2022 may have been what is generally considered as a bad year for crypto in general, a step back after a couple of years of strong market gains and rapid innovation but at SmartFi, it was not that at all. It was a year when our business model and philosophy was validated, and during which we continued to improve our platform as a resource for our community.
SMTF in 2022
The general negativity around bitcoin and crypto overall this year had an impact on SMTF, of course, but as I write, the token is only around 6.5% below its issue price of just over a year ago. That is quite remarkable in the circumstances, and even those that bought above that level in such a way as to qualify for the 100% buyback guarantee are exercising that right and getting back whatever, they paid for it.
Both of those things demonstrate exactly why SmartFi is different. The token is underpinned by a loan portfolio, including loans to non-crypto businesses, insulating it to some degree from market volatility and enabling us to offer and honor the buyback guarantee. The whole SmartFi monetary system is designed with a safety-first mentality, with no highly leveraged trading bets or big exposure to single entities that do have them. The wisdom of having something like that available to crypto users has become all too clear this year.
On the Dev Side
2022 was a year of further development of the SmartFi platform. Perhaps the biggest change came towards the end of the year, when our fiat onboarding systems were updated to give you access to possibly the fastest and most comprehensive tools available to crypto users. You can now fund your account using Visa, Mastercard, or Apple Pay, for example, as well as through ACH and wire transfers.
Fiat onboarding advances aren’t the only area of progress this year, either. We also worked with Incode to create an easier, faster KYC process for our community, listed the token on Probit and AtomicDex to give you a choice of Cefi (Probit) or Defi (AtomicDex) when you buy or sell SMTF, and worked with Math Wallet and Zelcore to give you access to different wallets as well.
However, if you think our dev team has been busy in 2022, just wait and see what they have in store for 2023!
Partnerships
As mentioned, we partnered with AtomicDex, Probit, Math Wallet and Zelcore this year, but there were plenty of other partnerships, too.
SmartFi was, for example, proud to be the official cryptocurrency platform of the Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship this year, a natural thing for us given that our Cofounder and CEO Aaron Tilton is an active supercross rider and enthusiast. We also partnered with FlyAir to launch their token on the Smart Exchange, and worked on what will be our biggest, most transformational partnership, that with an FDIC insured bank.
It is just a little too early to give details of that deal yet but suffice it to say that we have been working on it for most of the second half of the year, and that it will be a one-of-a-kind thing, involving access to FDIC insurance for SmartFi funds held at our partner bank, and crypto rewards on dollar deposits if certain criteria are met.
Podcasts & Appearances
In September, we launched a livestream and podcast series, Tilton Talks Crypto Our production quickly became stablished enough to attract guests as varied and interesting as DAO formation attorney and expert, Rob Lamb, Senator Kirk Cullimore from the Utah State Legislature, Bitcoin entrepreneur and renowned theorist on the subject Dan Held, and bitcoin educator and broadcaster Natalie Brunell. More recently we spoke to crypto entrepreneur Matthias Mende about his engage to earn project. Also, many in our community asked for some analysis of the news in the fast-moving crypto world, so we started a segment on the show that we call “News You Can Use”, where Aaron and our Head of Research, Martin Tillier, give their views on a few select stories.
Tilton Talks Crypto has enabled us to spread the message about SmartFi, but Aaron has been busy in that regard in other ways, too. His increasing acceptance as an expert and original thinker on the subject of crypto led to him giving a keynote speech at the Mining Disrupt 2022 Conference in Florida as well as speaking at a crypto-focused Freedom Works event in Washington, D.C. He also continues to serve on Utah’s Digital Asset and Blockchain Task Force, where he brings a much-needed industry perspective to deliberations around potential regulations in the state.
Looking Forward
For many in the crypto and blockchain worlds, the end of 2022 will involve a lot of looking back, often with some regret, but at SmartFi, we are looking forwards. It has been a year of market volatility and some spectacular blow-ups, but the SmartFi platform was built to withstand times like this better than others and has shown it can do just that.
So, as 2023 approaches, we are focused on the upcoming bank deal, the development of a payment app, the launch of our internal Defi exchange, SmartDex, offering you the ability to schedule regular purchases of crypto, and other things that will continue our mission of bringing smarter, safer crypto to the world. With that, all of the team here would like to wish our whole community a happy, healthy, safe, and prosperous New Year!
Martin has around forty years of market experience and, in addition to his role as Head of Research at SmartFi, is a daily contributor of market analysis and opinion to Nasdaq.com. He first became interested in crypto 2014, when he started writing regularly on the subject. He is from England but now lives in Connecticut, USA with his wife, his dogs, and his three kids’ college tuition bills.
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