Although many have labelled 2023 as a down year for fintech, not all fintechs experienced this – case and point: Bitget. The cryptocurrency exchange and web3 company has shared that its spot trading volume surged to $81.6billion, marking a 94 per cent increase despite market turbulence.

In South Asia, the firm witnessed a 540 per cent increase in spot trading volume in Q4 2023, marking a significant rise from previous figures. In terms of total trading value, Bitget exceeded $3.14trillion in 2023. Commenting on the growth, Vugar Usi Zade, COO at Bitget said: “The incredible jump in our spot trading volumes in South Asia is the result of building trust, perseverance, and a strong relationship with our users in the region.

“At Bitget, we’re enhancing security compliance as we adhere to global and regional financial regulations while providing a robust web3 ecosystem and, investing in high potential blockchain startups.”

Bitget’s user base flourished, reaching 20 million, supported by a team of 1,500 staff members. The platform’s listing strategy resulted in the addition of 355 new listings, marking an impressive 46 per cent year-on-year increase. This has elevated Bitget’s offerings to encompass over 600 tokens and 700 spot trading pairs, underlining our commitment to asset diversity.

Bitget native token success

The platform’s performance also sparked increased demand for BGB, Bitget’s native token. It achieved an all-time high price of $1.2 USD in February 2024, representing an increase of over 300 per cent from its value at the beginning of 2023. The surge in BGB holders, reaching nearly 217,000 by the end of 2023, and a substantial rise in its trading volume can be attributed to the introduction of new features. Not to mention developments in launchpad and launchpool, compliance achievements, and its continuous efforts to enhance Bitget’s trading services and ecosystem.

In 2023 Bitget announced the $100million WEB3 Fund focused on accelerating Asian blockchain startup ecosystem. Bitget hosted over 12 meetups and events in South Asia alone, including Build For Web3 presenting funding-related opportunities to Indian startups under the $10million BlockchainForYouth Fund. With these initiatives, Bitget has built strong trust and credibility in the South Asia market, and consequently, garnered the support of over a million user

Cross-border payment and FX fintech firm Neo is celebrating profitability – as an increasing number of SMEs explore alternatives to banks to manage their international business needs.

The Barcelona-based fintech provides a one-stop-shop multi-currency account for corporate treasurers and recorded an annual revenue of over €5million and an annual profit of €1million. Neo also saw cleared volume double in just under a year, reaching over €7billion in 2023 alone, highlighting the growing demand from businesses for alternative banking options.

Neo research highlights that when working with traditional banks, SMEs with international operations suffer from unfair pricing, slow execution and difficulties in reporting transactions. As a result, 92 per cent of SMEs are having conversations about virtual account solutions such as digital wallets to help solve these problems.

An increased bank diversification drive since the banking crisis which highlighted the risks of relying on one or two banking partners has also prompted company treasurers to diversify their banking pools and look to fintech providers as an alternative.

These factors have helped Neo acquire new clients and receive an increasing number of enquiries from corporates that are doing more business abroad and are looking to move away from their traditional banking providers.

Neo has been able to help businesses through its multi-currency account. It offers International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN) through which businesses can send and receive payments in 25 currencies. Neo’s wallet architecture also makes it easy for firms to organise their funds and store multiple currencies, ready for making rapid payments or exchanging currencies, revolutionising the way they transact.

Standing out against VC-backed fintech players

Laurent Descout, co-founder and CEO of Neo, said: “When we founded Neo, we knew that businesses were being underserved by treasury management software and banks which was holding back their international aspirations.

“So, we built a solution using our own proprietary software which simplifies cross-border payments, FX and treasury, giving them everything they need to expand internationally, all in one place. Our solution comes with a top-class support team that helps clients on a daily basis and offers a level of service that banks have failed to provide for too long.

“Over the past year, we have experienced exponential growth across our customer base, volumes and revenues which is a testament to the product and team we have built. Turning Neo into a profitable fintech was our main objective for 2023 and achieving this just three years after the launch of our multi-currency accounts positions Neo as a sustainable business.

“This helps us stand out against some VC-backed fintech players which have struggled with a lack of profitability. This is a very positive message for our shareholders, clients, supervisors and banking partners. Being financially independent will help us continue to grow our success and enhance our offering as we rebuild corporate finance from the ground up.”

Neo now works with more than 300 corporates across 28 countries – with more than 8,000 banks connected to its Bank Identification Code (BIC) on the SWIFT network.

Web3 protocol Blast has reached $823 million in total value locked (TVL) just weeks after its controversial launch in mid-November, with a 26.5% gain over the past seven days, according to data from DefiLlama. 

Behind Blast’s speedy growth is its unique business model. The protocol is a scaling solution for the Ethereum network and offers native yields to users who stake their funds. Users staking are promised a 4% yield on Ether (ETH) and a 5% yield on stablecoins.

However, the protocol’s emergence has been marked by challenges and unpopular developments. On Nov. 30, Blast revealed that a user staking on the protocol saw $100,000 disappear after converting a deposit to DAI (DAI). The issue was caused by a misconfigured slippage parameter on the user interface, resulting in Blast paying the user $10,000 in compensation.

The 10% compensation will be covered by some of Blast’s $20 million capital raised from investors such as Paradigm — the same venture capital firm that lost $278 million on bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. But Blast’s relationship with Paradigm faces its own challenges.

In late November, the head of research at the VC firm, Dan Robinson, shared a statement expressing his disagreement with Blast’s strategy of launching a bridge before its layer-2 network goes live. Blast anticipates releasing its testnet and having a developer’s airdrop in January, while its mainnet should be available in February.

“We think it sets a bad precedent for other projects,” Robinson wrote on X (formerly Twitter), adding that much of the marketing strategy was cheapening the work of a serious team.

Blast and Paradigm have been working together to address the issues, but the VC’s role in the startup’s decision-making remains unclear, as does Blast’s governance structure and technical documentation.

Another noteworthy discussion surrounding the protocol is the lack of withdrawal functionality. Users depositing and staking on Blast trust that the team will add a withdrawal feature at some point in the coming months.

Despite the challenges, Blast has attracted over 75,000 members in just a few weeks, and it is currently hiring senior engineers for its upcoming deployments.

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