Since our founding in 2017, Nash’s mission has been to make it easy for everyone to trade, pay and invest in cryptocurrencies. In this time we have achieved many firsts in our industry: working with the FMA to issue the first regulated European security token (NEX), building the first non-custodial Bitcoin exchange mediated by interactions with HTLCs, and developing protocols that allow our web and mobile wallets to leverage multi-party computation to better secure user funds – among other achievements.
While we are proud of our technological and regulatory work, finding product-market fit has been harder for Nash. Our exchange is growing, but not as fast as we had hoped. We have tough competitors and are sometimes at a disadvantage. Fully decentralized exchanges ignore KYC restrictions, more easily acquiring users and liquidity, while centralized exchanges benefit from simpler architectures that allow them to efficiently bootstrap markets and list new assets.
Looking into the future with clear eyes is essential when running a startup, and it has become apparent to us that we must chart a different path from most exchanges.
Going forward, Nash will focus on providing the best gateway for retail users to invest in crypto, while expanding into digital banking offerings that seamlessly integrate DeFi services.
This decision is driven by patterns we have observed in our metrics, and our confidence in the advantages our fiat ramp and wallet products can offer over competitors. Although our fiat ramps only supported USDC purchases until late January, they have seen 20% month-on-month user growth since they launched in September last year. With the coming release of instant purchases throughout most of Europe, new marketing campaigns and support for many new cryptocurrencies, we expect to see this growth rate accelerate significantly. Market-leading prices, fees as low as 0%, instant delivery of assets and MPC-secured wallets will give Nash a strong competitive advantage.
The crypto market as a whole is now worth more than $1 trillion and expected to grow dramatically. We aim to take a big chunk of this market, creating new revenue streams for NEX holders and driving volume to our existing exchange.
So, what does this mean for Nash products?
-
We have already begun to simplify our offerings to provide customers with the tools they need to invest in cryptocurrency. We will develop many new features exclusively on our mobile application.
-
We will offer support for trading a much larger set of cryptocurrencies to and from cash at spot prices, targeting at least ten new assets by the end of 2021. These assets can be bought and sold with national currencies directly from user wallets using our existing fiat ramps, making them much easier to list.
-
Nash will offer digital banking services. We will strive to make interactions with the traditional financial world easier by incorporating direct banking services into our mobile application, such as national currency checking accounts, high-yield savings accounts powered by DeFi and debit cards that interact with digital assets.
-
The new revenue streams that we create via fiat ramps and banking services will flow directly to NEX stakers as USDC, in addition to dividends from our exchange matching engine fees.
-
Our existing exchange plays an important function in enabling low fees for fiat ramps and Nash Link. We will increase liquidity for major pairs while targeting professional traders incentivised by NEX staking rewards, low fees and advanced security.
We’ve prepared a blog article outlining our new strategy in more detail and providing a roadmap of the features and products we aim to ship in 2021.
The first marketing campaigns for our new strategy will begin this Q1.
We hope the Nash Community is as excited as we are about the opportunities ahead.
Ethan Fast and Fabian Wahle
Co-CEOs, Nash
