Even if crypto-fintechs are currently faltering after yesterday’s bankruptcy of the crypto-bank Nuri as well as the recent bankruptcy of Celsius and Voyager, there is also positive news from the industry. For example, Berlin-based startup Unstoppable Finance, which operates in the DeFi (decentralized finance) sector, announced a successful financing round of $ 12.5 million today, on August 10.
Fresh capital for DeFi-Wallet
The deal was completed at the beginning of July. With the new money, the company, which only started in 2021, plans to finance the development of its own DeFi wallet “Ultimate”.
The Series A round was led by US financier Lightspeed Venture Partners, based in Silicon Valley. The existing investors Speedinvest, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, Backed, Inflection, Discovery Ventures and Fabric Ventures also participated in this round, Anagram has just been added.
This is not the first investment capital that Unstoppable Finance has been able to attract. In October 2021, the German DeFi project was already able to collect 4.5 million euros. With this capital, the startup and its 25-strong team are already working on the iOS version of its DeFi wallet.
DeFi for everyone
The German fintech company founded by Max von Wallenberg-Pachaly, Peter Grosskopf and Omid Aladini wants to make DeFi accessible to the masses with its non-custodial Wallet Ultimate. The mobile app provides access to a number of DeFi protocols that are natively integrated to provide a seamless mobile investing and trading experience. The wallet was announced in early July and quickly attracted the interest of over 300,000 beta users worldwide who joined the waiting list.
The multi-chain wallet will be launched in a private beta phase in the next few days, the public launch is scheduled for later this year. Ultimate will initially be launched for iOS and will also be available for Android later.
Tough Times for Crypto Fintechs
The current interest rate policy hovers over fintechs like a sword of Damocles, as the current interest rate increases deprive the market of liquidity. Safe government bonds are becoming more attractive to investors than stocks or risky assets such as volatile cryptocurrencies.
Overall, the crypto-fintech market is still characterized by the financial after-effects of the Luna collapse – and the resulting bankruptcies. In mid-July, the crypto lending site Celsius Network officially filed for bankruptcy, exposing a hole of $ 1.2 billion on its balance sheet. Crypto exchange and lender Voyager, which had granted Three Arrows Capital (3AC) $650 million in unsecured loans, also became insolvent and voluntarily took its common shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Yesterday, on August 9, the German fintech Nuri had to file for insolvency. More than 500 thousand customers are now affected by the bankruptcy of the Berlin Neobank.
