Everest Newsletter — March 2024
📝 A Note From Our CEO & Co-Founder, Bob Reid
Measure twice, cut once. After six years of building in crypto, I learned that there is a reason exchanges wait for at least two cycles on-chain to confirm a transaction. Hence, I delayed the quarterly update because I wanted to double-verify a few things. Per the below, I think you’ll appreciate my rationale.
In the November newsletter, I said “it feels like crypto winter is truly thawing, and Everest is launching products in time for the coming bull run.” Although it wasn’t as prescient as predicting the need for proof of human/uniqueness and regulations in 2018, suffice to say we’re fully in a bull market — BTC peaked over $70k and ETH over $4k earlier in March. Also, the utility of the $ID token was limited in early November (Identity, KYC/AML, send/receive). Since then we’ve added a lot of new platform features, as well as some significant B2B functionality that consumers don’t immediately “see”, all of which consume or require $ID Tokens. Simply put, organizations and users can do more with the $ID token, and we’re launching products that use A LOT of $ID tokens. For example:
- Send/Receive crypto on various networks, including EverChain
- Swap 160 tokens Ethereum-to-Ethereum (more cost-effective than Uniswap); Ethereum-to-EverChain; EverChain-to-EverChain (as cheap as a CEX)
- Adding swap/buy from BTC, Solana, BSC, Polygon and other networks as well
- Buy directly from EU banks
- Sell into stablecoins, including EUR.c
- Withdraw euros into EU banks
- Approvals to tokenize & swap for other assets
- Organizations can hold $ID tokens for API access
- Tokenization of assets and tokens on Ethereum and EverChain
Also, the UI on the web wallet was updated, so we’re seeing more traction. Much more still to come on that front, but please understand that we are still focused on b2b2c. I hope you’re starting to see that due to the architecture of Everest and the $ID token, we are tokenizing society, not just a single use-case.
In addition to the bull market in November, I mentioned “the buzz about Real World Assets (RWAs), forecasted market size of $16 trillion to $24 trillion!…. We’re in the beginning of the first inning of RWAs”. And “real” real-world-assets (RWAs) are revving up. I say “real” because the RWA term is already being over-used by many. Tokenizing a US Treasury, and calling it RWA? It’s treated legally the same as money, so in practice it’s a make-shift savings account with a stablecoin. Okay, kind of neat. Tokenizing recurring revenue streams? Those are PIPEs in normal life; how do these even count as RWAs? Tokenizing a fund? If unlocking trapped liquidity, that’s a great idea…..but can you actually swap ETH for that partner’s units in Sequoia? No, you can’t. There are always governance issues of where those units can go, who can hold them, what, where and how they can be redeemed. I’m not saying tokenizing funds is not RWAs, but I want everyone to understand that there is a 98% probability that users might be swapping for a derivative instrument, and likely not have any voting rights, benefit from dividends, recourse, or ability to get liquid. In sum, not all things are created equal in the RWA tokenizing game. Here’s a review of Everest’s approach.
Given Everest’s turnkey, vertical stack approach in which we include deal origination, custody & requisite licenses, tokenization and primary issuance (on Ethereum and/or EverChain), plus secondary trading (swapping to/from crypto, or purchase via fiat), Everest started with the basics a few years ago:
- Utility token: $ID
- RWA: fiat currencies
- NFT: INFO token
- Crypto: wrapping 153 existing crypto currencies
With all the kinks worked out with our own tokens, we are starting to offer services to those with physical assets ($4.8 of the $16 trillion forecast), and securities (roughly $4 of the $16 trillion forecast) that require tokenization.
Over $250M Coming to Everest’s Custody — Tokenizing “Real” RWAs
Many of you may have noticed my reference on Shark Tank to one of our first tokenization clients. It is a multibillion-dollar, international mining conglomerate, who is placing over $250M into Everest’s custody, and will be selling roughly $20M worth of tokens — all leveraging Everest’s platform. The roughly $250M of assets represents two lots out of the dozens they own, so they view this as a “test” to determine how to do more with us. Look for a utility token (not commodity token) sale in the near future that also includes $ID token bonuses and utility for $ID holders and/or EverWallets. As part of the partnership, they purchased 1,000,000 $ID tokens at a price of $0.25/$ID from THE Foundation for API access, and provisioning of their token (using the CRDT token engine); these $ID tokens cannot be sold on the market, and must be continuously held for access and functionality. When live, users will be able to swap ETH, USDT and other tokens for their token in the Everest widget, and all transactions will use and consume $ID tokens. Additionally, we will be adding $ID token incentives to buy and trade their token. Look for more information on all this in the near future.
To give you an example of the $ID token functionality for this use-case, see the below calculator. It has the following assumptions: 20k users who will purchase their token (half of whom will be KYCed), for an average purchase amount of $1k, and the price of $ID is $0.25. Half the purchases will be on Ethereum, and the other half will be on EverChain.
This is for a single client, and does not include that those 20k new users may leverage Everest for credential sharing, payments, international remittances, buying/trading/selling on Everest’s existing platform.
A client of this size shopped the market from multiple players, and found Everest’s platform and ecosystem the most compelling. The win is a testament to the hard work the team put in over the years, “skating to where the puck is going to be”. There are others in this segment expressing interest in Everest, so we expect a lot more to come.
More Custody, Tokenization & Bridge Partnerships
Additionally, we recently signed a partnership to custody and tokenize a utility token. What does that mean? We are taking custody of tens of millions of their tokens, issuing a CRDT version on EverChain, and allowing users to buy, trade and sell their tokens more cost-effectively (no expensive gas fees), and more easily deal with fiat-on/off ramps. Again, the utility of the $ID token is front and center, as the issuer purchased $ID tokens for API access, and customization of the CRDT token; also, all buying, swapping and sending require $ID tokens.
Also, we signed a deal to custody tokens for a bridge. “A bridge?” you may ask. Yes! Some of the Chainlink afficionados may remember me explaining that many of the regulations will be applied to companies, teams, and DAOs that facilitate transfer. In Chainlink’s case, they don’t move value, tokens or money; they message or inform the players that actually move the value. Many bridges are locking up or burning tokens on one chain, and minting on another, and truly facilitating value movement, conversion, etc. — and are nowhere near “sufficiently decentralized” to be considered permissionless by most regulators. And as such these bridges will be classified as custodians, and be forced to get licensed (MiCA CASP license with associated policies, reporting, etc.) …..or use Everest! To make the point even more poignant, the referral came from the client’s legal team. Given the potential transaction volumes, we capped the monthly transaction value of $ID, so that it’s more like a monthly SaaS program. And yes, $ID will be used and consumed.
Distribution Deals Signed with Tier One Players
On the swapping stocks to/from crypto front, we continue to make progress technically, legally and on the business. I’m currently demonstrating swapping ETH to AAPL in our dev environment, and working with regulators & broker/dealers to expand functionality. We already have deals signed for distribution of the white-labeled widget with tier one players, who reach 100s of thousands of users, who currently trade billions of dollars of crypto. And again, the functionality of the $ID token will highlight identity, KYC/AML, SDK, buying, swapping and selling transactions.
You can see some of the use-cases and how each potentially leverages the $ID token here. Feel free to play around with the average transaction amount, $ID price and such. We will continue to update this as more partnerships transition from NDA to public. Reiterating the above, I hope it is becoming clearer that Everest is tokenizing a society, made up of 100s of use-cases, applications and transactions — all that leverage the functionality of the $ID token.
🤝 Shark Tank: It’s a DEAL
Watch Everest’s successful Shark Tank pitch which wrapped up with Bob Reid shaking hands with Dino Fino…
🎥 ETH Denver Interview With Bob Reid
Jace Sparks delivered community questions to Bob at ETH Denver and got answers to why banks won’t accept DIDs or ZKPs for KYC, how Everest secures user biometrics, what Bob is most excited about for Everest’s future, and more…
📅 Q4 2023 Updates
Onwards and upwards… 🗻
