XEND FINANCE INVESTOR SPOTLIGHT: NGC

XEND Finance is thrilled to share our investment spotlight with NGC Ventures, one of the largest and most active institutional investors of cryptocurrencies. NGC adopts best practices from traditional financial markets to invest in and incubate leading projects in the crypto industry worldwide. They’ve invested in over 70 projects, mostly in blockchain infrastructure and adoption technologies in areas such as De-Fi, Gaming and Decentralized Computing.

Here’s a brief interview with the CEO of NGC Ventures.

1. Why did you invest in Xend Finance?

We like Xend Finance’s direction in creating cooperatives and unions that naturally cater to the needs of local communities, offering higher-than-market yield and less fees in skipping the middleman. Its positioning as the top DeFi project in Africa backed by global resources also cemented our decision.

2. What are your current predictions for DeFi 2021?

In 2020, we have witnessed strong volume growth in lending protocols such as Compound and decentralized exchanges, especially for auto market making dex like Uniswap and Curve. YFI and YFII have also led the wave of yield-farming protocol. Going forward, we expect there will be more Defi applications in other chains beyond Ethereum, including Polkadot and chains supported by exchanges like Binance Smart Chain. Another driver we are expecting in the DeFi space is the integration with real world assets thanks to the help of NFT and more liquidity in the space

3. What are some things that you think that must be changed to usher in mainstream adoption?

Firstly, there should be a friendlier regulatory environment for crypto startups especially on fiat-crypto transactions globally. Compared with years ago, this area has definitely been improved. In addition, we hope more big enterprises follow the steps of companies like Facebook, Square, and Tesla that are willing to consider integrating crypto into their services or balance sheet, as these actions can boost confidence of newcomers that don’t have any crypto experience before.

4. What is your thesis around crypto and Africa?

We believe African market has great potential in cryptocurrencies mainly due to the macro environment (devaluation of fiat) and large unbanked population that can be new sources of “crypto-native” users to the Defi space. The young population is also naturally more willing to accept cryptocurrencies.

5. What is your thesis on Binance Smart Chain?

Binance Smart Chain adopted a technically efficient way to solve the high-gas problems on Ethereum, gaining great opportunities before Ethereum’s layer-2 solutions are effective. We expect more innovation of Defi products on BSC focusing on investment with small ticket sizes. Xend is a good example.