On Wednesday Galoy, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Beach Wallet creator, announced that it had raised $4 million through an investment round managed by Hivemind Ventures. The startup also launched Stablesats, which is a stablecoin product that leverages derivatives contracts in order to create a bitcoin-backed synthetic currency pegged to US dollars. Stablesats allows users to transact through the Lightning Network while also protecting against volatility in the crypto market.
Fintech Startup Galoy Raises $4 Million in a Funding Round Led by Hivemind Ventures
Galoy, the startup behind the Bitcoin Beach Wallet, has made two announcements on August 3. Galoy, the startup behind the Bitcoin Beach Wallet, has made two announcements on August 3. Galoy stated that the round was also attended by “other top bitcoin investors”.
Max Webster, founder of Hivemind Ventures believes that open-source bitcoin banking is vital to encourage global adoption of technologies such as the Lightning Network. Webster stated in a press release that Galoy significantly lowers the barriers for communities and organizations to create their own banks and connect to the first open monetary, and payments standards in the world.
The Lightning Network (LN), a layer 2 (L2) protocol that is built on top Bitcoin, aims to scale the network and allow peer-to-peer transactions at lower fees than traditional on-chain transactions. The founder of Galoy, Nicolas Burtey, wholeheartedly believes LN is the future of BTC payments. “It’s not secret that Lightning and bitcoin are disrupting traditional finance,” Burtey stated during the fund raise announcement. We see the Galoy client, contributors, and team as one community that works together to create a bridge to a more inclusive global financial system .”
Galoy Reveals the Stablesats, a Lightning Network-Powered Bitcoin -Backed Synthetic Dollar
Presently, the value locked in the LN system is roughly $79. 60 million, or around 3,418. 14 BTC. Galoy also announced a new product called Stablesats. Galoy explained in a blog post, that Stablesats is one of the newest features being added to the cryptocurrency payment platform. Galoy wrote in a blog post that Stablesats is an alternative to fiat bank integration or stablecoins. It uses derivatives contracts for a bitcoin-backed synthetic currency pegged to USD. Galoy’s announcement includes:
This enables dollar-equivalent USD accounts inside of Lightning wallets, solving one of the biggest problems for people using bitcoin for everyday transactions: short-term exchange rate volatility.
Burtey believes that technology like the Lightning Network or Stablesats can help digital transactions thrive in all regions of the globe. Burtey observed that Bitcoin has enabled digital transactions in previously unbanked areas across Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere. However, it is difficult to manage financial obligations due to its volatility. With Stablesats-enabled Lightning wallets, users are able to send from, receive to and hold money in a USD account in addition to their default BTC account. Regardless of how the bitcoin exchange rate changes, the dollar value of their account does not change. $1 in their USD account will always be $1.
The Stablesats product has its own website which gives a detailed summary of what it is and how to use the technology. Galoy’s open-source codebase for Stablesats and its other products can be seen on Github. Stablesats uses “an instrument called perpetual inverted swap to create synthetic USD”, and the team points out that there are “other interesting avenues for exploring .”
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This story contains tags
$4 Million, Bitcoin, Bitcoin (BTC), BTC-backed, derivatives contracts, El Zonte Capital, Fundraise, Galoy, Galoy Founder, Hivemind Ventures, Kingsway Capital, lightning network, ln, Nicolas Burtey, Product Launch, Stablecoin, Stablesats, Stablesats Product, synthetic dollar, Timechain, Trammell Venture Partners, Valor Equity Partners
What do you think about Galoy raising $4 million from strategic investors? What are your thoughts on Galoy’s Stablesats products? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.
Jamie Redman
Jamie Redman, the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News, is a Florida-based financial journalist. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. Redman is passionate about Bitcoin, open-source codes, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,700 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
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