Maximilian von Wallenberg-Pachaly (from left), Peter Grosskopf and Omid Aladini are launching their Ultimate app.
(Photo: Unstoppable Finance)
Frankfurt With the “Ultimate” app, the Berlin-based crypto company Unstoppable Finance wants to bring decentralized finance, or Defi for short, to the mass market. The team around co-founder and CEO Maximilian von Wallenberg-Pachaly worked for months to get started. But it is now one size smaller: the app will initially be available in most western countries – but not in the home market of Germany.
According to financial circles, the German financial regulator Bafin informed the company on Wednesday evening that it falls under its supervision – and must therefore first give its approval. The app launch in Germany has been postponed for that long. “In Germany we still have to make a few regulatory adjustments and hope that we will also be available here shortly,” said an Ultimate spokesman.
Ultimate’s plans are big. “With the app, we aim to provide a radically better and more intuitive mobile Defi user experience,” said the CEO. According to the app, there were more than 500,000 registrations on the waiting list before the app was launched. First of all, Ultimate is only available for iOS users.
Defi builds on the blockchain technology that is also behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The aim of Defi is to create a decentralized, algorithm-based financial system that does not require intermediaries such as banks, insurers or stock exchanges. But in 2022, decentralized finance has come under pressure. Hundreds of millions of dollars have disappeared through scams.
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In mid-May this year, the crash of crypto project Terra, which was perceived by parts of the industry as a flagship project, wiped out an estimated $50 billion. And then the defibrillator platform Celsius Network filed for bankruptcy in July. She brokered customers for the Berlin crypto platform, which is now insolvent and being wound up, as part of a Bitcoin income account. They are now worried about their deposits.
Default selection of protocols
“Indeed, it’s not the very best time to launch an app,” von Wallenberg-Pachaly said. Above all, the Terra crash “rather badly took it and cost trust” in the Defi area. Ultimate therefore wanted to “first of all appeal to more experienced users,” he said.
Specifically, users can create a wallet in the app, i.e. a digital purse. Ultimate provides them with a choice of protocols through which clients trade, borrow or invest. Because: According to Wallenberg-Pachaly, Defi users still have difficulties determining which protocols are safe and legitimate providers.
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The company also wants to score points with a personal access code: Ultimate does not store the users’ assets, so they retain control of their code. The app currently runs on the Solana blockchain. At the beginning, users can use different protocols. For example, Orca and Raydium are used for trading.
Using the Lido Finance protocol, you can lend your own cryptocurrencies directly. This promises users a return of around 5.6 percent per year – but directly from Lido itself. “Our business model is initially based primarily on a transaction fee for trading tokens.” This is 0.85 percent for Orca and Raydium. According to the company, it does not earn anything from Lido Finance.
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