Comprehensive Overview — Connect Financial

The problem:

There are multiple cryptocurrency debit cards on the market right now including Crypto.com, Wirexapp, TenX and NEXO. The issue is that these crypto cards are essentially debit cards that force you to liquidate crypto to fiat with no path back.

These models don’t allow you to hold your crypto and maintain control over how, and when, you convert your assets into fiat.

Another issue that we find with crypto “debit cards” is that they are not as widely accepted as credit cards and can present problems when engaging with particular merchants. Hiring a car (for example) often requires the holding of a credit card and a debit card would not suffice.

Furthermore, many of these debit cards actually function more as a pre-loaded, or pre paid debit card, not unlike a gift card. This means that any funds you transfer over become locked as fiat currency on that card. This can be problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, it requires the user to be conservative about how much currency they transfer (so as not to require that currency back in crypto). Or, they must accept that any currency transferred onto the card MUST be spent, or it will be lost.

The solution:

Introducing Connect Finance which is the first true cryptocurrency Visa Credit Card.

Once you deposit cryptocurrency into your Connect Finance account you will be extended a line of credit. The credit options are as follows:

A) Equal to 50% of the value of your deposited crypto funds
B) Equal to 100% of the value when currency is in stable coins

This allows you to keep holding your crypto, whilst enabling you to spend freely with your card.

This simple (yet revolutionary) change sets Connect Finance apart from it’s competitors and puts them at the forefront of crypto credit technology; removing the need for exchanging, or depositing, currency prior to spending.

Key Components:

• Spend your crypto anywhere that Visa is accepted
• Option to open IBAN accounts which accept SWIFT, SEPA, wire transfers, and a number of other funding avenues
• Ability to disable/freeze your card via the app
• Virtual cards can be issued immediately while you wait for your physical card to be delivered. (Apple Pay, Google Pay etc.)
• Connect Finance card is available to anyone globally with the exception of OFAC sanctioned countries or individuals (e.g Syria, North Korea, Iran etc.)
• Provides the tools necessary for reporting on usage which can be utilized for tax purposes. However, Connected Finance are not required (by jurisdiction) to report usage at the company level
• Provides the ability to hold any sum of currency in one place and provides insurance cover up to $100 million.

Token Utility:

The Connect Finance token ($CNFI) is designed to be a high utility token and is the center of the Connect Finance ecosystem. Users are incentivized to stake their tokens which opens up the doorway to Connect Finance rewards system. The more tokens you stake the higher the reward tier you are entitled to(see below). As users are encouraged to stake their tokens, the circulating supply is effectively reduced. This ensures that the value of the tokens will continue to increase as more users are onboarded.

Some of the many benefits for CNFI are as follows:

• Lower fees, higher ATM withdrawal limits and higher interbank monthly allowances
• Access to the rewards program (Airfare, Hotel, Travel, Shopping etc.)
• Higher stakes multiplier (see below)
• Higher yields on stable coins, fiat and crypto assets
• Higher provision of transaction insurance
• Cash back on card usage
• Earn treasury tokens which share profits back to you every quarter
• CNFI will act as the governance token providing you with voting rights in their ecosystem

Roadmap:

The full roadmap is yet to be released. However, the team has been working to deliver this project now for ~12 months.

They plan on delivering the first batch of cards, along with staking, by the end of this month (January 2021). You can find the basic roadmap below:

• Release of the Client Portal . Production of this has been underway for months and is set for an initial release in January as they begin to onboard customers.
• Introduction of the Referral, Affiliate and Partnership Program
• Release of the staking, dividend and governance contracts.
• Release of the liquidity pool contracts
• Issuance of Credit Cards. At present Connect Financial is fully licensed and able to issue cards to customers. However, the portal, smart contracts and a portion of the back-end needs to be completed and run through final testing. This is why the on-boarding is delayed until the end of January
• Release of the Fiat on and off ramp. Purchase or sell your crypto with fees based on your staking tier
• Onboarding for IBAN Accounts
• Release of the full 2021 Strategic goals and Product Road map

Competition/Competitors:

The main competitors for Connect Finance are Crypto.com / $CRO and Nexo.com / $NEXO.

Whilst Crypto.com and NEXO offer a similar service and have the advantage of being first to market, they only offer pre-paid debit cards which have many limitations and drawbacks.

Connect Finance / $CNFI will be the first to offer a true Visa credit card in the same space. We could argue that they will have ‘first mover’ advantage over other’s to follow as they pioneer this new technology.

Crypto.com / $CRO:
Current market cap: 1.4 billion USD
ATH market cap: 3.5 billion USD
Current holders: 63,000
Circulating supply vs max supply: 22.6% in circulation

Nexo.com / $NEXO:
Current market cap: 310 million USD
ATH market cap: 400 million USD
Current holders: 67,500
Circulating supply vs max supply: 56% in circulation

Connect Financial/ $CNFI:
Current market cap: 4.6 million USD
ATH market cap: 5 million USD
Current holders: 720
Circulating supply vs max supply: 19.9% in circulation

Keep in mind the CNFI cards are due to start being sent out at the end of this month along with staking going live (January 2021).

Given the increased adoption of crypto over fiat and the ever growing demand for users to be able to hold and spend crypto at the point of payment; it seems evident that this particular solution will continue to grow in 2021 and beyond.

Token Metrics:

Total Supply: 108,500,000

Initial Membership: 60,000,000
Market Liquidity Pool: 10,000,000
Advisor Pool: 8,500,000
Team Lockup: 10,000,000
Reward/Card Lockup: 20,000,000
Circulating supply: 21,583,182 between holders and liquidity + 8,461,818 in the project Wallet for liquidity provision

Teams Finance — CNFI Lock Events

All lockups can be viewed via Teams here.

Connect Financial — Token Metrics

108.5 million

Total supply

30 million

- 21,583,182 between holders and liquidity (true circulating)

- 8,461,818 in the project Wallet for liquidity provision

20 million — Locked

For rewards and staking gets deposited into the staking controller. Governance can control the release of it, but default is 5000 per day in staking. The referral and affiliate system will use a small portion of this also as incentives.

10 million — Locked

Team lock up is 1 year. Then it’s up to governance for a release schedule.

8.5 million — Locked

Advisor pool lock up 3 months. Then it’s up to governance for a release schedule.

46.9 million — Locked

In the DAO and controlled by the community when it goes live in ~ 1 month

This can be fact checked via Teams Finance and Etherscan.

Team:

The Connect Finance team has experience from Crypto, International Banking, Insurance, Credit Services, Precious Metals, Investment Banking and Consumer Lending.

Currently the majority of the team is still anonymous, but the Chief Compliance Officer, Lead Smart Contract Dev, Finance Officer, three advisors and CEO all plan to be visible on the site in the very near future.

The reason for remaining anonymous, to-date, is due to privacy/security requirements and for the sake of the project in it’s early stages. If key members were to go public at this stage it would be easier to piece together how Connect Finance has built their system and with whom.

Their main goal is keep as much of it private until they have their product out, in order to gain a strong foothold in the space as the first crypto credit card.

For now, we have multiple sources of information in order to address any concerns until the team are ready to fully reveal their identity.

• Axion Partnership

Axion partnered with Connect Financial to gain access to their first delivery of credit cards via an exclusive presale for the Axion 5555 OGs, providing them with a special edition AXN card.

You can view more about this partnership and an exclusive AMA conducted with the Axion team HERE.

• TrustSwap Partnership

TrustSwap partnered with Connect Finance, allowing SWAP currency to be made available on the VISA credit card along with custom branded TrustSwap credit cards.

You can view more details about this partnership HERE.

• The CCO confirming involvement

Ryan, who also works for Netcoins (which is a Canadian Cryptocurrency exchange) is one of the visible members of the team, and I have personally confirmed his appointment as CCO of Connect Finance via LinkedIn.

You can view his LinkedIn profile HERE.

You can view our confirmation of his involvement HERE.

The Chief Compliance Officer — Connect Finance

• The CEO of TrustSwap confirms that he knows the Founders identity

Part of the process of developing a partnership with TrustSwap is to conduct conference calls and vigorous vetting of each project.

Jeff Kirdekis has confirmed that he knows the founders identity (see HERE).

You can also see Jeff from TrustSwap and other well known players in the DeFi space (Join Patricia, Paul, and Robbie) speaking about Connect Finance in Episode 8 of Axion Today.

Click HERE to watch this and skip forward to minute 46.

TrustSwap — DeFi, without the worry.

Official Links:

• Website: https://connect.financial
• Discord- Main Community Group: https://discord.gg/GYeWZ5uE4P
• Telegram Channel: https://t.me/connectfinancial
• Announcement: https://t.me/connectfinancialnews
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnectWallet
• Medium: https://connectfinancial.medium.com/
• CoinGecko: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/connect-financial

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