The Maker Foundation has sold $27.5 worth of MKR tokens to Dragonfly Capital Partners and Paradigm Capital aiming to capture Asian markets which long been dominated by Tether’s USDT, the foundation announced the news in blog post published Thursday, December 19.
With this purchase, venture capital firms Dragonfly Capital Partners and Paradigm now hold around 5.5% of the total MKR supply for $27.5 million. 5.5% supply for $27.5 million results and $500 per MKR token that is slightly above the current market price $467.78 at the time or writing.
The Maker Foundation, the group behind the decentralized crypto platform MakerDAO, said the acquired amount will be used to support companies effort to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) in China and other Asian countries.
According to the Maker Foundation, the joint purchase will give MakerDAO, direct access to both Dragonfly’s and Paradigm’s expertise in the Asian market, and will also help increase adoption in Asia of Dai, the world’s first decentralized stablecoin built on the Ethereum blockchain and the leading stablecoin of decentralized finance (DeFi).
Rune Christensen, CEO of the Maker Foundation, commented:
“Dai continues to be the stablecoin of choice in all global markets for its decentralization and overall stability. The support and expertise of Dragonfly Partners and Paradigm will give Dai an unparalleled advantage in driving innovation and adoption in Asia.”
Dragonfly Capital and Paradigm are global crypto venture funds with a strong presence in the United States and Asia which makes them perfect to help Maker to capture Asian market.
Charlie Noyes, partner at Paradigm, said:
“MakerDAO represents the promise of decentralized finance. The mechanism is an innovation in enabling global, permission less access to credit. We look forward to participating in this community.”
Alexander Pack, managing partner of Dragonfly Capital, stated:
“Asia is the most important market for crypto in general. It is also home to the largest concentration of the unbanked and underbanked around the globe, which we believe represents enormous pent-up demand for decentralized financial products. Dai has quickly become the market leader in decentralized finance and we look forward to helping it grow and extending its leadership in Asia and the rest of the world.”
Although MakerDAO is just now expanding DeFi to Asia, significant efforts have been made by the company to drive DeFi adoption in general. On November 18, 2019, MakerDAO launched multi-collateral Dai (MCD) which enabled the company to support new features such Dai Saving Rate (DSR) allowing users to earn savings automatically by locking their Dai into the DSR contract.
Crypto-Economy reported on December 17 that crypto exchange OKEx has listed Dai and will integrate Maker’s DSR tool on its platform on December 23.
