Travel Company Maps.me Aims To Develop A “Killer DeFi App”

The travel company Maps.me is taking a step into the DeFi space with a $50M fundraising effort to develop a “killer DeFi app” as we read more about in today’s crypto news.

In a press release, the travel company Maps.me revealed that its backers in the $50M fund include Hong Kong-based Alameda Research that is run by Sam Bankman Fried and Berkeley. Other major players are involved too like investor CMS holdings and Genesis Capital.

The company claims that this move is an investment into the DeFi ecosystem adding that it will now “embed a cross-border, multi-currency wallet which will merge DeFi tools with everyday travel and location services” to the users. The company plans that its new wallet will allow its users to earn yields up to 8% as well as exchange funds with no hidden fees, abilities to send money in multiple currencies for cross-border travel as well as get cash back on transactions via the app.

Analysts predict that even with restrictions, about 350 million people will travel on holidays this year. 2020 was full of challenges. So If you want to say goodbye to this year in a special way we’ll tell you about the places where you should go 😉 https://t.co/W9mVIMhnSe

— MAPS.ME (@MAPS_ME) November 25, 2020

The company claimed it has about 140 million users worldwide and claimed that it will develop the “killer DeFi app” because this industry has to become mainstream. Alex Grebnev is the co-founder of Maps. stated:

 “The industry is waiting for a catalyst for the mass adoption of DeFi tools and we’re excited to make this a reality.”

The company also said that it has built a governance token named MAPS coin on the Solana blockchain network and also commented that most of the clients are “millennial Europeans” with 58% of the users being from Europe, aged 18-40.

Speaking of DeFi apps, Jeff Bezos is able to shut down the DeFi apps after a debate was raging on Twitter about the decentralized part of DeFi. Many of the Defi and crypto industry top influencers waded in with their opinion on the highly charged subject and the ethos behind DeFi could remove the controlling element of a CEO or board of directors which dictates the movement of centralized finance like banks and exchanges. Looking at it from a technical standpoint, some believe that DeFi can never be truly decentralized

Morgan Creek digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano asserted that Amazon owner Jeff Bezos can shut down the AWS servers that host a large number of ETH based DeFi platforms. According to a ZDNet, the report confirms that Amazon Web Services have the biggest slice of the cloud services market this year.