Troubled crypto unicorn founder Babel launches new DeFi project, stablecoin

Image credit: Flex Yang, former CEO of Babel Finance and founder of the Hope DeFi ecosystem.Image: Hope

Flex Yang, former CEO and founder of Babel Finance, is currently beleaguered cryptocurrency unicorns while introducing new decentralized projects in hopes of avoiding some of the deficiencies of his previous venture. leading efforts to rebuild

Considering the collapse of centralized crypto services such as FTX, Gemini, and Babel, Yang blends centralized finance (CeFi), decentralized finance (DeFi), and traditional finance (TradFi) into a kind of It promotes Hope for transparency and security. It comes with DeFi but gives you the easy access that CeFi offers.

The project has a token of the same name and aims to eventually bring its value closer to the dollar as adoption increases. However, Hope Token will initially use Bitcoin and Ether as reserves instead of the cash and cash-equivalent assets that other stablecoins prefer to use. This approach can be frowned upon.

Yang compares Hope to MakerDAO, the issuer of the popular stablecoin Dai, but with an “additional set of features.”

For example, HopeConnect, one of Hope’s protocols, is a DeFi payments and clearance application that allows users to trade derivatives within major centralized exchanges (CEX) without depositing assets on the CeFi platform. .

“This means there is no CEX custody and no credit risk for users, while bringing the CEX trading experience to DeFi. Users can access CEX liquidity in an anonymous and decentralized way.” Yang told TechCrunch in an interview.

Hope is on sale today. Yang said the ecosystem will start with investments from outside investors, but Hope personally confirmed that he will invest $10 million out of his pocket to finance the ecosystem.

refinancing

Last June, institutional-focused crypto manager Babel froze withdrawals and redemptions amid a market downturn, citing “abnormal liquidity pressures”. Just a month after announcing that he had reached a $2 billion valuation in an $80 million Series B funding, the company’s financial troubles came to light.

On March 6, Hong Kong- and Singapore-based Babel applied for a moratorium on protection from the Singapore High Court seeking approval for the restructuring.
Bloomberg has reported, citing sources, that Babel planned to use the proceeds from another stablecoin, Babel Recovery Coin (BRC), to pay off debts to creditors.

Commenting on the Bloomberg report, Yang said Hope would be funded by Babel but would not repay creditors directly. Rather, creditors receive BRC coins.

The team behind Hope, which consists of former Babel staff, will receive 30% of the leveraged tokens (LT) over a four-year vesting schedule, Yang said. The team will lock all his LTs to vote Escrow Tokens (veLT) to manage Hope’s Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). As a result, as part of his veLT rights, he receives DAO earnings.

After that, 10-20% of the proceeds received by the team will go towards the BRC buyback two years after Babel’s court-sanctioned restructuring, the founders added.

bet on hong kong

Asia-based cryptocurrency firms are rushing into Hong Kong as it signals a desire to become the next regional hub for digital assets. Hope does not plan to become part of the Hong Kong stablecoin ecosystem, including efforts to create an offshore renminbi-pegged stablecoin, but hopes to “ride the wave of Hong Kong’s welcoming mood and seek regulatory clarity.” We are moving forward and, frankly, making Hong Kong one of many ecosystems, it is an ideal market for the Hope Ecosystem,” said Yang.

“Also, consider that the Hong Kong dollar is essentially the world’s largest US dollar-pegged stablecoin. Hong Kong regulators know how these work and importantly , we know how to regulate such a currency,” the founder continued.

“Hong Kong, a global financial center, has definite trends and we will not pass up this opportunity to capitalize on Hong Kong’s renewed interest in supporting Web 3.0 innovation.”