In this year’s cryptocurrency market, if OpenAI, SORA, and Nvidia have ignited the AI track, then the prosperity of the RWA track can be attributed to the launch of the tokenized asset fund BUIDL by BlackRock and Securitize, which has become a catalyst for the flourishing development of the RWA track.
The launch of BlackRock’s BUIDL has completely ignited the RWA track, and many project tokens such as ONDO, CFG, and OM have experienced significant increases, creating a general uptrend in this track.
Among these RWA projects, GFI has seen an astonishing four-fold increase since BlackRock announced the launch of BUIDL on March 2nd, fully demonstrating the potential and market recognition of Goldfinch.
I. Introduction to Goldfinch
Established in 2020, Goldfinch is a decentralized credit protocol that provides crypto loans. By eliminating the need for crypto collateral and providing passive income, the protocol expands the potential borrowers and potential capital providers who can use cryptocurrency.
As we all know, in most DeFi lending protocols, users often need on-chain assets as collateral and are required to overcollateralize to borrow. If you don’t have enough assets stored on-chain, you cannot borrow through these DeFi lending protocols.
In the real world, besides collateralized loans, credit loans are also a common form of lending. As the name suggests, credit loans are loans granted based on the borrower’s creditworthiness, meaning that the debtor can obtain a loan without providing collateral, for example, based on the borrower’s income, assets, etc.
Although credit loans are already mature, the DeFi credit model is still in its infancy, mainly due to the complexity of on-chain identity systems, among other reasons.
Goldfinch, as a leading Ethereum-based credit lending DeFi protocol, bridges the gap between on-chain and off-chain, allowing lending to take place without the need for crypto collateral and entirely off-chain.
Goldfinch mainly collaborates with credit institutions in multiple countries, delegating the credit process and lending process to third-party credit institutions, and ultimately providing loans to small and micro-enterprises or individual users in these countries. Goldfinch focuses on the growth of its savings capital, achieving the scale of overall credit business.
The core process of Goldfinch is not complex. In simple terms, if you want to borrow through Goldfinch, there will be corresponding offline credit institutions to review your qualifications, such as your assets, income, credit, etc. Once the review is complete, you can obtain a corresponding credit limit of USDC on the Goldfinch platform, and of course, borrowers can also convert USDC into cash.
II. Founding Team
The founding team of Goldfinch consists of Mike Sall and Blake West, both of whom come from Coinbase.
It must be said that Coinbase, as a prestigious institution in the crypto industry, has seen many famous crypto projects come from former Coinbase employees, and Coinbase has invested in the majority of these projects.
Co-founder Mike Sall graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and served as the Director of Product Research at Coinbase. He also co-founded Unbox Research and served as the Director of Data Science at Medium.
Co-founder and CTO Blake West also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. As a senior full-stack developer, he has a solid understanding and experience in product development. He worked as a developer at Coinbase and was also the first employee of HintHealth.
III. Financing
According to data from the rootdata platform, Goldfinch has completed a total of three rounds of financing, totaling $37 million, with the most recent financing occurring in January 2022.
The investment teams behind Goldfinch are mostly well-known teams in the crypto industry, such as a16z, Coinbase Ventures, BlockTower Capital, and Kingsway Capital.
Among them, Coinbase and a16z, as top-tier investment teams in the crypto industry, have invested in many major projects and have achieved remarkable results. Both institutions have participated in two rounds of financing for Goldfinch, indicating their confidence in the project.
The support of Coinbase and a16z, these top-tier investment institutions, has not only provided financial support to Goldfinch but also valuable resources and partnership opportunities strategically. It has further boosted the premium of GFI.
IV. Current Development
Currently, Centrifuge provides services in more than 20 countries worldwide, supporting several influential borrowers in local markets, covering various fields such as payments, savings, and credit solutions.
According to data from rwa.xyz, the scale of tokenized private credit has reached $600 million, second only to the tokenized scale of US Treasury bonds.
In the tokenized private credit sub-track, Goldfinch’s active loan amount has reached $266 million, ranking second only to Centrifuge.
In summary, private credit is a huge market with a trillion-dollar scale, but the tokenized private credit market currently has a scale of only around $1 billion. There is huge growth potential in the future. As the leading protocol in this sub-track, Goldfinch currently has a market value of only around $300 million, leaving ample room for upward growth. From a medium to long-term perspective, it is still worth paying attention to and deploying.
P.S. This article does not constitute any investment advice.
