Five years have passed since the establishment of ARYZE, and what began as a university project has turned into a trailblazing blockchain company with a mission to change the future of finance. To tell our story, we need to go back to 2017 and the very beginning of ARYZE.
2017: The year when it all started
From its inception, ARYZE was on a mission to solve the biggest problems within the financial system by changing the way we pay. Back in 2017, a university thesis was written by our CEO Jack Nikogosian that explored the possibilities around introducing e-kroner, a digital version of Denmark’s national currency, which ultimately laid out the foundations for ARYZE and its Digital Cash mission. After incorporating the company later that year, co-founder and CFO Morten Nielsen joined the company shortly after.
ARYZE also won the Danish InnoFounder grant – an incubator program for accelerating the development of innovative business ideas nationwide. This opportunity ultimately led to the conceptualization of Digital Cash and the first full-reserve “eKroner,” a digital version of Denmark’s national currency. This opportunity enabled ARYZE to further develop the e-kroner concept, which then led to the conceptualization of Digital Cash.
2018: Idea development in times of uncertainty
In 2018, ARYZE was focused on growth and developing its core team. We were thrilled to have our first office as headquarters, where solutions were being developed around the clock. We also completed the first successful ICO in Denmark by offering RYZE tokens (ARYZE’s hybrid dividend tokens) to early investors, resulting in a total investment of more than $1.6 million USD. However, this was also quite a challenging year for ARYZE due to the emergence of the Great crypto winter. After a remarkable boom in 2017, the price of Bitcoin plunged drastically and left the market unstable, which led to the crash of various ICOs. Once investors found themselves losing much of their money, the willingness to invest in ICOs was lessened. Combined with the lack of regulatory consensus, all this made the crypto market much like the Wild West.
At a time when the crypto industry faced one of its most critical phases, ARYZE decided to close its main token sale and take a different route into the industry. We prioritized building our core products, and then continuing the fundraising later on in a controlled manner from credible investors. The vision for creating MAMA (Multi-Asset Modular Application) and MAMA Business solutions was put in focus, as ARYZE began to work on becoming a full-reserve digital bank with cloud-regulated banking.
2019: New opportunities
This shift started the vision of MAMA (Multi-Asset Modular Application) and MAMA Business as ARYZE began to focus on becoming a full-reserve digital bank with cloud-regulated banking. Made with the intention of presenting our comprehensive business model to select investors, ARYZE started perspective writing for its detailed prospectus, and idea development of MAMA was high on the agenda.
Made with the intention of presenting our comprehensive business model to selected investors, ARYZE started perspective writing in 2019 for its detailed prospectus – and idea development of MAMA was high on the agenda. ARYZE was working hard on building the infrastructure needed for managing clients through MAMA and MAMA Business, as well as for scaling the company.
At the same time, ARYZE began discussions with IBM and hired an interim CTO Pål Krogdahl to help establish RYZEnet, the infrastructure foundation of MAMA and MAMA Business. Additionally, strategic partnerships with Onfido and EpisodeSix were also initiated. All these efforts went towards becoming a cloud-native online bank.
2020: Stablecoins in focus
The entirety of the crypto ecosystem matured after the Crypto winter, and new possibilities were suddenly available for many companies. ARYZE recognized an opportunity to enter the stablecoin market by prioritizing Digital Cash from our prospectus. This shift in perspective made it possible to launch our full-reserve stablecoins first, whereas becoming a bank and MAMA solutions was scheduled for later in the future.
Based on the criteria and goals set by the team, we began to prepare our next funding round scheduled for the following year. The funding was successfully completed through the Danish Investor’s Network Keystones, with a total of 5.8 million DKK raised to launch Digital Cash and its ecosystem.
2021: Creating a digital version of cash
2021 was the year of unrelenting development. ARYZE began developing its series of exchange-traded stablecoins with full-reserve banking and establishing MAMA DeFi, the financial ecosystem around it. A solvency agreement was signed with Grant Thornton, one of the top trusted auditors worldwide, to guarantee transparency for the full-reserve banking model behind Digital Cash. This strategic partnership provides reading rights to ARYZE balances and safe custody accounts, so that the underlying backing behind our stablecoins can be validated.
2022: From vision to realization
Now in 2022, ARYZE is in closed beta with Digital Cash (including eEUR, eUSD, and eGBP) and MAMA DeFi, a decentralized exchange (DEX) where users can swap between various currencies. But to achieve this, we had to build the necessary financial rails so that we as a company are banked. This involved obtaining bank accounts, safe custody accounts, access to capital markets, and essentially everything needed to offset the fiat into government-issued assets, which is the backing behind Digital Cash. Since the last funding round, these financial rails have been developed through integrations with various banks and capital market providers, as well as through smart contracts for stablecoins that were recently audited and approved by Banshie.
As a young company, navigating the jurisdictional and legal nuances of stablecoins over the last several years has not been easy – especially prior to them being a common expression. And although we have researched several jurisdictions such as Lichtenstein, Denmark, and other European companies, we ultimately decided on a fully incorporated company in BVI as the best possible framework for our issuance. This subsidiary will act as a token issuer that only works with regulated financial service providers around the world. We have also entered into an agreement with an Estonian exchange, and we are building exchange partnerships with other exchanges that are required to follow a strict compliance policy.
At the moment, we are raising money again for our final interim funding round that will help us scale better. This includes obtaining several more exchange listing agreements, engaging market makers, scaling awareness about our brand and products, and progressing towards a Series A funding around Q2 next year.
Our journey throughout the years
As one of the thousands of crypto companies founded years ago during the crypto boom, we strived to establish ourselves as frontrunners in an environment without consensus between regulators and financial service providers. But our ability to navigate these ever-changing waters has not been without challenges.
With each new milestone and achievement, we have tried to keep our values as a company that does things not only by mind – but by heart. We had several opportunities to take shortcuts, but we realized that this is a marathon and not a sprint. We have put a lot of thought and energy into the details to ensure we can build solutions that will stand the test of time. Our resilience, hard work, passion, and endless support from our community have motivated us to continue with our journey no matter how big of an obstacle we encounter. What started as a vision and an idea is now becoming a reality. And with the official public launch just around the corner, ARYZE has genuinely made it.
Our journey through the years has been much like running through a dense forest; although we know what awaits us on the other side, the forest has many different routes and it can seem impossible to reach it. But scattered in the forest are these pockets of open space where we are allowed to stop, breathe, and truly take in the breathtaking surroundings. These areas represent the milestones and achievements we have earned along the way. And as we get closer to the end, with scratches and battle scars from our journey, we can see the light across the trees – our end goal. Every day, we wake up and run through this forest to make our core mission a reality – and everything else follows from that.
We want to thank all our incredible partners, investors, advisors, and supporters for these amazing past 5 years. Without your continuous support, none of this would have been possible. ARYZE’s vision remains the same, and we will continue striving towards a better financial future for all.
Become a part of the ARYZE community now 🚀 Click here to join our Discord server today!