The cryptocurrency industry is known for its volatility and unpredictability. Its relentless nature has led to more cryptocurrency startups in Singapore closing his door in just a few years since their inception.
However, not everyone was bitten by the dust. We delve into the four cryptocurrency startups in Singapore that not only stand strong, but continue to thrive on the global stage amid an ever-changing and unpredictable crypto landscape.
1. Zilliqa
Born from a peer-reviewed academic study conducted at the National University of Singapore, Zilliqa founded a team of academics, entrepreneurs and engineers in 2017.
In 2018, Zilliqa concluded its initial coin offer (ICO) and successfully raised $ 22 million in ETH.
After the 2018 ICO, Zilliq’s ecosystem and community have grown significantly, processing nearly 12 million transactions since its launch in 2019. Zilliqa now has a thriving community of over 150,000 enthusiasts, more than 780,000 wallets and a growing network of over 1,000 developers.
As one of the most prominent names within Singapore’s blockchain ecosystem, after the launch of the mainnet in January 2019, Zilliqa became the world’s first public blockchain built on sharp architecture. Sharding is a database management technique that breaks down a database into smaller segments, allowing for parallel and extensive transaction processing.
At the end of 2019, Xfers – FinTech platform based in Singapore – launches first SGD-fixed stabilcoin ($ XSGD) on the Zilliq block.
This MAS-approved initiative brings immeasurable potential to the Singapore blockchain ecosystem, enabling SGD-denominated trades and transactions to take place on the blockchain. With the XSGD dollar, the Singapore dollar has actually become the third most token currency in the world.
During 2020, the proliferation of decentralized financing (DeFi) applications in the blockchain space created unprecedented growth opportunities for the team.
As a smart contract platform characterized by high performance, low fees and enterprise-level security, Zilliqa is designed for applications that handle high-value transactions such as DeFi products.
Zilswap, the first decentralized exchange on the Zilliq block, put into operation in 2020 and since then, the volume of 24-hour trade has grown to over $ 11 million.
As part of Zilliq’s DeFi ecosystem, a wide range of decentralized applications have also been published on the Zilliqa mainnet. They include similar NFT forging services and the Mintable.app market, decentralized Unstoppable Domain service providers, and the zilFighters gaming blockchain app.
To further develop its ecosystem, Zilliqa also has its own ZILHive an initiative that seeks to promote blockchain through accelerators, incubators, education and venture initiatives.
Zilliqa Capital, the project’s central business and investment hub, was recently launched in March. Zilliqa Capital wants to invest in decentralized and fintech solutions through investment, wealth management, insurance, lending, payments and remittances, as well as critical infrastructures that will enable Web 3.0.
Moving forward, the promise of high yields and low gas charges ensures that Zilliqa is the ideal blockchain for new projects and experiments to upgrade and flourish, consolidating its position as a legitimate contender as the protocol of choice in the DeFi space.
2. Switcheo
Switcheo it planted its roots in 2018 with the launch of the world’s first decentralized exchange (DEX) on China’s China-based blockchain platform, at a time when DEXs were relatively unheard of.
The exchange allowed users to trade crypto assets in a non-confidential way directly from their own wallets and without the need for a central intermediary.
Switche’s popularity was visible from the start. Backed by its innovative technology and ambitious plans to decentralize financial markets, the launch was launched $ 8 million in ICO.
Three years later, Switcheo has advanced and launched new innovative products and features in an increasingly saturated industry such as Demex, an open-ended financial platform built on the Switcheo TradeHub side chain, which has exceeded a trade volume of $ 75 million since its launch in December.
Demex allows its users to freely trade crypto assets on various blocks, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain or Neo. By investing a $ SWTH token on Demex, users can also earn a cut of all trades made on Demex.
Crypto-natives have also signed strategic partnerships with significant players in the industry DeFiance Capital,, Three Arrows Capital,, Zilliqa i NGC Ventures, whose support will serve as a further driver of the company’s growth.
Moving forward, Switcheo plans to grow Demex into a decentralized cross-chain trade, enabling the project to gather value for its investors in all relevant blockchains.
3. Coinhako
Founded in 2014, Coinhako started with a very simple mission: to create a simple and effortless way to access Bitcoin in Singapore.
Since then, centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) has scaled to offer its services to other countries in Asia. It offers multiple pairs for cryptocurrency trading and has grown into one of the most prominent platforms in the space.
Coinhako is also one of the longest-running platforms survived through the “crypto winters” of 2014 and 2018, keeping our heads down and continuing to build and focus on research and development.
In 2021, Coinhako emerged as a key player in Singapore’s cryptocurrency industry. It boasts support for over 30 tokens, including $ BTC, $ ETH, $ DAI, $ LTC, $ XRP and more (unlike that, Binance.sg only supports eight different tokens).
Coinhako also supports the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies via Xfer, bank transfers or credit and debit cards.
Thanks to broad support for various crypto assets and integration with multiple fiat gateways, Coinhako remains one of the easiest affordable and beginner-friendly ways for new investors in Singapore to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies in Singapore.
Being one of the pioneers in space and surviving the exhausting crypto winters, Coinhako certainly deserved his place on this list. Moving forward, the team will continue to build on its product suite, with the goal of offering its customers a more powerful suite of cryptocurrency services.
4. Cyber network
Founded in 2017, Cyber Network is a liquidity hub that aggregates liquidity from a wide range of liquidity sources to power current and secure crypto exchanges for any decentralized applications without the need for an intermediary.
As a hub for liquidity protocols, Kyber has built KyberPRO framework satisfied with professional markets and recently launched an advanced AMM protocol, Cyber DMM.
Kyber DMM is the world’s first unlicensed Dynamic Market Maker protocol with greater flexibility and extremely high capital efficiency. More usage-specific protocols will be added to Kyber to allow different liquidity providers with their unique needs to offer liquidity to Kyber.
Kyber uses more than 100 blockchain projects around the world and has enabled a trade volume worth over $ 5 billion. Using Kyber, developers can build innovative applications, including instant token replacement services, ERC20 payment flows, and financial DApps.
The network is open source and managed KyberDAO, a decentralized community of KNC token owners who invest their tokens and collectively vote and decide on key parameters and in return receive rewards.
Kyber Network is definitely one project that all Ethereum users should keep on their radar.
It’s not easy not to collapse and burn
The cryptocurrency industry is fast and relentless. They want projects that don’t fit inevitably decay.
Only projects backed by a strong and growing team, as well as an engaged and active community, will survive in the long run.
We are happy to see that many local startups are constantly learning and adapting not only to keep their teams afloat, but also to thrive over the years. Occasionally it’s nice to look back at how far some of these startups and communities have come.
This article is a contribution by Jack Yeu, co-founder of Switche.
Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are a key pillar of content for Vulcan Post, and we will continue to monitor developments in this area. You can follow our reporting here.
Credits for featured images: Ziliqa / Kyber Network / Coinhako / Switcheo
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