Welcome to the first edition of the monthly Nexera Ecosystem Update. This will be the start of monthly ecosystem-wide updates, which we will provide to keep users, community members, and the broader market well-informed about the ever-evolving Nexera ecosystem.
We delve into significant developments over the past month, highlighting our relentless pursuit of innovation across various domains. From exciting partnership announcements to notable product updates and pivotal events, April has been a month of dynamic progress and substantial growth.
This update comprehensively reviews our strides, underscoring our commitment to driving open-source innovation and cultivating a robust ecosystem for our stakeholders. It is structured as follows:
- Overview — Presenting an overarching theme across the Nexera ecosystem and the industry
- Ecosystem Updates — Discussing our initiatives to grow the ecosystem through thought leadership, partnerships and integrations
- Events — Sharing key takeaways and learning from the events we’ve participated in
- Builder Milestones — Highlighting milestones from companies and startups that have integrated Nexera technologies across the ecosystem
- Development — Providing high-level updates on the development of solutions and platforms that are integrating Nexera infrastructure and technology
Join us as we explore the key updates, from the rapid enhancements to our Fundrs platform to strategic partnerships that continue positioning Nexera at the forefront of the financial technology revolution. We’ll also give you a sneak peek at what’s ahead, ensuring you’re well-informed and ready for the opportunities and developments in May and beyond.
Real-world Asset Tokenization Is Coming to the Forefront
Tokenization of real-world and digital assets is becoming a critical adoption and use case for blockchain technology. This is acknowledged by the amount of news, market research and analysis that has been released in the past month:
- CoinGecko has released a high-level market roundup detailing the performance of RWA token projects. As a category, these projects grew in valuation by 286% in Q1 2024. You can read the full report here.
- After launching in March, BlackRock’s BUIDL has become the world’s largest tokenized treasury fund, valued at $375M. This highlights a substantial institutional appetite for tokenization solutions poised to continue growing.
Nexera has always led the industry in tokenization thought leadership and infrastructure, introducing the ERC-7208 and Nexera Protocol and developing solutions and tools to make it easier for businesses and startups to leverage our technology.
With the growing importance of RWA and digital asset tokenization, we are strengthening our position in the space and cultivating an ecosystem of businesses and developers to build on our standardized, interoperable and composable infrastructure.
Through this lens, we continuously push forward and make advancements across the Nexera ecosystem, our solutions, and $NXRA utility.
Ecosystem
Discussions with the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority
We have had initial conversations with the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) to discuss a concrete roadmap for real-world asset tokenization. These discussions align closely with our core standardization, security and compliance principles across the entire RWA spectrum. This also aligns with our continuous engagement in how regulations like MiCA and DORA can impact businesses utilizing our infrastructure and technology. We will share more updates on this in the future.
European Commission Workshop on Asset Tokenization
Nexera has been selected to participate in the European Commission’s Workshop on Asset Tokenization on 11 June 2024 in Brussels. The workshop will focus on three main topics, including (a) tokenization of funds, (b) secondary markets, and (c) interoperability and standardization.
Nexera Founder and CEO Rachid Ajaja will share his expertise on these topics and how the Nexera ecosystem has the necessary modules to enable tokenizing real-world and digital assets, compliant trading on secondary markets, and standardized, interoperable infrastructure to build.
Sessions with regulators like this are crucial for shaping the RWA landscape with blockchain and ensuring the establishment of standards addressing regulatory compliance and transparency in markets — key areas where Nexera technology already exists to support.
Membership to the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC)
Nexera has also recently joined the Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC), the largest leading industry association for the blockchain and digital assets community. GBBC leads several initiatives working on token-powered services, blockchain technology use cases for financial services, and giving advisory about blockchain on regulatory discussions. GBBC has membership across key stakeholders in various industries, such as Block, Chainlink Labs, Grayscale, Accenture, and Ernst & Young, to name a few. More information about this membership will be shared in the future.
Our membership also entails providing thought leadership and expertise via workshops and webinars. The first is a Virtual Members Forum on “How to Transform Enterprise Data into Smart Data Through Blockchain,” delivered by Nexera Founder and CTO Matthijs de Vries. Rachid will also hold an upcoming workshop on tokenization for GBBC members in July.
Plug and Play Silicon Valley Summer Summit
Nexera is again participating in the Plug and Play Summer Summit on 11–13 June 2024. These summits bring together industry leaders and promising startups to discuss advancements in several verticals, including Crypto and Digital assets.
On the last day, 13 June, Rachid will be on stage to speak to a crowd of financial institutions, financial tech companies and multinational corporations about tokenizing real-world and digital assets and its place in an evolving traditional and decentralized finance landscape.
Partnership with Vanar Chain
We announced a significant partnership with Vanar Chain, aligning Nexera with one of the most dynamic ecosystems in the blockchain sector. This collaboration places us at the cutting edge of open-source innovation, driving the future of finance. Vanar is known for its carbon-neutral, high-speed, and cost-efficient L1 blockchain, explicitly designed for the entertainment sector and tailored for mainstream adoption. It supports an EVM-compatible chain that effectively integrates with gaming, metaverse, AI, and brand solutions, establishing its role as a leader in practical blockchain applications.
Through this partnership, Nexera aims to redefine standards in compliance, identity, and KYC processes using our Core Tokenization Solution (CTS) and our privacy-preserving compliance platform, NexeraID, enhancing how these elements are perceived and utilized within digital environments.
Partnership with Patex
In another strategic move, Nexera (through Nexera Finance) has partnered with Patex to explore the vast $16 trillion on-chain asset tokenization market. This partnership combines Nexera Finance’s robust Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization infrastructure and NexeraID’s compliance capabilities with Patex’s deep expertise in asset tokenization. This partnership is set to transform how businesses digitize and trade assets in Latin America. Patex is uniquely positioned to spearhead the digital transformation of asset management in a region with over 670 million people and a GDP of $5.5 trillion.
Nexera Finance and Patex are dedicated to boosting regulatory compliance and enhancing transaction efficiency. They are also firmly committed to fostering sustainable growth within the Patex ecosystem, which includes the Patex Network Layer 2 Blockchain and the C-Patex Exchange for Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) trading.
Events
Two of the most significant events in Web3 took place in April — the Paris Blockchain Week and TOKEN2049 Dubai. These cornerstone industry gatherings are fantastic opportunities to interact with the latest opportunities, initiatives and builders in Web3 and for the Nexera business team to align in person and champion the latest developments across our ecosystem.
Key Takeaways
Real-world asset tokenization of various physical and digital assets is a leading use case for blockchain technology. Standardization and interoperability are vital components of a robust and sustainable tokenization ecosystem. More and more businesses and institutions are looking at RWA tokenization to improve and simplify their business processes, taking advantage of a more flexible infrastructure and reach of a wider audience. Nexera has been moving towards this since 2018 and is well-positioned to offer a cohesive offering for tokenization with standardized, interoperable and compliance-compatible infrastructure and solutions.
Regulatory compliance is necessary to get tokenization use cases off the ground. As traditional and decentralized finance worlds converge, more regulatory bodies are considering creating frameworks and rules for managing blockchain-based digital assets. NexeraID’s compliance solutions are pivotal in making this possible for businesses that seek to adhere to regulation and compliance requirements — and recently, they’ve onboarded four more clients as proof of the growing demand in the space.
Web2 and traditional companies were well-attended, and they are actively exploring leveraging blockchain-based tokenization technology. These companies either seek new revenue streams or improve efficiency in various sectors, such as real estate, collectibles, diamonds, etc.
Overall, there is a strong sense of cohesion towards building everyday-life use cases for Web3, moving beyond speculation. With the latest advancements in blockchain development and technology and the arrival of standardized, interoperable and compliant tokenization infrastructure such as that offered by Nexera, more and more companies are building on blockchain technology with implementations that can benefit everyone.
Industry Networking and Connections
The business team had productive conversations with a wide range of Web3 startups, exploring various opportunities for partnerships and technical integrations with Nexera to develop our ecosystem further. These companies include enterprise solution providers, blockchain infrastructure developers, blockchain consultancy groups, real-world asset tokenization businesses in the renewable energy and mobility sector, blockchain data infrastructure builders, AI-based startups, and more.
We have derived promising leads from these events, with some already progressing into collaboration and integration discussions. Some startups also discuss launching on Fundrs, so stay tuned for more updates.
Our ecosystem and business team will continue these discussions over the following weeks, aiming to confirm these new partnerships and explore the scope for integrating them across the Nexera ecosystem.
Builder Milestones
Record-Setting Brainstems Launch on Fundrs
We witnessed another milestone for Fundrs with the Brainstems launch, raising $250,000 in just seven minutes! This success is another testament to the robust engagement and support of the #NoMercy community.
Fundrs remains an industry-leading platform for providing pre-seed funding to startups in the Web3 space and is now the platform of choice for early-stage AI, DePIN and RWA businesses. By staking their $NXRA, Funders can participate in such promising launches, gaining early access to pioneering startups that are breaking the barriers in their industries.
Galileo Protocol Accepted Into Plug and Play Accelerator
We were delighted to share that Galileo Protocol, a former Seeker startup in Fundrs, has been accepted into the Plug and Play Tech Center’s Crypto and Digital Assets Accelerator program. Galileo is a leading startup in the luxury asset tokenization space by providing a multi-chain, marketplace-compatible token standard.
Nexera’s partnership with Plug and Play made this opportunity possible. Through this, we can support startups on Fundrs and give them access to Plug and Play’s network of institutions and corporations, which includes big-name companies like VISA, Franklin Templeton, and more. This highlights our ongoing commitment to supporting startups and businesses through their journey from initial capital-raising to achieving global industry leadership.
Galileo Protocol’s acceptance into the accelerator is an instrumental step forward for Galileo and a reflection of the potential and impact of the Nexera ecosystem in supporting innovative startups in the space.
Nuklai DeFi Terminal Staking Campaign Kickstarts Validator Nodes for their Layer 1
Nuklai, the layer 1 network for data collaboration and monetization, launched a staking campaign on DeFi Terminal for validator nodes of their network.
Staked $NAI tokens will be automatically delegated for initial validator nodes for their layer 1 network upon their mainnet release.
This is a unique way of utilizing Nexera’s staking infrastructure to ensure the security of Nuklai’s layer-1 network and contribute to an ongoing decentralization of their data ecosystem.
Partnership-Building Campaigns for Brillion and Nuklai
Brillion, the smart wallet for seamless management and integration of digital assets, also launched several DeFi Terminal $DUA open staking campaigns with rewards in Nuklai’s $NAI tokens.
Their partnership brings the best-in-class seamless wallet experience of the Brillion wallet to the vibrant data ecosystem Nuklai is building on its layer-1 network.
Joint staking campaigns like this bring token-holder communities together and maximize the value created by the $DUA and $NAI ecosystems.
Development
Fundrs
April saw significant activity across the Fundrs platform, with a successful Seeker capital-raising round and rapid product development releases:
- The development team implemented mobile device support, meaning users can stake $NXRA or participate in launches and campaigns on their phones.
- A handful of UI and UX improvements have also been onboarded. For example, ticket prices in both stablecoin and rALBT are now visible on Seeker launch pages.
- The team also made sharing beautiful links to Seeker launch pages easier. Instead of a randomized string, links include the startup’s name, like https://fundrs.app/project/?title=Arkefi-AG.
The Fundrs team is also adopting a more organized and rapid development cycle that ensures the platform is constantly evolving and addressing the needs of our users. In May and the next few months, the team is looking to implement the following:
- Several user flows will be improved on the platform to make it easier for users to participate in Seeker launches and purchase tickets.
- Users can quickly get more, bridge, or swap tokens when purchasing tickets.
- Several features will be exclusive to $NXRA stakers and rALBT holders first, such as being able to sign up to be notified of upcoming Seeker launches on the platform.
- The rALBT token will evolve in the upcoming upgrade to the reputation system in Fundrs. The new system will function more like a loyalty point system with a new loyalty token. Nexera DAO and the #NoMercy community can suggest and vote on the new ticker for this upcoming token.
- The team is nearly done developing the feature for much-anticipated burn events in Fundrs, where users can spend their rALBT to claim additional rewards in Seeker’s tokens. Stay tuned as we share more information about this feature in the coming weeks.
Nexera Exchange
We launched an updated Nexera Exchange landing page in April. Based on an on-chain order book protocol, users can easily place market or limit orders on decentralized exchanges on Ethereum and Arbitrum.
The new page has been completely redesigned to communicate the platform’s benefits and features better and give an overview of what’s coming next in terms of development to provide an easy on-ramp to place orders and optimize trades and integrations with more exchanges.
Nexera Protocol (Core Tokenization Solution)
On an infrastructure level, much development work is being done on the Core Tokenization Solution (CTS), which is Nexera’s reference implementation of ERC-7208. CTS also called the Nexera Protocol, is at the heart of all technology and solutions developed across the Nexera ecosystem and will be instrumental in bringing tokenization use cases to life.
For example, CTS will make it easier for businesses to create, issue and manage their real-world or digital assets without dealing with smart contract development. Assets tokenized through this are interoperable with other token standards and other platforms and services built using the standard. This is how Arkefi’s luxury asset tokenization and AgriFi’s agricultural financing platform are brought to life.
In addition, CTS will further expand the capabilities of the Fundrs platform in the future, positioning it squarely to bring together real-world and digital assets in one solution. This is still in continuous development, and we’ve made significant progress over the past few months to advance technologically and commercially. More information will be shared in the future!
Looking Ahead
And that’s a wrap! But it doesn’t stop here. Looking forward to May, we have exciting initiatives and partnerships in the pipeline. More clients will join us, and development updates will roll out faster than ever.
In response to your feedback, we’re refining how we keep you informed about all things Nexera. Starting next month, we’ll share monthly ecosystem updates to inform you about the latest happenings in the Nexera ecosystem.
We’re also thrilled to introduce you to new members of our growing team across various departments and teams. Their expertise will be instrumental as we gear up for rapid expansion. We will share more about this soon!
Get ready to engage in Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions with Rachid, Matthijs, and other key team members. Do you have burning questions about Nexera’s upcoming events? We’re here to provide the answers.
As part of our commitment to keeping you informed, we’ll launch a bi-weekly roundup of tokenization news from the industry. Stay tuned for all the latest developments!
With your support, we’re shaping the future of Nexera together. Stay connected, and let’s continue this journey of growth and innovation.
About Nexera
Nexera is empowering the future of finance with cutting-edge open-source innovation. Nexera infrastructure seamlessly incorporates blockchain technology, facilitating on-chain and off-chain operations for simplified digital, financial, and real-world asset management.
Nexera Foundation is focused on nurturing the broader ecosystem and DAO and enhancing the utility of the $NXRA token. It is committed to promoting community growth and driving innovation in the digital asset space, including the growth and development of current and future key ecosystem partners.
Learn more about Nexera by following them on X, joining the Telegram Community, or visiting their website.
