Bridging the gap between fiat and crypto: Our vision for 2021 and beyond - Nash.io
February 8, 2021

Bridging the gap between fiat and crypto: Our vision for 2021 and beyond

Bridging the gap between fiat and crypto

Nash’s strategy for 2021 will focus on bringing new retail investors into cryptocurrency, while expanding into traditional digital finance offerings that seamlessly integrate DeFi services.

With Bitcoin hitting new all-time highs, the crypto space is again worth over $1 trillion, heralding further retail demand for digital currencies during 2021.

For crypto to reach its next trillion dollar milestone, a new wave of users need a gateway that seamlessly merges existing fiat infrastructure with crypto. Old and new crypto investors will be seeking the best way to purchase a number of coins with cash, while taking advantage of services like crypto debit cards and savings accounts.

Nash’s technology, regulatory position, and business model give us a competitive advantage in catering to this market.

Our new products shipping in 2021 will not only simplify access for retail investors, but will offer the best prices and security – a message we will underline in our upcoming marketing campaigns.

Read on to learn more about the core of our new strategy and the features we have planned!

New coins – buy and sell with cash directly from your wallet

Nash aims to make significant progress in listing many of the most popular and valuable cryptocurrencies, including at least ten new listings by the end of 2021.

Nash will provide MPC-powered wallets that let you trade coins directly against national currencies at spot prices using our fiat ramps. Further facilitating the access to our L2 exchange. This approach eliminates a significant technical roadblock, allowing us to list assets on Nash much faster.

These new markets will not make direct use of the Nash matching engine, but our risk management lets us offer the best prices with low fees while still making a profit. Revenue will flow back to NEX stakers in the form of USDC dividends.

In effect, Nash will become a non-custodial exchange offering the most popular coins paired with fiat currencies – all at market-leading rates.

The safest way to buy and sell crypto, at the best prices

Nash is able to offer the best crypto gateway service in three crucial areas:

  • Cost
    Nash users can buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, and NEO at 0% fees. This is possible because we operate our own crypto exchange. Market-making services running on our exchange also guarantee the best spot prices. Future spot market listings will offer the best prices with fees under 1% – still ahead of the competition.
  • Instant delivery
    Nash users will receive their assets instantly. With instant SEPA transfers, Faster Payments Service, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and other payment options being added to our fiat ramps, users can enjoy low fees without waiting to receive their crypto or missing opportunities presented by market dips. Credit card transactions will be possible with lower fees than competitors.
  • Safety
    Nash offers the safest software wallet for crypto assets. All transactions on our platform are signed using multi-party computation (MPC), never exposing private keys and letting users set up address whitelists and transaction limits. As a fully registered Exchange Service Provider, customers can be certain that Nash is a trustworthy place to purchase their coins.
The Nash homepage will let customers compare rates directly and confirm they’re getting the best deal.

Modern finance with Nash: Savings, current account and debit card

The global neobanking market size was valued at $34.77 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual rate of 47.7% from 2021 to 2028. Services like Revolut are becoming increasingly popular, allowing users to spend money easily anywhere in the world, while also providing gateways to stock and cryptocurrency investments. In the crypto space, platforms like BlockFi offer alternatives to traditional savings accounts with much higher interest rates.

Nash aims to enter the neobanking market, bringing with us the advantages of self-custody and advanced wallet security. Nash customers will always be in control of their cryptocurrency investments. This means greater security from attackers, protection from asset-locking and no outrageous withdrawal fees!

Our crypto savings product will offer a gateway to DeFi and let us compete with other blockchain investment platforms while remaining non-custodial. We are currently in talks with several DeFi partners, seeking a way to bring this product to market as soon as possible. We aim to establish our first partnership by the end of Q1.

Furthermore, Nash will work with our new partner Railsbank to offer digital IBAN accounts. We will integrate national currency checking accounts into our platform – fully functional IBAN accounts, letting customers send and receive money to/from anyone. Crypto purchases made using integrated checking accounts will, of course, be instant.

To complement checking accounts, Nash will be developing high-yield savings accounts powered by DeFi. Our goal is to make the experience of investing in DeFi as simple as transferring fiat into an on-chain savings account, giving crypto novices the easiest possible access to these new high-interest opportunities.

Our partnership with Railsbank also allows us to offer a Nash debit card. Besides giving users access to their fiat checking account, the Nash Card will let them spend their crypto anywhere that accepts debit and credit cards, earning rewards in the process. Revenue generated from card fees will go to NEX stakers as USDC dividends.

We’ll be launching a waiting list very soon, so you can be among the first to receive a Nash Card!

When all these products and services become available, customers will have the option of switching to Nash as their sole IBAN provider. Our savings account will offer superior interest rates to traditional banks – and there will be no easier way to access crypto investments at the best prices.

Mobile first

Nash is looking to move faster and with more impact. One way to achieve this is adding new coins tradeable against fiat directly from user wallets. Another is focusing specifically on our mobile application.

The Nash mobile app is already a central part of our user experience. It provides the easiest path to completing identity verification and useful tools like WalletConnect, which are not available on the web application. As mobile payments become more popular, a portable wallet is essential for any crypto platform.

This is reflected in our metrics, which indicate that our mobile app is more popular than our web platform. Approximately 67% of people making crypto buys with fiat use the mobile app, and we have roughly 7x more monthly active users on mobile than on web.

The mobile market itself is already larger than the desktop market. Over 50% of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices, while the mobile banking space continues to expand. Time spent in mobile banking apps grew by 79% in 2019 and up to 85% going into 2020.

By focusing on mobile, Nash will be able to tap the largest possible market while offering more functionality, faster. The architecture of our mobile app makes it simpler to deploy new features quickly, and by dedicating more engineering resources to mobile, we’ll be able to increase that pace even further.

The Nash webapp will still be maintained, but new features will be rolled out on mobile first.

Crypto infrastructure for business partners

Our business products will play an important role in generating revenue while complementing our retail offering.

Nash Link, our solution for merchants, makes use of our exchange for currency conversion, providing a revenue stream while adding liquidity to markets. Support for currencies besides BTC will be added during the year. Nash Link partners will also assist us in promoting our other services as the premier crypto/fiat gateway.

Exposing our fiat ramps via a white-label API for third parties will play a similar role. We are currently investigating partnerships with projects seeking a simple fiat gateway for their token and are in talks with 10–15 parties. We look forward to announcing more details later in Q1.

Our existing exchange has 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.

More USDC dividends for NEX stakers

NEX stakers already receive up to a 75% proportionate share of fees from our exchange. Purchases of Bitcoin, Ethereum and NEO on our fiat ramps contribute to these dividends, since they generate orders on the exchange.

In addition to existing dividends, NEX stakers will receive a share of revenue generated via our “wallet-only” fiat markets and finance services, distributed in the form of USDC.

We’ll provide more details as these products and markets become available.

Multi-faceted marketing in Europe

Nash currently has registrations to operate our fiat/crypto services in most of Europe. Soon, we will cover the whole European region by expanding operations in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

We’ll be targeting the European market with a variety of advertising campaigns promoting our new markets and gateway/digital finance services.

Once Nash has proven successful in Europe, we will look to obtain licenses in new jurisdictions to expand further.

Roadmap for 2021

Here’s a simple summary of our main plans for 2021.

Nash will focus on extending the growth we have seen in our fiat ramps. We will:

  • List more than ten popular cryptocurrencies by the end of the year, tradeable against fiat directly from user wallets at spot prices (Q1+)
  • Add instant payment methods to purchase crypto, including instant SEPA and Faster Payments Service (FPS) (Q1), as well as Google/Apple Pay and credit cards (Q2)
  • Support automatic recurring purchases of Bitcoin and other assets (Q1)
  • Expand our fiat ramp services to the United Kingdom (Q1) and the Netherlands (Q2)

Nash will offer digital finance services, further improving our mobile wallet as a bridge between fiat and crypto. We will:

  • Enable interest-earning for most crypto assets via DeFi and staking protocols (Q2)
  • Develop high-yield savings accounts powered by DeFi, giving crypto novices the simplest possible access to new high-interest opportunities (Q2)
  • Integrate national currency checking accounts so users can pay bills and purchase crypto instantly – seamlessly integrated with DeFi savings (Q3)
  • Release a Nash debit card that lets you spend your crypto like cash while earning rewards (Q4)

Nash will strive to expand our presence in the crypto ecosystem. In Q1 we will:

  • Seek new partners for Nash Link and our white-label fiat ramps, driving volume and bringing attention to our retail products
  • Carry out co-marketing with DeFi partners and new blockchains supported on our wallet
  • Launch new marketing campaigns targeting the European region, focused on acquiring new retail users

You can stay up to date with Nash by following our Twitter and Instagram, as well as joining our official Telegram group. We also encourage all Nash Exchange token (NEX) holders to join our community platform, where they can talk directly with the team and receive reliable answers to questions.

Tom
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Compliance and Registration

Nash was the first Crypto Platform in Europe registered by the Financial Market Authority (FMA) of Liechtenstein. Nash is also registered with the De Nederlandsche Bank N.V. (DNB).
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Industry Leading Security

Nash’s Crypto Platform and Investment App uses state-of-the art, audited security measures and is fully non-custodial.
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Rates may vary over time. Crypto-powered earnings on Nash are not covered by any deposit guarantee schemes like bank savings accounts and involve risks unique to the underlying technologies: (i) Exploitations of the smart contracts used; (ii) Forex fluctations between your national currency and the US dollar, which underlies crypto earnings assets; (iii) USD stablecoins losing their peg. 
Nash is a trademark of Neon Exchange Aktiengesellschaft. Neon Exchange Aktiengesellschaft is an exchange bureau registered with the FMA of Liechtenstein (TT Exchange Service Provider Nr. 261096 as defined by the Token- und VT-Dienstleister-Gesetz / TVTG, 3 October 2019)
Nash Exchange B.V. is registered with De Nederlandsche Bank N.V. (DNB) as a provider of crypto services. DNB conducts supervision and monitors Nash Exchange B.V.’s compliance with the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act and the Sanctions Act 1977. Nash Exchange B.V. is not under the prudential supervision of DNB nor under business conduct supervision of the AFM. This means there is no supervision of financial requirements or business risks and no specific consumer financial protections.
Neon Exchange Aktiengesellschaft is a partner of Modulr Finance B.V., a company registered in the Netherlands with company number 81852401, which is authorised and regulated by the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) as an Electronic Money Institution (Firm Reference Number: R182870) for the issuance of electronic money and payment services. Your account and related payment services are provided by Modulr Finance B.V. Your funds will be held in one or more segregated accounts and safeguarded in line with the Financial Supervision Act – for more information please see this link.
Neon Exchange Aktiengesellschaft also provides fiat-crypto exchange services. These are separate and unrelated to the account and payment services you receive from Modulr Finance B.V.