Zug, Switzerland | June 26th, 2024: The Hashgraph Association (THA), a Swiss-based organization at the forefront of digital enablement and purposeful collaborations within the Hedera network today announced, a partnership with Blade Labs, a financial technology company with a focus on applying distributed ledger-based technology to traditional financial products and services. Aimed at fostering digital transformation and driving financial inclusion in the Middle East, as part of this partnership, Blade Labs will use its technology to reduce the cost of providing financial services to the masses.
Kamal Youssefi, President of The Hashgraph Association, said, “The Hashgraph Association is actively invested in ensuring digital enablement and inclusion, particularly, in the Middle East. Our strategic investment in Blade Labs, which provides innovative fintech solutions in the region, is testimony to our commitment to empowering enterprises with Web3-compliant solutions.
The partnership comes at the heels of two major government-backed Venture Studio initiatives being undertaken by The Hashgraph Association in the region; together, these co-investment ventures are valued at $300 million over the next 5-years. As part of the collaboration, Blade Labs will provide both a conventional and Shariah-compliant Digital Securities Platform to support these investments. The strategic investment and partnership address the growing need for digital transformation solutions required by enterprises to participate in the digital economy, effectively.
Blade Labs is currently focused on providing non-custodial fintech APIs that distribute tokenized funds across multiple jurisdictions in a compliant and user-friendly manner. Tokenizing funds enhances liquidity with real-time settlement, reduces operational costs, and improves collateral management by allowing these funds to be used as collateral across various platforms. These benefits make tokenized funds an attractive option for both traditional and digital-native investors, offering better returns, capital efficiency, and advanced risk management.
“As an investor and strategic ecosystem partner of Blade Labs, The Hashgraph Association’s deep multi-level relationship will enable us to integrate our cutting-edge digital asset solutions with more businesses in the Middle East and beyond. We are also well placed to support the execution of strategic initiatives in the region to grow and empower ecosystems that will help us drive digital transformation,” said Sami Mian, CEO of Blade Labs.
Blade Labs has already secured a fintech license within the Qatar Financial Center and has been admitted to its prestigious Digital Asset Lab. To further accelerate the adoption of digital assets within the region, Blade Labs is registering for a Financial Services Regulatory Association (FSRA) license in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
The Hashgraph Association has been at the forefront of key ventures in the Middle East and GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region. The first in Saudi Arabia has already commenced this year to build a $250 million DeepTech Venture Studio in Riyadh, in close partnership with the Ministry of Investment Saudi Arabia (MISA), and the second in Qatar aims to build a $50 million Digital Assets Venture Studio in Doha, in collaboration with the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), with both these partnerships considered long-term and spanning over the next five years.
About The Hashgraph Association
The Hashgraph Association is at the forefront of the digital enablement and empowerment of organizations through the broad adoption of Hedera-powered enterprise-grade solutions and decentralized applications, including funding training, innovation, and venture-building programs globally. As a non-profit organization headquartered in Switzerland, The Hashgraph Association supports and funds innovation, research, and development that enables economic inclusion and a digital future for all, with a positive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impact. For further information about The Hashgraph Association, visit www.hashgraph-association.com.
About Blade Labs
Blade Labs is a financial technology company that works with the most prominent names in finance, industry associations, governments, and stakeholders to implement technology solutions compatible with an increasingly tokenized economy. Blade Labs’ purpose is to contribute to financial inclusion worldwide by driving down the cost of providing financial services to the masses.
Some of these innovations include :
1) Cutting long settlement times for USD transactions from 5 days to 5 seconds.
2) Tokenizing traditional money funds with ISIN numbers to cut back-office and compliance overhead and increase capital efficiency.
3) Cut distribution costs and time for commodity asset-backed tokens as a ‘means of payment’. (e.g., Gold, Diamonds).
4) Cut private lending back-office costs, which we aim to reduce by over 90% through a blockchain-based private credit platform.
5) Cut multi-jurisdictional compliance costs, addressed by our AI-powered KYC/B/AML solution for digital assets.
Blade Labs is GDPR, SOC2 and ISO 27001:2022 certified, and regularly audited. For further information about Blade Labs, visit https://bladelabs.io.
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