By Andrei Skvarsky.
Button Blockchain Technologies, a Russian-staffed but US-domiciled startup developing a cryptocurrency wallet for retail users and corporate blockchain solutions, was among firms selected by an accelerator based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a class that ran last month.
Button raised $20,000 in a pre-seed round of funding and was in a batch of ten startups selected by the Play Labs accelerator, Button said in a statement.
Button is developing a multi-cryptocurrency wallet and a decentralised crypto exchange. Both facilities would be based on the Telegram messaging service. The exchange would accessible via the wallet.
Button Wallet, which would offer various services, was used by 7,600 people during its initial testing, with 12 per cent of them using it for full-scale transactions, either transferring or exchanging cryptocurrency, according to the statement.
The company has a target of building a clientele of about 200,000 customers by the end of 2018.
“Today, the cryptocurrency market is not transparent or convenient enough for a retail user,” the statement quoted Button chief executive and co-founder Alexandr Safonov as saying.
Simultaneously, Button, which has been based in Boston but plans to move its headquarters to Silicon Valley in October, is developing a corporate platform for customer relations and communication for tokenised projects. It plans full-scale launch of the facility for early 2019.
Safonov told EmergingMarkets.me in an email that Button, which was set up in the United States in 2018, consists of a full-time team of five all of whom are students of either Moscow State University or MIT and four part-timers who are in charge of security and stability.
The firm also has a developer team in Moscow.
Button, which is the winner of various hackathons, is stewarded by three mentors from MIT and two from Moscow State University.
Play Labs is co-run by investment firms Bayview Capital and Seraph.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.