Hi Lisa, tell us more about your journey and role at FLUIDEFI.
My CEO and co-founder journey to FLUIDEFI began when I first saw the power of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. With a background in the fintech, big technology, and startup spaces with companies like PayPal, Apple, BitMEX, Oracle, and ShapeShift, I saw the potential to create an innovative DeFi platform to provide users with an intuitive, secure way to manage and trade their digital assets. Over the past two years, our all-star team has brought this vision to life.
The DeFi space has seen a huge amount of growth in the past year and FLUIDEFI is proud to be at the forefront of this revolution. The current bear market has posed a number of challenges for startups in the space, particularly in raising funding. Despite these challenges, we have been able to grow our customer base and build a strong network of partners. We’ve also been making waves with energy efficiency, AI prediction, and public risk scoring – all new things in the DeFi space, but so important to its growth and acceptance.
Today, FLUIDEFI provides a SaaS-based DeFi infrastructure and produces actionable analytics and risk ratings for institutional customers, helping them to manage their DeFi portfolio and to audit accounts.
Could you please explain how FLUIDEFI has simplified the complicated digital asset management landscape that exists today and has set a new norm for integration and usability?
FLUIDEFI makes tracking easy for people who put capital into the DeFi space. It’s really difficult to see what your portfolio is doing without some serious number crunching, and we do that for our customers. This helps them to make better decisions and to keep their accounting software up to date. When it comes time for audits, our customers feel a bit smug, because all the hard work is already done.
We’ve spoken to the big audit firms and they tell us that their clients throw up their hands when they ask for an accounting of their portfolios. It’s so difficult to decode these smart-contract transactions and most people don’t know how to do it. We’re currently excited about our exploration with the audit firms to help them make sense of their client accounts. Hope to have some announcements on this soon!
FLUIDEFI sorts through over 1.5 million liquidity pools available on major DEXs and analyzes every wallet that has interacted with them in any way. This makes it easy for us to produce within minutes reports that usually take weeks for a dedicated accountant to untangle.
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FLUIDEFI has been winner of TDeFi Award for Best CeFI/DeFi Application of 2021, name any two USP which differentiated you and made this award win.
FLUIDEFI is proud of our win last year for Best CeFi/DeFi Application in the TDeFi contest. This award recognized our innovative approach to simplifying the complex digital-asset-management landscape in the DeFi space.
FLUIDEFI’s unique selling points (USPs) include integration of accurate data from various sources and sophisticated portfolio modeling.
FLUIDEFI integrates decentralized exchange and yield farming data from major platforms on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain, giving a complete picture of investments in one place. Others do this, but no one has the level of accuracy that we’ve designed – in fact, we even filed a patent on it!
As for portfolio modeling, our unmatched portfolio-modeling feature allows asset managers to backtest their strategies in DeFi across chains.
How big is the DeFi space?
The DeFi market was valued at USD 11.78 billion in 2021 and is projected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 42.5% from 2022 to 2030. The growth of the market is mainly driven by the widespread acceptance of DeFi, which has brought about a significant change in the financial sector. According to some predictions, the DeFi market size is expected to reach up to USD 145 trillion in 2025. With the events of 2022, I’m not sure that’s realistic, but I’d estimate we’ll reach the low trillions by 2025.
“NFTs” have plummeted sharply! After hitting a peak in January 2022, interest has quickly declined in the middle of September 2022. What are you comments on this?
The NFT market experienced rapid growth in 2021, leading to a massive market correction and prices of NFTs fell after reaching all-time highs. The crypto bear market and the NFT market are interconnected. The crypto bear market led to a decrease in demand for NFTs, and dragged down investor confidence and spending. However, I believe we can’t blame the decline in the NFT market solely on the crypto winter. The root issue hindering new consumers from investing in NFTs is the lack of innovation in NFT usage beyond a profile picture on social media. To attract consumers, NFTs must be integrated into user-friendly experiences that allow for ownership and customization of virtual identities and experiences in the real world and across platforms such as social media, video games, meta/augmented reality, and virtual.
NFTs have the potential to revolutionize various industries by providing a secure and unique digital asset ownership and transfer system. The potential applications for NFTs include digital art, gaming, events, virtual real estate, collectibles, intellectual property, and much more. I truly believe the full potential of NFTs has yet to be realized.
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The number of unique DeFi users has increased by nearly 700% over the last couple of years. What is driving change in fintech?
The main driver of DeFi’s rapid growth is increasing dissatisfaction with both traditional finance and centralized exchanges and the desire for greater financial freedom and control. The decentralized nature of DeFi platforms allows users to access financial services without intermediaries. It lets them directly control their assets and makes the financial system more accessible and inclusive. Beside this, decentralized assets are immune to the bad decisions of one manager who controls billions of dollars. The failure of FTX really pushed DeFi forward as a solution.
The increasing adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies is also driving DeFi’s growth. As cryptocurrencies gain more widespread adoption and recognition, DeFi will continue to grow and evolve, providing new financial opportunities and services to users around the world.
We’d love to know what are your predictions for the future of FinTech?
I predict there will be massive growth in DeFi, which has been gaining significant traction in the last few years.
Specifically, I believe there will be continued growth of decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which are expected to become more user-friendly, accessible, and secure. This will result in greater adoption by the general public and the creation of more DEX-based DeFi products, such as decentralized lending and borrowing platforms, which will bring more financial services to the masses.
The biggest driver of change will be regulation. DeFi is expected to become more regulated, which will increase the trust of users and investors, and turbo-boost adoption within the institutional finance community.
The integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into fintech will also play a significant role in shaping the future of the industry. This will bring about a more personalised and efficient customer experience and will increas security for transactions and sensitive information.
With the increasing popularity of DeFi and cryptocurrencies and the integration of cutting-edge technologies such as AI and ML, it is certain that fintech will continue to have a profound impact on the financial industry for years to come.
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Before we wrap up, a few biggest learnings and tips you’d like to share with fintech innovators and leaders.
It’s crucial for fintech innovators and leaders to stay ahead of the curve and to stay innovative in a rapidly changing and evolving industry. Here are a few points I like to keep in mind:
- Stay informed about the latest trends and advancements in the industry. This requires continuously monitoring and researching the market to understand where the industry is heading and how to stay ahead of the curve.
- Collaborate with experts and thought leaders in the fintech space. This provides the opportunity to share ideas and gain insights into what works and what doesn’t.
- Focus on delivering high-quality customer experiences. The fintech industry is highly competitive, and delivering a seamless, user-friendly experience will set you apart from the competition and keep customers coming back.
- Foster a culture of innovation within your organization. Encourage creativity and risk taking and create an environment where employees feel empowered to share their ideas and thoughts. This will help to foster a culture of innovation that will drive success in the fintech space.
Thank you, Lisa! That was fun and we hope to see you back on globalfintechseries.com soon.
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]
Lisa Loud, co-founder and CEO of FLUIDEFI, is a successful serial entrepreneur and fintech transformation strategist with a history of success with major blockchain and tech companies including BitMEX, ShapeShift, Apple, PayPal, among others. Her experience in technology has shaped her passion and vision for the future of money. Her analytical perspective, strategic leadership, and her uncanny foresight on the DeFi industry have resulted in her being named in the Rising Women in Crypto Power List 2022, Top 100 Women in Crypto for 2020 and nominated for Digital Leader of the Year, Innovator of the Year for Women in Technology Excellence Awards in 2021.
FLUIDEFI is a SaaS-based DeFi infrastructure provider that produces actionable analytics and risk ratings for institutional customers, helping them to manage their DeFi portfolio and audit accounts. With more than 5 institutions managing over USD 200M using FLUIDEFI’s product, some of the customers include EY, Deloitte and Google. The accuracy of the data generated by FLUIDEFI’s patent-pending algorithm is essential for all financial functions, including investment, accounting, audits, and taxes. With an ARR of USD 500,000 FLUIDEFI has raised a pre-seed round from some of the top VC funds.
