BENQI is a decentralized, non-custodial liquidity market and liquid staking protocol built on Avalanche, a high-speed smart contract network. Through the lending protocol, users can lend, borrow, or earn interest on their digital assets. The Liquid Staking protocol enhances capital efficiency by allowing users to unlock their staked AVAX for use in other decentralized financial protocols.
The creators opted for Avalanche due to its reputed decentralization, high scalability, low transaction costs, and seamless compatibility with popular plugin wallets.
Established in 2021, BENQI secured $6 million in funding. Its strategic investors include Ascensive Assets, Dragonfly Capital, Mechanism Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, Spartan Group, TRGC, Woodstock Fund, Ava Labs, Morningstar Ventures, GBV Capital, Skynet Trading Ltd, Rarestone Capital, Genblock Capital, and Moon Inc.
Who Founded BENQI?
BENQI was developed by Rome Blockchain Labs Inc., which serves as both an incubator and a software development company focusing on decentralized finance (DeFi). JD Gagnon, one of the co-founders and the CEO of Rome Blockchain Labs, leads the team along with co-founders Hannu Kuusi and Alexander Shul.
JD Gagnon holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce with a focus on finance and accounting from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Before his involvement with Rome Blockchain Labs, Gagnon created the Velox algorithmic trading platform. He is also the founder and CEO of Scotch & Ramen Media, Inc., and serves as the CSO of Etheralabs, Inc.
Hannu Kuusi brings experience in developing institutional-grade infrastructure for financial technology and military uses.
Alexander Szul is responsible for overseeing the development of the BENQI liquidity market platform.
What Sets BENQI (QI) Apart?
As the first DeFi Lending project on the Avalanche platform, BENQI (QI) provides an alternative for DeFi users from congested and centralized networks to transfer and manage their idle assets on BENQI without obstacles and at low network costs. Thanks to Avalanche, BENQI users benefit from easy and cost-effective access to decentralized financial services, empowering them to better manage their strategies.
Developers have the opportunity to create financial products using BENQI’s protocol and governance tokens.
Additionally, BENQI aims to alleviate Ethereum network congestion by offering Ethereum users a cost-effective and faster alternative. Members of BENQI can withdraw liquidity from the shared market, borrow funds, and get clear visibility of interest rates.
