DeFi is now “taken seriously” by traditional finance, but still very hard to understand for beginners.
The inaugural summer of decentralized finance (DeFi) in 2020 — when millions of dollars in the form of crypto were invested into DeFi platforms — caught the attention of people around the world. And as summer 2021 proved to be another major success for DeFi, more and more people are considering taking the leap and seeing how they can get involved in the booming sector.
The sums involved are not insignificant. Starting at $1 billion in February 2020, over $40 billion flowed into DeFi platforms in just one year.
For those intimidated by crypto, it hasn’t helped that many DeFi projects have been plagued by poor user interfaces, lack of customer support and insufficient data. For retail market participants, the lack of interface and lack of easy-to-understand applications results in trust issues and a slower adoption rate.
On the institutional side, Bloomberg reports that DeFi is now “being taken seriously” by traditional finance. A European-wide survey of financial institutions spanning across insurance, banking and trading analysts found 86% are implementing or assessing services built on a DeFi framework.
This still leaves retail investors out in the cold. However, several companies have emerged with a goal to address the retail issues. One of those, BlockBank, is ambitiously tackling this market with users already voting with their money — $43 million has already been staked on the platform.
Why is AI-based banking so attractive to investors?
BlockBank is developing AI-powered traditional mobile banking with seamless crypto integration.
One of the platform’s highly-anticipated developments is its AI Robo Advisor that will scrutinize real-time trading activities and analyze social media chatter to provide users with strong advice. These suggestions are shared in the form of risk assessment, earning strategies, price predictions and trade execution.
The aim is to streamline access to financial technology and make it affordable for every user. BlockBank combines the most valuable parts of centralized and decentralized finance along with traditional banking systems to create a holistic overview of the entire industry.
At its core is a vision to simplify the user experience without compromising security, privacy or decentralization.
“We optimize multi-step DeFi purchasing processes and add a powerful AI assistant to guide our users to make intelligent and informed decisions,” says Darren Franceschini, chief of operations at BlockBank.
Built-in intelligence via neobanking
BlockBank provides its users with a wide array of functions, including advice on DeFi opportunities and usability of the platform with AI-enabled risk management delivered via neobanking. This functionality will help beginners and professional traders alike access authentic advice from AI systems working on the platform.
Partnership with USDC
BlockBank will soon enable its users to earn interest on the popular stablecoin USD Coin (USDC).
“The integration with USDC’s ecosystem will allow our users to achieve high yield annual percentage yields (APYs) in a risk-free and insured platform. This is just another proof point that we are here to stay and compete with top providers in the market,” says Franceschini.
USDC is guaranteed by BlockBank, giving users certainty while they earn interest. With the BlockBank application V2 update arriving in Q3 this year, users will be able to view their live portfolio and receive monthly payouts, all with no deposit and withdrawal fees or limits.
More strategic partnerships
It’s not just USDC — BlockBank has joined forces with a variety of sophisticated tech companies including Xend Finance, Shield Finance, Modefi, API3, Umbrella Network, Bridge Mutual, PolyNetwork, Ontology, PlasmaFinance and HAPI to bring added benefits to users.
The BlockBank token
BlockBank is powered by the platform’s utility token BBANK. Through purchasing the token, users gain access to credit card rewards programs, benefit from the advanced AI assistant and increased APY and earn interest by staking in a non-custodial BlockBank cryptocurrency wallet.
The token was listed on Gate.io, a global top 10 cryptocurrency exchange, as of Sept. 1, 2021. BlockBank’s first official token listing, this milestone will aim to boost token liquidity and increase general awareness of the token’s high interest and APY.
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