During the third quarter, the entire crypto space was abuzz, and Civic was no exception. The quarter was marked by strong performances, especially from Bitcoin, which is the best performing asset this year, beating both stocks and commodities. NFT investment also reached new heights as a flood of sales reached $10.7B during the quarter. And, FATF, the regulatory entity that sets global standards for cryptocurrency, issued its 12-month review of revised standards on virtual assets, clearing the way for countries to codify and enforce new standards.
Key Milestones
Civic has always been ahead of the curve when it comes to decentralization and identity verification. As signals from regulators became stronger over the summer, we understood quickly from our clients and prospective clients that new permissioning tools for DeFi were needed to respond to these dynamic compliance requirements. We accommodated by building a DeFi product, called Civic Pass.
In September, we partnered with Solrise Finance to announce the first on-chain decentralized exchange on Solana, Solrise DEX Pro, with permissioned access based on digital identity. Civic provides a KYC solution, through Civic Pass, that a dApp provider can use as an input to their compliance program. Solrise DEX Pro uses Civic Pass to determine which participants meet their rigorous standards for verification prior to allowing them the ability to trade. From Solrise DEX Pro, users are guided to use Civic’s identity verification technology solution. Once the user has completed the Civic Pass screening process, Solrise DEX Pro uses the results of the screening to allow trades on the DEX. The underlying technology for this product comes from Identity.com.
During the third quarter, we also partnered with Black Fire Innovation, the hospitality technology hub created by Caesars Entertainment, Inc., and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), to launch a vending machine demo using Age Verification by Civic. The technology is based on Identity.com’s open source identity verification ecosystem and is strategically located where advanced gaming and hospitality technology are developed.
The summer heralded new hires and promotions as the company repositioned itself for growth. Most importantly, our co-founder Vinny Lingham moved into a new role as Chairman of the Board at Civic, and promoted Civic’s new CEO, Chris Hart, from his position as COO, a role he held for three years. We also gained a new board member, Maja Vujinovic, who previously led blockchain as a CIO at GE, and has already made a tremendous strategic impact on our company’s direction. We also added a director of risk and compliance to our team, Chis Harding, who has already penned an op-ed in Cointelegraph.
Civic in the News
Civic gained its share of media attention over the summer with a total online readership of 332M. Our new CEO, Chris Hart, shared thoughts on the identity verification industry at the ReImagine Conference, on the Crypto Coin Show, and on Securities.io, while our previous CEO, Vinny Lingham, shared insight with The Information. Our new head of risk and compliance, Chris Harding also introduced himself to Authority Magazine.
Our partnership with Black Fire Innovation garnered unique features in Vending Times, The Spoon and Biometric Update, and our press release reached 83M+ viewers. Additionally, our partnership with Solrise Finance received 14 pieces of unique coverage, including a piece in CoinDesk, CoinMarketCap, U.Today, Invezz and other publications. The press release reached a total potential audience of 77M.
Coming Soon
With the strong performance of NFTs this summer and into the fall, we’ve expanded our Civic Pass offering to NFTs, so you can expect to hear more announcements on that front. We’re also working hard to make Civic Pass available across chains and will be sharing more news about partnerships on that front. Finally, we’ll be paying close attention to upcoming regulations that affect our clients and responding to their needs to make our products better.