The gateway from CeFi to DeFi — Discovering how Coin98 constructs integrated resource ecosystem, opening a fresh channel to the DeFi world
Question 1: First of all, let’s welcome our guest to join our community for the first time. Please do a brief introduction to Coin98, including its emerging background as well as the vision and the problems it is supposed to solve.
Thanh Le: Hi everyone, this is Thanh from Coin98. Thanks for having me today! I hope that we will have a great AMA together!
To brief, Coin98 is a whole ecosystem of various resources that we have been building in the past 4 years. We aspire to make blockchain and crypto come closer to the masses, making DeFi services accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world.
Many people knew us from 2017 when we started the journey in this space through Coin98 Insights, which provides the community with knowledge and insights. After 2 years, we became the number one knowledge hub in Vietnam. We started building products that serve our needs first. We build, ship, listen to the community, and iterate.
There are several options we had at that time:
- scale our media arm from local (vietnam-focused) to the global
- explore other categories
We ended up applying both strategies. On one hand, we scaled our media arm to the global market with @Coin98Analytics, this is our huge success when looking back. @Coin98Analytics nowadays is one of the biggest crypto accounts on Twitter.
Moreover, as you can see, we built everything we have now thanks to this industry. We want to give back and help other builders by giving out support from the resources we have. That’s how we decided to form our investment arm.
So basically now, Coin98 is an ecosystem of 3 arms:
- Coin98 Media: communities and knowledge, insights hubs
- Coin98 Ventures: our investment arm
- Coin98 Labs: DeFi product builders
Coin98 Labs is a DeFi product builder focusing on creating and developing an ecosystem of DeFi protocols and applications on multiple blockchains. Our mission is to fulfill untapped demand and enhance in-demand utilities in the DeFi space, helping people to access DeFi services effortlessly.
Question 2: Coin98 has a really innovative and efficient team. Could you introduce a little bit about the team members, and some interesting stories behind the project?
Thanh Le: About our team, initially, our orientation focused on knowledge and insights sharing, so Coin98’s team was mostly researchers, who have experience in the industry and spend a lot of time “skin in the game”. Later, when we decided to develop our product arm, I was very happy to collaborate with our CEO & Co-Founder, Mr. Vinh. He is such an excellent tech guy who has 10 years of experience in programming and software production and 5 years of experience in blockchain and cryptocurrency. Vinh is also the Co-Founder of Kytek and Cyber Network, which are outsourcing companies working with numerous partners.
After 4 years of development, from a small team with a few personnel, we can proudly say that Coin98 is a whole big family with more than 70 young talents living in many countries around the world, specializing in different areas including software development, market research, BD and marketing,… I can confirm that Vietnamese personnel are fully capable of competing with other countries’ employment in terms of quality and dedication. However, it is important that the team aims to bring real benefits to users with patience and persistence along the path. And Coin98 Team is exactly that.
Question 3: Coin98 has obtained comprehensive attention from the market in its process of growth, which we believe can’t be achieved so fast without the support of your partners. Could you share with us the current financial status and cooperation progress?
Thanh Le: To this moment, Coin98 Labs have completed a seed round and strategic round sales with over 12 million dollars raised. Our investors are all “big boys” in the market, namely Hashed, Spartan Group, Alameda Research, ParaFi Capital, IOSG Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Nascent, SNZ, NGC Ventures. We are proud and confident to say that Coin98 can operate and accelerate at full capacity in the upcoming years.
We have also been pushing strategic partnership with a massive number of DeFi projects, exchanges, venture capitals, and other establishments at all scales in an effort to bring the convenience and versatility of Coin98 Ecosystem not only to existing DeFi users but also to the common audiences who have never heard of DeFi.
Question 4: Coin98 is based in Vietnam, and has a comprehensive user base in South-East Asia. Could you share with us the current process you have made in the South-East Asian market and how do you consider the situation of the crypto industry in South-East Asia?
Thanh Le: It is a blessing that we have fairly large communities in Vietnam and Southeast Asia (SEA) in general. In my opinion, the SEA market has massive room for growth in terms of blockchain and crypto adoption, which is why many projects have been built with SEA as the target market.
Since we always focus on customer satisfaction, Coin98 communities have been built specifically for each market, of course, there are Southeast Asian communities. There will be plenty of localized events for each community, and I hope that our dear customers will continue to support us. We have a long promising journey ahead!
Question 5: Coin98 is planning to create a complete DeFi ecosystem through a series of products and solutions. In your opinion, what is the most important part of the current DeFi ecosystem? And what might be some of the weaknesses?
Thanh Le: Currently, DeFi is seeing a lot of rising blockchains besides BTC and Ethereum, for example, Binance Smart Chain, Tron, Solana, Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche, Polkadot, and the list go on. On each blockchain, accompanying D-apps also spring up like mushrooms, offering all kinds of services from financial ones to the gaming experiences. Despite the booming number of blockchains, there is no infrastructure service for a multichain product. Thus, we ended up building the infrastructure ourselves. Starting with a multichain wallet, we are now expanding into a multichain DeFi platform that allows everyone to have access to DeFi services on multiple blockchains.
However, there are security concerns when using DeFi applications as well, especially after numerous exploits and hacks on different blockchains. In terms of product development, security is always one of Coin98’s top priorities. We have taken a lot of measures to defend, detect and handle incidents, including working with the audit firms, in order to bring out highly secured products for our users.
Question 6: The main products include wallet, exchange, and bridge in the DeFi ecosystem established by Coin98. Could you share with us the position of these products in the entire ecosystem and the major functionalities?
Thanh Le:
Coin98 Wallet is a multi-chain wallet that allows users to store, transfer and manage crypto assets and connect to numerous dApps on multiple blockchains. It supports 22+ networks, including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, Terra, Fantom, etc on both Mobile (iOS and android) and Chrome Extension versions. After more than 1 year from the launch, we’re happy to have more than 400K users believe and use us.
Coin98 Exchange: A multichain liquidity aggregator that helps users to swap, stake, lend, borrow, and earn crypto in 1 platform. We offer a suite of services on Coin98 Exchange, the service scope is quite similar to CEX but in a decentralized way. imagine you only need to connect your wallet, and you can trade spot/future/perpetual or lend/borrow or stake your assets or join launchpad/launchpool, all in one platform.
Space Gate: Space Gate is a cross-chain bridge that plays a critical role in our product suite It helps users to swap and transfer their assets between different blockchain platforms. if we see a blockchain is a country. then see Space Gate as a plane that will help you to travel back and forth between countries.
It supports token transfer between the following networks:
ethereum <> solana
ethereum <> binance smart chain <> tron
ethereum <> avalanche c-chain <> avalanche x-chain
Question 7: We know that the main product in Coin98 ecosystem is Coin98 multichain wallet, which allows users to store, transfer and manage their crypto assets, and connect to numerous DApps on multiple blockchains. So what are the main public blockchains and applications supported by Coin98 multichain wallet at present? In the multichain crypto world, how could Coin98 be distinct from so many other wallet products like Metamask?
Thanh Le: Coin98 Wallet currently supports 25+ blockchain, including BTC, ETH, TOMO, Tron, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Polkadot, Kusama, HECO Chain, Near, Avalanche X-Chain & C-Chain, Binance Chain, Celo, BandChain, Kava, Terra, Cosmos, ThorChain, Fantom, Polygon, Persistence, XDai, Kardiachain, Ronin. We have both the Mobile App and the Extension version that act as a gateway, connecting users to the DeFi world.
About the competitors, what we are trying to build is not only a wallet but an all-in-one DeFi platform offering services on multichain. If you take a look at Trust or Metamask, the way they built the product is optimizing users’ action to store, send and receive assets, not to USE it or put them into work. Our approach is different: we want to build an all-in-one platform that NOT ONLY helps you to store your assets but also allows you to do many things with those assets. Let your money work for you and make more money for you. To do that, wallet support is the first feature we prioritize. When all the most popular chains are supported, we will start adding more services on top of it.
For example, if you are holding MATIC you can hold it on Trust, on Metamask, or on Coin98. But if you want to use those MATIC to buy QUICK, or to buy DINO or another hidden gem on Polygon, you can’t do it with Metamask or Trust just yet BUT you can do it right from Coin98 wallet by just clicking Swap. You don’t need to open any websites, you don’t need to use another 3rd party app, it’s just simple as it is, everything, with 1 click, right from your coin98 wallet AND…imagine. It’s not only Polygon, there are so many opportunities to make more money right now on different chains. Let’s say Avalanche, you can’t do it anywhere else except Coin98. Or Solana AND that’s just the Swap feature.
Thanks to its multi-chain wallet engine, users can interact with 25+ blockchains simultaneously with just one passphrase. They don’t have to switch between chains anymore. All the assets from all the blockchains are on one screen.
In the near future, on top of a multi-chain wallet engine, we will build a complete DeFi infrastructure that offers higher-level services like swapping (will be released officially soon), lending, borrowing, yield farming, derivatives,… Users can enjoy most of the core services just by connecting their wallets to our platform. The experience will be similar to what CEXs can offer but in a decentralized way. As you see, we supported many trending chains and integrated a lot of AMMs into the app. The next feature that I hope people will love is native yield farming right from your wallet, native yield farming on multichain in 1 single app.
NATIVE YIELD FARMING on multichain, that allows you to earn more yield, more interest, more money with just 1 click from your Coin98 wallet. That’s something we are building for Coin98, an all-in-one Defi platform for everyone that allows anyone to access any defi services on multiple blockchains. We called it a Decentralized Digital Banking App. It will offer the same service suite as the banking app but we are decentralized.
And that’s how we differentiate ourselves from other wallets. Coin98 Wallet is not a single wallet standing alone but it is a crucial part of an enormous DeFi ecosystem that we aim to build.
Question 8: Congratulations to Coin98 as the 20th Launchpad project on Binance. Could you share with us your feelings about this important event and what are some of the other expectations you have after Coin98 be listed on Binance?
Thanh Le: Binance Launchpad is a very meaningful milestone for Coin98.
I’m sure you also agree with me that Binance, as well as Binance Launchpad, own the leading reputation in the market. Therefore, Coin98 is very happy to have the opportunity to cooperate with the Binance team, making more and more people in the world know about us. In the future, Coin98 also plans to develop some new protocols to contribute to the DeFi ecosystem on BSC.
Nevertheless, the Binance Launchpad has set the bar higher for us, in terms of expectations from VC as well as retail investors. That is why we need to keep our feet on the ground and work as hard as possible.
Question 9: For value capturing, what is the tokenomics of Coin98, and how do you stimulate the users to hold your tokens in the long run? What are some of the application scenarios of your token?
Thanh Le: We always want to bring the best to our holders. C98 is the governance and utility token of not only Coin98 Exchange but also many products we are developing in Coin98’s DeFi suite. First, C98 holders will benefit from service fees. Coin98 Exchange will charge users a small fee payable in C98 for each trade. All platform transaction fees collected by the network, whether in C98 or otherwise, would be re-distributed as incentives for active contributors within the ecosystem, or set aside for future product development and ecosystem growth.
We will also have a staking incentive for our liquidity providers, by staking or including assets to liquidity pools in exchange for liquidity provider tokens would be rewarded with C98 tokens.
Since we build everything in a decentralized way, we would allow C98 holders to propose and vote on governance proposals to determine features and/or parameters of the Coin98 Exchange and products thereon.
Last but not least, C98 holders would have unique membership rights, based on different tiers. Users with more C98 held will be sorted into a higher ranked tier, and users in higher tiers will gain exclusive access to premium events and privileges, such as priority for launchpad participation, marketing events with strategic partners. We hope with these use cases, C98 holders will go with us in the long run.
Question 10: What are the following plans of Coin98 ? Any new product being launched? Will you cooperate with other projects for greater development?
Thanh Le: About our plan for the near future.
- On the business side:
In 2021, our team is focusing on ongoing global and expanding the user and audience base to more markets. Compared to the beginning of 2020, the number of team personnel has increased by more than 5 times, and from only having talents in Vietnam, Coin98 now has personnel in many countries around the world.
- On the development side:
Coin98 Exchange will be launched officially soon. We envision Coin98 Exchange to quickly become an all-in-one solution for DeFi, covering most of the DeFi users’ needs, including swapping, staking, borrowing, lending, investing, and farming with crypto. Coin98 Exchange will be available on mobile, website, and browser extensions like Metamask. Also, we have been working on cooperation with many other projects, and already seeing positive results. Please follow our official Telegram at https://t.me/coin98_wallet and Twitter https://twitter.com/coin98_wallet for more upcoming updates.
