely high, which prevents a large number of users from entering the DeFi world. BSC’s negligible gas fee and almost the same operating experience as Ethereum is a smart choice for users in the African market to enter the DeFi gateway.
5. Why did you invest in Xend Finance?
Africa has a population of over 1 billion and is a very large potential market. However, due to various historical issues, the current financial market development in most African countries is still low. So it provides sufficient space for the development of cryptocurrencies in Africa. Xend Finance is aiming at this core pain point, hoping to help African users enter the crypto world at a low threshold, open the door of DeFi, and let the seeds of decentralization be planted in people’s hearts. Xend Finance is BlockArk’s first investment in a crypto-project focused on the development of the African market. Its accumulated userbase and understanding of the encryption market, coupled with Binance and BSC support, can help Xend Finance to further expand their market, which makes us believe they can do a lot in the crypto world.
