The Lithuania-based Web3-focused neobank hello has secured a $30 million funding from the foremost metaverse investor Animoca Brands to strengthen the real-world utility of cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The funding is a part of a newly shaped “strategic partnership” between the 2 corporations that includes collaboration on initiatives to “amplify the utility of fungible tokens and NFTs,” an announcement from Animoca Brands from Thursday stated.
Actual-world use instances for crypto
Within the announcement, Animoca Brands stated it plans to assist hello creating extra real-world use instances for crypto inside its personal ecosystem of Web3 initiatives.
“Animoca Brands will support hi’s vision to deliver real-world use cases for cryptocurrencies and utility tokens, allowing users to directly spend and be rewarded with certain tokens used in the Animoca Brands ecosystem, including SAND, EDU, APE, REVV, GMEE, and others,” the announcement stated.
The identical thought was additionally talked about in a remark by Animoca Brands co-founder and government chairman Yat Siu, who famous that hello is “committed to bridging the gap between the fiat and cryptocurrency worlds.”
Equally, hello co-founder Sean Rach stated he believes the brand new partnership will assist drive crypto mass adoption.
“By teaming up with Animoca Brands, we will be able to boost the adoption of hi products and services, helping to drive mass adoption for blockchain technology,” Rach stated.
hello operates the hello Protocol (hiP), described by the corporate as a “scalable, EVM compatible, Sybil-resistant layer-2 sidechain for Ethereum.”
The protocol is powered by the HI token, a governance token with a tiny market capitalization of lower than $10 million that exists on Ethereum and BNB Chain.
For now, the HI token trades on only a few centralized exchanges, together with Bitfinex and MEXC, along with varied decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
The token jumped greater than 45% on the information on Thursday, however has since given again some the positive factors.