On the morning of March 15th, Beijing time, the global "cross-border payment agreement" market completed the most significant M&A transaction in its history. Velo, a blockchain cross-border financial service project from Thailand's Chia Tai Group, officially announced the acquisition of Interstellar, a well-known cross-border payment agreement in the United States, to jointly form a new operating service entity.
As soon as the news came out, the secondary market reacted immediately, and the price of the Velo and USDT trading pair on the OKEx trading platform rose rapidly by 27% within three minutes, reaching US$1.9, a record high. In the Twitter comments that were triggered, many industry insiders also said that after this "snake-tuning elephant" capital operation, it will have a major impact on the current global cross-border payment agreement racetrack, and the payment service market originally dominated by Ripple and Stellar. Change and far-reaching impact.
What does Velo want to do in the post-merger era?
According to a review of the Velo and Interstellar merger announcement by Lende App, the Interstellar team headquartered in San Francisco, California, under the leadership of Mike Kennedy, and the ecological partners Stellar Development Foundation (Stellar Development Foundation) and Lightnet Group continue to support, are Integrate with the Velo laboratory headquartered in Southeast Asia.
The strategic cooperation between Velo Labs and Interstellar began in January 2020 and aims to completely disrupt international payment methods. This latest move further brings the relationship between the two parties closer, combining the comprehensive advantages and ecosystems of the two organizations-the Interstellar team's knowledge and expertise on the Stellar blockchain, and the partnership established by Velo in Southeast Asia Relationship-Help build a global settlement network, so as to achieve faster and cheaper transaction experience and more transparent cross-border payments.
Interstellar and Stellar founder Jed McCaleb said publicly about the merger: "This is an important step for the Stellar ecosystem. It will have the potential to promote the addition of more network nodes, thereby creating more for the Velo and Stellar communities in Asia. the access to payment channels and business opportunities. "
in terms of core personnel changes, Velo Interstellar appointed by the current CEO Mike Kennedy as a new subject Velo CEO, Stellar to integrate ecological resources to accelerate the development of cross-border payment capabilities, application scenarios, the size of the community Velo enter. Mike Kennedy was the founder and CEO of Zelle, a well-known American clearing and settlement company, and also worked for the Stellar Development Foundation for two years. It has sufficient knowledge and resource scheduling capabilities for the traditional financial industry and the Stellar chain network.
Who is Velo who swallows Interstellar?
The Velo agreement itself is a financial agreement that can issue digital credits that can be anchored to any legal currency. These digital credits will then be used for commercial transactions, interactions and operations between trusted partners.
Stellar is a well-known financial payment open network in the blockchain field. Any asset and currency are allowed to be digitally issued, transferred, paid, and traded through the Internet here. Interstellar was founded by the core team of Stellar. Its function is to encourage developers and enterprises to use Stellar as a platform more conveniently and efficiently to create new financial products and services.
Velo uses the Stellar network to develop the underlying blockchain solution specifically for payment. The Stellar network allows traders to conduct large transactions at extremely low costs. 100,000 transactions only need to pay a $1 handling fee on it. At the same time, smart contracts are integrated to solve more complex and diverse application scenarios in cross-border payments.
Therefore, Velo has developed a joint credit transaction network (FCX), which allows business partners to have a variety of currency options, as well as low fee rates and high transaction speed advantages. With the support of many of Velo’s business partners, such as CP Group and Visa, Empower the Southeast Asian payment market to achieve a wide range of commercial landings.
Cross-border payment track "Noble Entrepreneurship"
When industry needs and resources seek entry into the blockchain entrepreneurial market, the "Cross-Border Payment Agreement" is destined to be a "noble" entrepreneurship track. Small teams or companies with shallow industrial backgrounds basically have no chance of survival. Whether it is C-terminal transfer and remittance, or cross-border payment business to the public, only those with strong industrial capital support, diverse payment landing scenarios, existing compliance backgrounds, and the opposite financial institution have the ability to promote programs can break through.
Velo was established in 2018 by the Chinese multinational giant, Thailand's largest business group-Chia Tai Group. At the beginning of its establishment, CP Group directly invested 20 million U.S. dollars in Velo; and gradually using Velo for fund management, trade financing and settlement, through CP Group in finance, retail, supply chain, telecommunications, real estate, media, pharmaceuticals, agricultural and animal husbandry food Many other business lines provide landing support for Velo. This includes heavy payment scenarios such as 12,000 7-11 convenience stores, multiple banks, Zhengda Plaza, Zhengda Youxian, and Zhengda e-commerce.
The Velo United Credit Transaction Network (FCX) completed the development last year and achieved the first transaction on the network, achieving the set goals ahead of schedule. The joint credit transaction network is a distributed network with an access mechanism. Inside the network, there is no central node, and all data is sent from one user to another through the shortest path available. Trusted partners issue digital credits linked to any stable currency for daily operations. The settlement of these digital credits is guaranteed by Velo tokens. Therefore, Velo tokens bridge the value of different asset types and enable liquidity to enter and exit the Velo credit exchange network.
In 2021, the Velocity wallet will be upgraded, and a mobile version of the United Credit Exchange Network (FCX) will also come out. In addition, this year Velo will also develop loan solutions for the United Credit Transaction Network (FCX), enabling partners to obtain loan practices through the United Credit Transaction Network (FCX).
At present, the global cross-border transfer payment market share exceeds US$1 trillion, and the market value of Southeast Asia alone has reached US$150 billion. At the same time, there are still more than 170 million people in Southeast Asia who have no bank cards, no bank accounts, and no access to basic financial services. The characteristics of cryptocurrency provide a perfect solution for cross-border transfers.
In addition, according to the statistics of the Chainde App, in 2020, mainstream cross-border payment protocols have experienced an explosive growth of up to 3000% in market value. Among the mainstream US dollar stablecoins (some have cross-border payment transfer functions), USDC, USDT and DUSD The market value has increased by more than 200%, with a maximum of 1200%. Compared with DeFi, the cross-border payment scene has also risen astonishingly, but silently. Behind this strong capital operation of Velo, the crypto market is brewing a new explosive track.