Changex progress update: what to expect in Q2, and what happened in Q1

As we enter Q2 2023, it’s a great time to reflect on Changex’s progress in Q1 and look ahead to what’s to come. Despite the challenges the crypto sector keeps facing, Changex has continued to grow, working tirelessly on implementing new features and key service offerings that will change how you interact with crypto completely. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at some of the highlights of Q1 and share some exciting developments that you can look forward to in the coming months.

Here we go!

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🏦 Fiat on- and off-ramp

We have been working hard on setting up our very own fiat ramp, which will let you buy and sell seamlessly any supported asset in Changex with a bank transfer in EUR and USD. The service will provide great conversion rates especially to those holding CHANGE!

This new proprietary Changex feature will not be provided by a third-party service, but will be entirely our own. The service is planned to launch in the next 2 months. The design is prepared, the backend and the necessary integrations (such as liquidity providers and compliance solutions) are 90% ready.

After this, the dev team will focus on the implementation of the new service on both Android and iOS. We are also happy to say that we have already secured an operating bank account for EURO transfers and are in the (very long) due diligence process of opening a second bank account that will support both EUR and USD transfers with one of the top banking players in the sector. 

After the launch, we will also work on adding multiple local payment methods to Changex, as this will contribute to the adoption of the wallet and our services. We already have a few lined-up but a focus on this will follow after the launch of the fiat ramp.

💳 Bank account and VISA card in the wallet

Staying on the fiat side of finance, we are happy to say that negotiations have been completed and that we have already signed the agreement with our banking provider. We still cannot mention their name, but we can say that we will be regulated in the Netherlands and are in the onboarding process. The compliance part as well as integrations are expected to take 12-16 weeks. 

This service would enable users to have a 100% crypto-friendly bank account and a connected VISA card to easily spend their crypto assets and staking rewards. This is the first banking solution within a non-custodial wallet and holding CHANGE would bring multiple benefits in-app.

🔗 New chains and tokens

We’re just getting started with the integration of chains into the wallet – Arbitrum, Ethereum, Polygon, and KuCoin Community Chain are now a part of Changex, but we can’t stop there.

We want Changex to be a veritable one-stop-shop when it comes to blockchain interoperability and diversity, so this process naturally asks for the integration of as many blockchain networks as possible. In the weeks ahead, we’ll be working hard to add one of the biggest chains in the crypto ecosystem, with all of the underlying benefits. 

🔗 Cross-chain swaps for Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, and more

Cross-chain swaps are coming to Changex much sooner than expected and at best-in-class rates too! We should have this functionality online in April. This will give you the power to swap any two tokens in Changex, but across supported chains and without the need to bridge.

Compatible chains which can be swapped to and from include Arbitrum, Polygon, and Ethereum – for now. As we work to add BSC and other chains to the wallet, the number of available assets you can easily acquire on multiple chains will grow exponentially. Various cross-chain swaps will be possible with a single, simple swap operation.   

🏊‍♂️ Staking pools

Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been able to build some very strong relationships and partnerships with major players on the crypto scene. The team did a lot of work in the background to ensure that Changex users have world-class staking pools and new passive income opportunities.

We started out with the HYDRA delegated staking pool and the 3-month zero-fee campaign has proven successful. The staked HYDRAs now exceed 1,000,000 by more than 200 separate stakers! 

And the next staking pool to be added into Changex will positively blow everyone’s minds, and that’s not mere marketing talk. The token in question is not only one of the biggest and most important projects in the DeFi industry, it will also provide the highest APR in the DeFi space for a limited time. Yes, the highest yield will be available exclusively to Changex, and we honestly can’t wait to have it online! Stay tuned for the big reveal.

Aside from this exclusive staking pool, we are also in the process of implementing four more staking pools which will be added to the wallet in the next couple of months. As was the case with HYDRA, the first three months of staking for each new pool will be zero-fee and all commissions will be used to buy CHANGE, which will be redistributed back to those stakers. Afterwards, the commissions will start feeding the CHANGE staking pool for a juicy APR.

🤝 Partnerships

A strategic partnership was signed with Coinstore.com – a Singapore-based CEX which is helping Changex expand its presence in the SEA region not just by listing the CHANGE token on the exchange, but also by promoting the app and its services to the entire region.

Although fully-funded with a budget that is carefully being spent, our co-founders are also working towards ensuring institutional support that is mainly to bring more awareness and better reputation to the Changex project. For this reason, a strategic partnership was signed with VNTR Capital, who are helping us foster connections with crypto investors across the world through various investor events.

In the next quarter, we will be focusing on forming partnerships with other crypto projects that will benefit from the upcoming services in the Changex app. This should have a direct impact on our user base.

📸 Defining the Changex brand

Carrying on with our rebranding effort which we initiated in the final months of 2022, we started with expanding our website and the inclusion of many new resources. The new home of Changex truly represents the core mission, values and vision of Changex and it is something we are proud to share with the world. We also rebranded all of our social media channels and virtually all assets owned by the company.

🏫 Changex Academy

Something to expect soon from the Marketing team is the announcement and launch of Changex Academy! The project will aim to educate users on blockchain technology and all things crypto, onboarding non-DeFi users to our ecosystem, as well as a stable resource base for advanced users.

And speaking of educational content, we have also partnered with Bitdegree.com – one of the world’s leading crypto learning platforms and in the following months we are going to launch a special course about Changex.

📱 Social Media Presence

A huge leap was achieved in the development of our social media presence. We have onboarded a new Community Manager and built a comprehensive communications plan. We were also able to expand our Social Media presence across several other platforms, including Discord, Instagram, YouTube & Reddit. A major effort was made in scaling our Twitter channel and we are proud that over 10k followers decided to join us there.

📢 User acquisition

Our UA strategy remained focused on driving viral traffic as opposed to spending huge budgets on expensive user acquisition campaigns. We undertook this strategy because we are yet to release some of our most prominent features and we decided that it is best to go all-out on marketing once we have the app equipped with our fiat ramp, new staking pools, and full-fledged banking solution. With that in mind, the team kept a steady number of new users coming into the app by using Brave ads for increased Android reach, and Apple Search Ads for expanding our visibility to iOS users.

🎉 It’s Magic

The team was also able to spread the word about Changex through a meme contest and tap into a new user base via its integration with the Web3 app store Magic.store.

🕹️ Let the games begin!

To keep the momentum going, we will also be launching our very own Crew3 page! We have prepared a ton of engaging tasks that reward you with XP points and let you level up your account. Users with the highest-level accounts will receive various rewards for their participation and can also climb the debit card wait list.

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As you can see, we’ve been busy, and we do not intend to stop or slow down. Some of our biggest features and services offerings are right around the corner, and once we have them implemented into the wallet, we can continue with our progress on the roadmap. With new staking pools incoming, it has never been more crucial to hold and stake your CHANGE, as every new staking pool will serve to add to your CHANGE stack.

Stay with us – everything is about to CHANGE for the better!

Thank you for joining us on this journey 💖

The Changex team