The fourth quarter of 2021 rounded out a year of volatility and growth across the cryptocurrency sector and cemented the end of a year when pop culture became aware of NFTs. Governments responded to the rise of digital currency too: Miners relocated after China cracked down on cryptocurrency mining and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) provided more definition around rules under development. This new guidance falls in line with the role Civic is assuming for permissioned DeFi environments.
Key Milestones
At Civic, our Q4 2022 was all about building trust and safety within the broader blockchain ecosystem. In October, we announced our new Developer Hub and Civic Pass integration guides. Civic Pass is our identity layer that allows for permissioned dApp platforms for web3, whether they are DEXs, an NFT mints or marketplaces, metaverses or otherwise.
Headed into the Solana Breakpoint conference, we announced a new suite of tools for creators, including free bot prevention using Civic Pass technology. While at Breakpoint, Civic and Identity.com created some beautiful Identity.com Tech Showcase videos; I took to the stage for a panel about building cross-chain; and we hosted a Twitter Spaces event with our new partner, Snowcrash Labs, a premier NFT marketplace, launching Q1 2022. We made a concerted effort to embed our technology further within the Solana ecosystem by strengthening partnerships while we were there, and we’ve seen dividends across a short timespan from these efforts.
To close out November, Civic and Identity.com sponsored the Solana Labs Miami Hacker House. During that time, our on-site crew worked together tirelessly with the Metaplex team to integrate bot prevention from Civic Pass with Candy Machine. And, our head of product joined other NFT luminaries for a panel discussion at DCentral Con about identity.
We wrapped up December by partnering with ALL.ART, which owns SolSea, to provide KYC and KYB services for their end-of-year IDO. We also announced a partnership with Magic Eden for trust and safety services. To close out the month, we partnered with SolSea on the first-ever NFT drop for a US federal campaign, which benefited Shrina Kurani for Congress.
Civic in the News
In the fourth quarter, Civic accumulated a total online readership of more than 73M. Though many of our partnership announcements were made via Twitter this quarter, we did make a new product announcement during Solana Breakpoint in November with our new suite of NFT creator tools. The announcement made headlines in Decrypt, CoinTelegraph, Invezz and Cryptopian.
And, we made great strides in compliance-related thought leadership as FATF made announcements and the DeFi space continued to grow. Our head of risk and compliance, Chris Harding, made appearances on a panel for the LA Blockchain Summit, at the Reimagine conference and on the CryptoNews podcast. He also penned an op-ed for The Defiant about regulation in crypto, and interviewed with both Gokhshtein Media and Crypto News.
Coming Soon
What a ride 2021 was! We’re poised for further growth in 2022, and we’re also pruning some programs to keep up with the growth, including our Verified by Civic Pass program, which we recently closed. During Q1, expect to see more partnership announcements as we continue building out the DeFi side of our business. In fact, in Q1 2022 we’ve already integrated Civic Pass with KYB for a new partner that is attracting institutional investors, Credix. We’ve also partnered with Liquid Meta to bring capital liquidity to permissioned dApps. And, we’ll be adding features to our NFT products as we continue to respond to dynamic community needs.