New Zealand government’s innovation arm, Callaghan Innovation, has invested $330,000 into a local cryptocurrency savings and trading platform, Vimba, said the crypto startup in a statement.
The platform was formerly known as MyCryptoSaver. The rebranding is to reflect the expanded range of services the Auckland-based startup offers from savings to trading, said Vimba.
“This is a truly significant investment from Callaghan Innovation and a real show of faith in the future of this very exciting asset class. The money will go towards new key features for our expanding service. We will use it to build secure multi-signature crypto wallets for our users and we’re also looking into expanding the range of cryptocurrencies available to them — beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum,” said Vimba CEO, Sam Blackmore.
Vimba started as MyBitcoinSaver in 2014 to offer a simple way for all New Zealanders to invest small weekly amounts into Bitcoin. It has now grown to 5,616 users with almost $6.5 million worth of Bitcoin saved on the platform.
“Even over the past year, in a bearish crypto market, our user base has remained very stable. This shows that our user-base shares the same long term view of crypto and blockchain more generally as we do: it’s still a very nascent technology with tremendous potential,” added Blackmore.
Despite some volatility, he has an optimistic outlook for the crypto market.
“We believe Bitcoin will at least reach the market cap of gold as it is a more efficient, more accessible, more secure version of that rare asset. For it to reach the market cap of gold, one Bitcoin would be worth around $600,000 — more than 60 times what it’s worth today. Some people ask whether the crypto ship has already sailed and whether it’s too late to start investing, but when you take the long term view, it’s clear this is still just the beginning,” said Blackmore.
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