SINGAPORE SEPTEMBER 16 2021 / EMURGO Ptd. Ltd. – EMURGO, the official commercial arm of the Cardano blockchain protocol, formally announced today Astarter – a Cardano DeFi development project – to facilitate building of decentralized financial (DeFi) services infrastructure on Cardano.
This joint venture combines EMURGO’s technical expertise and deep understanding of Cardano as one of its founding entities, with its external partner’s experiences in developing DeFi technical infrastructure.
Cardano’s Alonzo hard fork successfully integrated smart contract functionality to Cardano’s blockchain which now provides developers with the ability to start deploying a variety of decentralized applications (dApps) including DeFi, NFTs, and more for Cardano ADA users.
Astarter will start development of an initial decentralized exchange offering (IDO) launchpad to be released by the end of the year, along with a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Cardano to follow. Upon completion, Astarter will also plan to integrate lending & borrowing (decentralized money market) features on Cardano. These services aim to bring more utility to Cardano ADA users and open up financial services to a greater number of people in underserved regions.
“DeFi has been gaining traction very rapidly over the past year as it can provide more accessible financial services to many people that have been underserved by the current financial system. A wider range of services promotes financial inclusion and social cohesion, especially in areas lacking in traditional financial services. Astarter is a step towards leveraging Cardano’s research-driven blockchain as a platform to build important decentralized financial infrastructure that can be used by anyone,” said EMURGO CEO Ken Kodama.
“Decentralized finance has appealed to the crypto community through its improved transparency, security, and credibility of processing financial transactions. The value of crypto assets under management in DeFi apps have risen sharply. In this case, we have created Astarter to serve as the DeFi hub on Cardano to contribute more possibilities to the Cardano ecosystem by providing fair, safe, and open financial services on Cardano. This will help accelerate DeFi apps to further empower the Cardano ecosystem,” said Astarter CEO Chris Tang.
According to a joint report by the World Economic Forum and the Wharton Blockchain and Digital Asset Project, the value of digital assets locked in DeFi smart contracts grew from $670 million to $13 billion and associated user wallets increased from 100,000 to 1.2 million from 2019 to 2020, signaling a large wave of user interest. The report also states that “DeFi represents a distinct and potentially significant development, both within the landscape of blockchain and of financial services more generally.” [1] Currently, there is approximately $100 billion USD total locked value (TVL) in DeFi applications.
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About EMURGO
EMURGO is the official commercial arm of Cardano and provides socially impactful solutions to solve some of the most intricate problems of organizations. As a founding entity of the Cardano protocol, EMURGO is able to leverage its abilities for large-scale blockchain development and rapid solutions deployment to benefit its global clients.
EMURGO has offices in Singapore, India, and Indonesia, and a roster of global clients & partners. To connect and learn more, visit https://dev.emurgo.io.
