Lykke, a Zurich-based Fintech firm that wants to become the “world’s first regulated marketplace built on cryptographic technology” is offering a one-year forward contract on a bespoke cryptocurrency or Lykke Coin with a 20% discount. Announced last week, Lykke basically will provide a 20% discount on the cryptocurrency if you hold it for a whole year.
The forward contract operates pretty much like other forward contracts except Lykke says it will offer settlement “at the run” instead of only at the settlement date. The limited offer started on February 9th and continues to February 2th if you are interested. Lykke intends on selling up to 50 million coins with an issue price of CHF 0.04 per coin so an estimated raise of CHF 2 million. Lykke Coins are registered on blockchain and 100 Lykke Coins are said to be entitled to 1 Lykke share.
Lykke is the creation of Richard Olsen who first founded OANDA in 1996, a retail broker serving over 100,000 retail trading clients worldwide. Lykke originally raised USD $ 2.8 million in 2015. Lykke says it is applying to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK for an investment firm license to provide a multilateral trading facility and to offer a non-exchange financial trading venue as part of a broader aim of establishing the world’s first ‘crypto-marketplace’ offering trade execution on a range of financial instruments.
Lykke Chief Business Development Officer, Demetrios Zamboglou, commented on the announcement that genuine change in financial services can only be achieved via robust technology that serves everyone better;
“…rather than just its gatekeepers. Lykke is committed to creating a means for anyone to conduct financial transactions and store their assets in secure digital blockchains, secured from any single authority or counterparty,” said Zamboglou. “Blockchain-powered crypto-currencies are actively demonstrating their superiority over the fiat-paper status-quo, for so long the bastion of big banks. Blockchain technology is here to show financial services as a sector that there is a better way, and there’s no turning back”.
Lykke believes its selling-point is better security with a centralized matching engine and decentralized immediate settlement, and an open-source approach to typically closed-loop systems that dominate financial services transactions today.
“In the history of Financial Services, it has always been a requirement to have deep pockets to operate on a level playing field. With Lykke, the only requirement to enter a level playing field is an internet connection,” stated Lykke founder and CEO, Richard Olsen.
Lykke has already gone public on its own exchange and is said to be building enterprise-scale solutions for large financial institutions. Lykke is also a member of the Hyperledger project.
Lykke has also formed a partnership with ChronoBank to allow users to trade ChronoBank’s tokens for other currencies frictionlessly. ChronoBank is in the midst of a crowdfunding round having raised over $4 million in Bitcoin. The Australian Fintech firm is creating a decentralized marketplace, named LaborX, where people can sell labor hours to anyone – anywhere. ChronoBank.io wants to totally disrupt HR/Recruitment and finance industries just how Uber is crushing taxis.