What is the Nexo platform?
Nexo is a platform that allows its users to obtain loans in fiat money (euro, dollars, etc.), with a pledge on the users’ crypto-assets as collateral. The project was developed by Credissimo, a leading fintech group with millions of customers in Europe.
In our everyday lives, we use fiat currency to purchase goods or services. Apart from a few rare merchants who accept cryptocurrencies directly, we will definitely need to convert our digital assets into traditional currencies in order to use this store of value to pay.
However, there are a few reasons why one may not want to convert their crypto-assets into fiat money:
- One may miss out on an opportunity to grow the crypto asset in which he or she has invested.
- One will have to pay taxes on the capital gains generated.
- It takes several days to withdraw your money from an exchange site to your bank account.
Nexo has therefore come up with a concept where the company will lend fiat money to individuals by taking the crypto-assets of these people as collateral. The Nexo platform currently offers its services in more than 40 fiat currencies and in over 200 jurisdictions. Let’s take a look at how it all works.
But the platform does not only offer to get you a loan as it also offers you to become a creditor. This means that you will be able to lend cryptocurrencies for an interest rate of up to 10%.
Just like a traditional bank, Nexo offers to invest your crypto-currencies for a capital gain ranging from 8% to 12% for stablecoins. You will be able to grow your cryptocurrencies in the same way as a savings account.
Discover the Nexo platform
How does the Nexo platform ecosystem work?
Receive a loan through Nexo Oracle
Crypto-asset holders who want to access fiat money without selling any cryptocurrency can use the loan service set up by Nexo with its solution called “Nexo Oracle”.
The “Nexo Oracle” is an independent system that takes care of setting up loans, monitoring repayments, sending notifications automatically to customers, analyzing users’ crypto assets and maintaining the wallet in real time.
As explained in the project’s white paper, the first step before receiving a loan is to transfer one’s crypto-assets to a specific Nexo wallet. Once the funds are transferred onto it, the “Nexo Oracle” automatically calculates the amount of loan the user can get based on the value of his crypto-assets.
From that point on, the money is directly available to the user. He can either transfer it to his bank account or spend it using the Nexo credit card.
The user’s crypto-assets will be locked in the Nexo wallet until the loan amount is fully repaid.
To repay the loan, a user has several options:
Use fiat money by making a bank transfer.
Pay back the loan amount using the token. If he chooses this option, he will receive a discount on the interest to be paid.
Use part of the crypto-assets held in the Nexo wallet.
If a customer fails to pay back his installments on time, Nexo can pay itself back by automatically withdrawing the crypto-assets present in the customer’s Nexo wallet.
Earn money from the interest on your cryptocurrencies
By depositing cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies on the platform you will be able to make them grow by investing them like on a bank savings account. Thanks to this investment, you will have access to a much more interesting rate than in a classic bank.
For the transfer of your cryptocurrencies on the platform, the processing will be done in a few minutes. If you want to transfer your fiat currencies, you will be able to do so directly from your bank account and you will have to wait between one and three business days.
Once you have placed your assets in your Nexo wallet, you can start earning interest the very next day. Your interest is deposited daily into your Nexo savings account.
The interest rates obviously vary depending on the cryptocurrencies or currencies you have deposited. The token is the asset that will earn you the most interesting rate with 30% profit.
Spend with the Nexo bank card
Nexo also offers a physical bank card to its users. The latter works through Mastercard and allows its users to spend their cryptocurrencies in the manner of a credit.
More precisely, this bank card will allow to lend money whose guarantee is based on the assets available on the wallet linked to it.
Thus, its user receives notifications on his application and confirms the available credit balance in real time. In addition, unlike traditional bank cards, users will not have to pay any monthly or annual fees or exchange fees when using it.
What is the purpose of the Nexo token ?
Here are the different advantages of holding NEXO tokens:
- The token offers dividends to its holders. The tokens allow to share, in proportion to the tokens held, 30% of the profits generated by Nexo thanks to the interest rates charged on the loans.
- Lower interest rates for those who pay back their loans with the token.
Discover the Nexo platform
Team and partners
The team
The development team is partly related to the team behind Credissimo as it is the same company, Nexo being the dedicated version for cryptocurrencies. Credissimo has 130 employees, has had a working product for 10 years and is fully regulated and supervised by European financial services regulators.
Nexo’s core members include:
- Kosta Kantchev – co-founder: He is one of the co-founders of Credissimo and is partly responsible for its 10 years of success.
- Antoni Trenchev – co-founder: He has been involved in the development of e-commerce platforms and was CIO at Credissimo.
- Vasil Petrov – CTO: He has 16 years of experience in IT systems administration, back-end development and project development. He co-founded a company delivering video and internet services to over 150,000 people.
The partners
- BitGo: a company evolving in security around the blockchain and in the creation of storage wallets, which provides the Nexo wallet.
- Ledger: a French company that designs and markets physical cryptocurrency wallets.
- True USD: a stablecoin administered by TrustToken, a platform that turns tangible assets into tokens.
- Securitize: a platform and protocol offering blockchain protection.
- Jumio: a mobile payment company that also enables online identity verification.
- Circle: a company offering peer-to-peer payment technology.
- Brave: an open source web browser with the particularity of advocating the protection of its users’ privacy.
- Huobi Global: a cryptocurrency exchange platform.
- Terra: a blockchain protocol using fiat-based stablecoins.
- ITSA: an organization that works on the implementation of standards in the cryptocurrency market to ensure optimal security.
How to buy ?
To buy NEXO, you can go to eToro. You must first buy BTC and send it to eToro to buy NEXO.
You can also buy this token on other more exotic exchange sites, which we do not recommend for security reasons.
Discover the Nexo platform
How to store Nexo tokens ?
The safest way to store Nexo tokens is to use a hardware wallet. These are electronic wallets in the form of USB keys. The two best known are the Ledger Nano X and the Trezor.
Since the Nexo is an ERC-20 token, it is also possible to store NEXOs on wallets such as MetaMask.
However, in order to take advantage of the services offered by Nexo, you will need to store your tokens on the platform by creating a Nexo wallet.
In order to take advantage of the 30% dividend offered to token holders, you will need to perform an additional KYC (identity verification) procedure.
Discover Ledger’s wallets
Ratings and Reviews
Nexo is an interesting project that allows holders of crypto-assets to get money without having to sell what they own. By transferring their crypto-currencies to the Wallet, it will be possible for them to get a loan almost instantly in an amount that will be proportional to the value of their crypto portfolio.
For those who do not want any loan, the NEXO token will allow them to receive dividends from the profits generated by the company up to 30%.
The project was created by Credissimo, a company that has been operating for more than ten years in the retail lending business in Europe. Therefore, the team has a very good experience in the field.
However, there are some negative points to note about the project. The interest rates offered to borrowers are relatively high and even if Nexo is a pioneer in the field, many competitors who arrived more recently on the market have proved to be more interesting.
Since 2020, decentralized finance (DeFi) is a subject that has been widely developed and many projects have been born from this general enthusiasm towards this new way of approaching the question of bank lending.
