CMT Digital and Kenetic Capital, among others, invested in the Series A round of Nested, a decentralized finance platform.
- Users can mint an NFT that mimics their investment portfolios using Nested.
- Smart contracts track trades and update the digital collectable, removing the need to mint a new NFT for each transaction.
A $7.5 million round lead by billionaire Alan Howard has been obtained for a DeFi platform with a social investing twist that allows users to demonstrate their investment methods via NFTs.
Nested Finance plans to use the Series A funding to hire new employees, expand to new blockchains, and improve its staking capabilities, according to CEO Rudy Kadoch.
CMT Digital, Kenetic Capital, and Republic Capital were among the investors in the round, in addition to Howard.
Users can create an NFT (non-fungible token) on their preferred blockchain and use smart contracts to display their DeFi (decentralized finance) trades on Nested’s platform. The cost of minting the NFT is covered by traders, the bulk of whom are individual investors.
Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain — now known as BNB Chain — and Polygon are now supported blockchains.
“You can build a reputation on Nested even if you’re not a renowned person on Twitter,” Kadoch remarked.
The NFT is updated through smart contract to display new transactions in real-time once it has been minted, removing the need to mint a new digital collectible as a trader’s portfolio changes over time. Users do not link their Nested portfolio to a centralized cryptocurrency exchange; instead, liquidity is provided by the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange 0x.
Nested, a platform that allows people to copy a trader’s portfolio, is banking on a surge in interest in crowdsourcing alpha fueled by social media success stories. The goal, according to Kadoch, is to offer a simple, streamlined interface to the complicated realm of DeFi in order to cut through the crypto noise.
The company’s founder compared it to Coinbase’s early days, when the exchange brought crypto trading to the public.
“You could buy cryptocurrencies ten years ago,” he added, “but when Coinbase came up, their objective was to democratise cryptocurrencies through a beautiful UX, and they succeeded.”
“We want to democratise DeFi through simplicity, and that’s exactly what we’re trying to do with Nested.”
Nested makes money by charging a small fee for each new NFT that is created. Users can choose to clone an existing NFT on the marketplace and replicate its trades, or they can start from scratch when creating an account. When a trader’s portfolio is replicated, they are paid a royalty.
When it comes to getting into the space, Kadoch claims that the thousands of DeFi coins trading causes a bottleneck.
“Right now, exchanges are built for [hardcore] users, not for the general public,” he explained.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
