ALEX, the first full-service DeFi platform on Bitcoin via Stacks, today announced $5.8M in new financing led by White Star Capital with participation from Cultur3, GBIC, OK Blockchain Capital, and others. The company will use the capital to realize its vision of building trustless and decentralized financial services, secured by the Bitcoin blockchain, while expanding its world-class team.
With more than $100B total value locked in DeFi, largely within the Ethereum ecosystem, ALEX will fulfill the promise of BitFi, by bringing full DeFi services to Bitcoin. As a one-stop shop DeFi platform, ALEX allows:
- Projects to launch their tokens
- Fixed-rate and fixed-term lending and borrowing
- Decentralized exchange with both AMM (Automated Market Maker) and off chain order-book
- Deposit tokens to earn interest
- Obtain exceptional returns via yield farming
Notably ALEX allows for borrowing without the risk of liquidation, through the use of dynamic collateral rebalancing pools. Rather than bitcoin being an inert store of value like digital gold, ALEX brings Bitcoin to life by engaging Bitcoin with the world, allowing it to grow, benefit society and contribute towards building the financial infrastructure needed to realize Web3.
ALEX was created by two female co-founders, Dr. Chiente Hsu and Rachel Yu, who both came from traditional finance where they’ve developed quantitative strategies for major Wall St. banks including Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. They’ve experienced firsthand the inefficiencies of traditional finance, and see in blockchain technology a once in a century opportunity to build a new financial world, open to all and free from intermediaries of any kind.
“The traditional financial system is orchestrated in a way that hinders people who don’t have access to everyday financial tools. We believe that crypto can streamline many financial processes and this funding will allow us to create new opportunities for women and other marginalized groups,” said Dr. Chiente Hsu, CEO of ALEX. “In traditional finance you are forced to trust in people and to trust in the middleman, but all around you there is a lack of trust. With DeFi you don’t have to trust people and you can verify everything by placing that trust only in code, which can open up opportunities for people looking to take out a loan or other financial services.”
“We are extremely excited about the rapidly growing Bitcoin DeFi market and the highly talented ALEX team led by Chiente and Rachel,” said Sep Alavi, general partner at White Star Capital, who led the investment in ALEX. “Bitcoin is now a $1.5T+ asset class with more institutional interest than ever, and DeFi will be its next big moment.”
ALEX will officially launch in December. To learn more about ALEX follow them on Twitter or join their Discord channel.
About ALEX
ALEX is the first full service DeFi platform on Bitcoin via Stacks. ALEX brings your bitcoin to life by allowing: projects to launch their tokens, fixed-rated and fixed-term borrow/lending without risk of liquidation, advanced DEX (Decentralized Exchange), deposit tokens to earn interest and obtain high returns through yield farming.
ALEX is a protocol built by veteran Quants who have built the quantitative trading and risk management systems for Wall St. banks. ALEX has taken that knowledge, experience and skill in engineering robust modelling over to DeFi. The vision of ALEX is to create the first truly permission-less, trustless and decentralized financial service for the people.
About White Star Capital
White Star Capital is a global multi-stage technology investment platform that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs building ambitious, international businesses. Operating out of New York, Paris, London, Montreal, Toronto, Singapore and Hong Kong, our presence, perspective, and people enable us to partner closely with our founders to help them scale internationally.