Why We Invested: Persistence

At AU21 Capital, we are delighted to announce our investment in Persistence. Persistence is a firm offering a wide variety of financial products and services that aim to bridge the gap between DeFi transactions and existing capital markets. This backing signifies our devotion to supporting projects that leverage blockchain technologies to create real-world value and increase widespread adoption of digital asset transactions.

Three Major Financial Players Remain Walled Apart

Businesses — The rise of decentralized and open finance has yet to offer any perceptible benefit to most firms. Capital financing remains an industry that is dominated by traditional financial institutions, who have difficulty in serving clients that are not large enterprises or small partnerships operating in established markets. This polarization of capital provision results in financial institutions failing to expediently distribute capital to growing firms in emerging markets, who often require it most.

Institutions — Institutional financial entities have had little interaction with the cryptocurrency space, although there exist tremendous opportunities for growth. Stablecoins present a compelling opportunity to interact with large reserves of assets that would otherwise be inaccessible, while DeFi would enable institutions to rake in positive yields and put capital to higher uses independent of localized growth and interest rates.

Investors — DeFi participants currently have almost no means by which to increase their exposure to real-world assets, save for a few commodity-backed digital assets. All the while, traditional investors outside of the cryptocurrency space are locking away their capital in negative-yielding securities that sit idle behind bank doors.

Persistence — Breaking Down Barriers

Persistence aims to provide a medium for the three types of financial entities mentioned above to transact among each other, enabling participants to either gain exposure to a previously untapped interest-yielding asset class or gain access to capital through the provision of multiple products. Atop the firm’s base chains are a number of services that encompass the plurality of traditional offerings by established financial firms. Comdex serves as a commodities marketplace with start-to-finish support for trades conducted by it’s users, while Audit.One provides staking-as-a-service to proof-of-stake networks. A number of future offerings including a full-service NFT marketplace, a staked asset liquidity provision service, as well as a debt financing platform, will further create a gateway for new assets and entrants into the DeFi space.

We are excited to work alongside Persistence as they create newfound accessibility, interactivity and efficiency in global capital markets.