It’s the third anniversary of the launch of $SWAP token and the birth of TrustSwap! Come celebrate with us as we take a short trip down Memory Lane and share some recent updates.
Stick around for the after-party where we are offering deep discounts and staking bonuses as a way to say “Thank You!” to our amazing community. Read to the end of this post for unbelievable limited-time deals on The Cypto App and Team Finance and a Bonus Airdrop for SWAP Stakers that you don’t want to miss!
A lot has happened in the last year as TrustSwap has continued to build, grow, and thrive even through the depths of this long crypto winter. But before we go over some of the recent milestones and highlights from the last year, let’s start at the beginning and see just how far we’ve come…
The Story of SWAP
2020
SmartSwaps
It all started in June of 2020 when Jeff Kirdeikis was doing some OTC trading and was surprised to see that lawyers were charging outrageous fees for “escrow services”, which just means they hold some funds for a while and then distribute them as agreed.
“This is what smart contracts were made for!” said he.
Jeff was sure there must be a way to do this in a trustless and secure way at a fraction of the cost. So he asked his friends in the Cryptocurrency Investing group on Facebook if anyone knew of such a service.
Over the next few days, Jeff found that no one had built this simple and valuable tool. So, seeing a gaping hole in the market landscape, he decided to build a trustless escrow solution. He rounded up some devs and got to work. The result was the original “TrustSwap” (now called SmartSwaps).
But Jeff didn’t stop there. Rather than make it a simple pay-to-use website, he decided to create a utility token that would offer discounts on the platform and rewards for holders.
Birth of $SWAP
On July 9th, 2020, Jeff launched the SWAP token. It was originally offered to some of his friends and family and people who were actively involved in the Cryptocurrency Investing group. $SWAP launched at $0.005, and all the funds raised were added to the liquidity pool on Uniswap. The token quickly took off and gained a strong community of brave DeFi pioneers who were excited to be part of something new and innovative.
Launching a Launchpad
In August of 2020, TrustSwap’s then-CTO, Adam Barlam, wanted to launch a token for the project he had been working on called Chain Games. Jeff knew that he and the TrustSwap team had a lot of valuable resources that could help them launch their $CHAIN token. So he decided to create the TrustSwap Launchpad.
At the time, the only other launchpad around was Binance. But Jeff knew he and the TrustSwap team could do it better and wanted to create a special opportunity for the TrustSwap Community. Chain Games was the first token to launch on the TrustSwap Launchpad, which was only available to $SWAP holders.
It was a smashing success, and $CHAIN went on to become one of the top-performing tokens to ever launch on TrustSwap!
Team Finance Acquisition
In December of 2020, Jeff came across a little-known DeFi platform called Team Finance that was offering secure, trustless token locks. Jeff saw that this was in line with his vision of growing TrustSwap into a comprehensive ecosystem of DeFi tools designed to make crypto safer and more accessible. By locking liquidity and team tokens, new projects could showcase their long-term commitment, build confidence in their communities, and prevent rug-pulls and exit scams.
Seeing this as a ‘blue ocean’ space with very little competition, he struck a deal to acquire Team Finance and incorporate it into the TrustSwap ecosystem.
The foundations were being laid for a new generation of Web3 builders.
Since then, the Team Finance platform has been updated several times with many new features and has become the one-stop shop for building and managing tokenized ecosystems.
2021
Party in Decentraland!
We celebrated our first birthday with a big party in Decentraland. We worked with the Decentraland team to design our very own building, TrustSwap HQ, where people can meet up in the Metaverse and enjoy our curated gallery of TrustSwap/Swappable NFTs.
We gave away POAPs and NFTs of TrustSwap hats and hoodies that are wearable in Decentraland as in-game accessories. Everyone looked their best and had a great time!
The Crypto App
In 2021, TrustSwap made its second acquisition, a popular mobile app called “The Crypto App”. With this, TrustSwap could reach a much wider audience and help onboard more people into the crypto space by providing useful tools for traders and investors.
Swappable
2021 also saw the launch of Swappable, the NFT branch of TrustSwap. Swappable initially started out as an NFT marketplace but pivoted when it became clear that this was becoming an oversaturated space. Instead, Swappable now focuses on enterprise-level Web3 development and supporting partnerships with businesses, celebrities, artists, non-profits, and other organizations that are interested in exploring blockchain-based solutions and opportunities.
For more nostalgia and fond memories, see our birthday blog post from last year.
2022-2023
In the last year, we’ve accomplished amazing growth by focusing on both refining and expanding our products and services.
- TrustSwap Launchpad continues to focus on scouting out the best projects in the crypto space and bringing them to our community. While launchpads have slowed down in the bear market, the projects we have launched have been high-quality, with solid teams and long-term potential. Meanwhile, of the projects we declined, 90% of them never even launched, and the rest have been performing poorly. We continue to hunt for the hidden gems.
- Team Finance has grown to support hundreds of tokens across over 20 blockchains and continues to be used by builders and communities to ensure security and accountability. With new features like vesting, staking, and an exchange widget for easy trading, the Team Finance ecosystem has come a long way and is still being regularly updated and improved based on community feedback.
- The Crypto App continues to improve as new features and premium options are added to this valuable tool kit. With the recent launch of The Crypto App Pro and Pro+ services, you can now enjoy all the ad-free benefits of industry-leading data and charts by TradingView as well as in-depth market research and reports by IntoTheBlock and Messari.
- $SWAP Token is now 100% in circulation. All tokens are unlocked and distributed across over 20,000 wallets and 4 blockchains. Nearly 1/3rd of the entire $SWAP supply is currently staked in the Long Term Staking Portal for an average stake of almost 4 years!
- The TrustSwap Team has grown to over 70 people across several countries and continents. We continue to seek out and hire the best and the brightest in the blockchain industry to help us in our mission: to Accelerate The Global Transition To Web3.
The Road Ahead: Q3, Q4, and beyond…
TrustSwap Incubator
TrustSwap Incubator is a new branch of the Launchpad department where we support promising crypto startups with personalized advisory services as well as logistical and marketing support to help them prepare for launch. Our most recent incubation project, ANote Music, just launched their $ANOTE token, and we are proud to support them on their journey into Web3.
Team Finance Enterprise
Swappable will soon be rebranding to “Team Finance Enterprise” with a focus on serving enterprise-level clients with all the tools and services they need to integrate Web3 technology and develop tokenized business models. We believe that Web3 is the future of the internet and are excited about helping others discover all the benefits of tokenization.
SWAP Token Integration
While the last year has been mostly focused on improving our core products and services, we will soon be ready to tie it all together by integrating SWAP token directly into Team Finance and The Crypto App.
As always, SWAP stakers will continue to get guaranteed allocations in all TrustSwap Launchpads based on their Staking Score, and the Top 1000 stakers can join our private Telegram group (Web3 sig. required) where our VIP community leaders can talk SWAP, share alpha, and discuss ideas to help TrustSwap continue to grow and shine in the years to come.
“Threemium” Birthday Bonus!
TrustSwap has a lot to celebrate this year and we are proud of our accomplishments.
To celebrate, we are offering some fun bonuses and ‘Threemium’ discounts for our amazing community!
- The Crypto App Pro $3/month for 3 months – Get The Crypto App Pro for only $3/mo for 3 months! Download the app and sign up today for this limited-time deal!
- SWAP Staking Bonus – For the next 3 days, any new stakes of between 3,333 – 33,333 SWAP staked for at least 3 years will get a 10% BONUS in SWAP tokens airdropped directly to their wallets!*
Once you have staked your SWAP, just fill out this short form with your wallet address and staking tx to get your bonus!
* Only one bonus is allowed per person (largest eligible stake applies) for a maximum bonus of 3,333 SWAP. The deadline is July 16th at 5PM* UTC or when the total of registered stakes = 1M SWAP. Tokens will be airdropped shortly thereafter to those who register eligible stakes.
We can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings and the years to come as TrustSwap continues to build and innovate.
We’re glad to have you along for the ride!
