On the 15th of June, our very own Kieron Cartledge attended an AMA over on the Crypto Miners group! He had a lot of insight to offer on where we’re taking Baanx and was excited to share everything we’re building. For all those who could not attend the AMA, we have the recap below. Also, do make sure to attend our upcoming AMAs and Twitter Spaces for the latest updates on Baanx!
Introductory Segment
Q: First of all, please give us a brief explanation about ‘Baanx’. What popped up in your mind to create such a platform in this space?
Baanx is a crypto-as-a-service fintech platform.
We manage all the services for our B2B and B2C customers. Our mission is to bring regulated products to unregulated crypto communities — better than traditional financial services: cards, Cryptodraft/Stableloan (‘free money against your digital assets’), loyalty, fiat on/off ramps, and wallets. Baanx operates globally, in particular in the UK and Europe, with a launch in the US planned with large partner communities including Ledger, Tezos, Reef, Akoin and other customers. Many of our services are all powered by our token — BXX.
Q: So what are your main features and advantages that discern you from other Projects?
That is a great question! 😱
I am sure you will all agree that there is a gap between the fiat and crypto world. We bridge this gap by allowing users to spend crypto seamlessly on physical Visa cards and Mastercards.
We also have fiat on/off ramps, remittance, secured lending against digital assets and other services. These are all designed to make buying, selling, and spending crypto and digital assets as easy as using fiat.
I think we are unique in the market, and have some advantages for users and crypto communities:
1) Faster than a bank — secured lending will be approved and money will be in your account/on a physical or virtual card in minutes. Assets are backed by customers’ digital assets, so this is secured lending. 🚀
2) No need for background checks for lending once the user has been onboarded. Once they are officially a user, no additional checks or fees are required to get a loan. Put simply, this is ‘one click’ lending. 📃
3) 10% LTV for BTC for free. LTV = Loan to Value. Example: for every $10,000 in wallet, we will lend $1,000 interest-free. (10% of asset we hold) 💵
4) Cheaper — 0% interest rates when staking BXX. If they hold BXX, we will lend up to 50% LTV. ☑️
5) We charge some of the lowest load and transfer fees, and we do not charge remittance fees. 💰
6) Another key element is accountability. Baanx is taking responsibility — we are listed on the temporary register for crypto assets under the FCA regime, access to EMIs, and a consumer lending licence in the UK. 💎
Q: How has the experience and background of your team been effective in the success of your project so far?
Our team has 100+ years of international mobile and bank tech experience: mobile banking, Ripple, e-wallets, smart cards, trading software, HSMs, payments, FX, and digital security.
Each of our team members are a gem.
💎 Garth Howat — CEO and Founder
Garth founded Consumer Lending & Fintech businesses. Successful entrepreneur for the last 15 years. Financial Conduct Authority approved in the UK.💎 Mark Evans — CCO/FCO.
Mark has over 25 years’ worth of experience in corporate/CFO positions — CommerzBank, UBS, JP Morgan.💎 Jim Yang — CTO.
Jim spent 20+ years in development, managing development teams. FinTech, mobile, retail. Degree53, Apple.💎 John Wu- (VP Cards)
25+ years in crypto, cards and banking. Set up Bitpay (largest crypto card program in the USA) from scratch and Gemalto (now known as Thales).💎 Alona Dobshynska- (Chief Product Officer)
CEX.io, E&Y and banking tech — Head of Product with over 6 years of experience at one of the top exchanges in the world.💎 Andreas Kapsos- (Brand & Communications Director)
10+years in Fintech + SaaS, including being employee #11 at Revolut and Marketing Director at Plum.
Q: Now tell us about your native token. What are the some of utilities of the BXX token in your ecosystem? And if possible, share with us the Tokenomics?
Of course I can — #BXXtoTheMoon!
BXX is the native token of Baanx and its ecosystem.
Currently it is available in the Baanx App, Tezos Crypto Life app and will be rolling out into other partner platforms too such as Reef, Ledger and some other clients we are yet to announce. 📣
BXX allows you to do the following:
❗️ Stake BXX & Earn APY — up to 25%.
❗️ Cryptodraft Rates (across Baanx partner ecosystem). These start at 0% APR and are based on the level of BXX you hold, the LTV can be higher.
❗️ Cashback & Loyalty with BXX — Across the majority of the Baanx partner ecosystem — including Ledger and Tezos.
❗️ Rewards for sending BXX.
The general BXX 2022 Roadmap is available here 👇
https://medium.com/baanx-bxx/baanx-bxx-2022-roadmap-b71522066442
The BXX utility 2022 Roadmap specifically for Tezos and Ledger products is available here:
https://medium.com/baanx-bxx/bxx-2022-roadmap-in-ledger-and-tezos-8a612b511c27
Q: So how long did it take to develop this project? What plans do you have for the future? And what can we expect from Baanx? If possible, could you please share the road map with us?
We have 3 main priorities right now for 2022.
1) Keep growing the utility of BXX and its community.
2) Launch the full Ledger and Tezos rollout — UK, EEA and USA.
3) Launch more of our 30+ other partners!
💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥
The general BXX 2022 Roadmap is available here 👇
https://medium.com/baanx-bxx/baanx-bxx-2022-roadmap-b71522066442
The BXX utility 2022 Roadmap specifically for Tezos and Ledger products is available here:
https://medium.com/baanx-bxx/bxx-2022-roadmap-in-ledger-and-tezos-8a612b511c27
Twitter Segment
Q: I saw that one of Baanx’s products that users are most excited about is something called the “CL Card”. Can you give us more details about this upcoming product? What will this CL Card be and how will it work? What benefits will users get from it? When do you plan to release it?
Great question 😊
The CL card powered by Ledger product offers a variety of cardholder benefits, including seamless crypto spending with instant conversion to fiat at the time of purchase and up to 2% cashback on monthly spending. Users can also access a Flexible Cryptodraft and Stableloan, with rates starting at 0%.
Additionally, we’re also planning on launching a crypto Paycheck feature, which will be announced soon. 📄
We are also planning to release the CL app, which gives users the ability to access a variety of features, all in one platform. Users can save on their crypto, stake BXX tokens, set up cashback and borrow a line of stablecoin credit while using their crypto as collateral. 📱
I would say that the product should be released in the market within next month. First it will be available in the UK 🇬🇧, followed by the EEU 💶 and the USA.
Q: I see that Baanx’s own Global CL Card will only be available for some countries within the European region. As the project develops overtime, will you be planning to expand the availability of your card to cater to other overseas countries around the world?
Thank you for the question 🙋♂️
First the CL card powered by Ledger will be released in the UK followed by the EEU and the USA. We are constantly working on our market expansion, aligning with legal requirements and regulations. We hope that in the future our product can enter more markets and regions.
The roadmap within space and what we do is never ending. This means we have the opportunity to really go as far as we need to make sure we stay within the regulatory boundaries and are rolling it out in the right manner 💥
Q: I saw that Baanx introduced its newest product called “Stableloans”. Can you give us more details about it? What are Stableloans and how does this work? How can users open their Stableloans? Also, what benefits do users get from this product, specially if they are BXX holders?
Love the question 💙
I am happy to see that this community has done some research about what Baanx offers.
First of all, I would like to say that we offer 2 products:
✅ Cryptodraft
✅ Stableloan‘Cryptodraft’- we own the word! ®
Opening a Cryptodraft allows you to access a line of credit while using your crypto as collateral. It gives you the option to spend up to 35% of your collateral value as credit on your card. The first 10% is interest-free, while the remaining 25% is subject to a small monthly interest rate (MPR). To receive collateral back to your wallet, you will need to repay any outstanding balances, as well as any additional interest payments.
Exclusive benefits are an upcoming part of BXX’s utility that we’re excited to offer to you all! As a BXX holder, you can look forward to higher levels of interest-free spending. This means you’ll be able to spend more on your card with zero interest! 🥳🤩
Stableloans
A Stableloan is a product that allows you to borrow stablecoin assets, including USDT, USDC and EURT.
As a borrower, you’ll have the ability to choose how much you want to borrow and for how long. You’ll be able to borrow stablecoins up to 50% of the value of your deposited crypto collateral.
Unlike a Cryptodraft, a Stableloan is fixed term and gives you a higher level of borrowing. You will also be able to see the exact amount of interest you’ll need to pay in total.
BXX holders can look forward to lower interest rates when taking out a Stableloan.
Q: As you’re in the UK, there are some rules for crypto. Can you please tell me about the regulation?
A very important question!
While many crypto lenders are offshore and unregulated, Baanx has FCA, and own stake in a USA bank (Maxwell Bank) which has been FDIC certified since 1943!
We have a number of UK (FCA crypto registered) and EU licences directly and via regulated partners. Therefore, our clients can be sure that they enter transparent and legal crypto space with Baanx.
Q: With the present market fluctuations, your project seems to continue its development drive unabated. Can you tell us some of the secrets for success at the #Baanx platform? What should we expect in the near future?
There is no secret. The truth is that at Baanx, we are thinking very big, ambitiously and have an amazing experienced team. Just imagine that our team has 100+ years of international mobile and bank tech experience!
Soon we have big partnership products coming out with Tezos and Ledger (450,000+ have signed up so far!). Ledger has over 4m users and 10% of the world’s crypto assets are stored on Ledger — Cryptodraft, Stableloan and loyalty (crypto cashback) and our unique managed services.
We will be able to add many of these services, all powered by BXX. The more BXX you hold, the more lower interest rate, higher savings rate, and better rewards users will access. We have over 30 signed customers, all of which will be live and rolling out to their communities over the next year.
Take a look at our updated product roadmap if you still haven’t. There’s a lot coming!
DeFi customers go live with physical & virtual cards.
Partnerships with NFT & GameFi projects.
Baanx will launch Ledger and Tezos in the UK, EEA and the US.
Followed up by the launch of Baanx cards, wallets and secured interest-free Cryptodraft and Stableloan in the United States.
Telegram Live Segment
Q: How can I buy your tokens?
You can find them on MEXC
You can also buy on Uniswap — https://v2.info.uniswap.org/home
Q: One of the products of Baanx that I found interesting is the Money Remittance and TextBit as payment service. Can you tell how will this works around the world? How is its speed and transparency, and is low cost guaranteed?
Yes sure! So, what we do is we tether your mobile number to your wallet address. So when you want to send money — whether its BTC or USDT — you simply type in your telephone number and select “send”. Alternatively, you can access your phonebook and select “send”. If the user you’re sending to has an account, the funds will appear almost instantly. If they don’t have an account, they will receive a text to open one!
Q: Will the Baanx platform become a state-wide global platform? Do you have partnerships with financial bodies in each country? So far who are the partners of Baanx?
We have a number of partnerships with Visa, Mastercard, China UnionPay and a number of processors. We try to partner with the correct people to get to where we need to be.
We want to do things correctly. Rhis is why we work with, not against our regulators and partners.
In terms of client partnerships, we have the likes of Tezos, Ledger, Reef, Akoin and others who don’t want to be named for a a number of reasons! But we are constantly growing our portfolio and are launching projects as we speak 😉
Q: Is your project only for elite investors? What about others with small funds — is it open to everyone?
Of course it is! We are an inclusive community, meaning you can hold as little as 1 BXX!
We work with our partners and community to ensure we are offering everyone a chance to have a card in their hand 🖐
Q: I read that you will soon be launching your CL Cards. This is very interesting since it would open a wider gateway for crypto-fiat payment. Will the first release of the CL card be only limited for few people? What are the features of holding this card? How can I get one?
The CL Card powered by Ledger will be rolling out very, very soon. You can see on my Twitter (Kieron_Baanx) a post of me using the CL card today just before this AMA.
We will be rolling it out in the UK, USA and EEA in a very phased manner. I would also keep an eye out on social media channels for more information on timings 🙂