Government funds NZ crypto platform

The government’s innovation arm, Callaghan Innovation, has invested $315,000 into a New Zealand cryptocurrency savings and trading platform.

The investment comes as the platform rebrands from MyCryptoSaver to Vimba to reflect the expanded range of services the Auckland-based startup offers.

“This is a truly significant investment from Callaghan Innovation and a real show of faith in the future of this very exciting asset class,” Vimba CEO Sam Blackmore says.

“The money will go towards new key features for our expanding service. We will use it to build secure multi-signature crypto wallets for our users and we’re also looking into expanding the range of cryptocurrencies available to them — beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.”

Vimba started life as MyBitcoinSaver in 2014 to offer a simple way for all New Zealanders to invest small weekly amounts in Bitcoin.

The platform’s dollar cost average approach to ride the long term upward trend of cryptocurrencies, rather than its short term fluctuations, proved popular with users.

What started as the founders’ passion project turned into a business which now has 5,616 users with almost $6.5m worth of Bitcoin.

Since launching, the business has done two investment rounds and launches in the UK in coming weeks.

“Even over the past year, in a bearish crypto market, our user base has remained very stable,” Blackmore says.

“This shows that our user-base shares the same long term view of crypto and blockchain more generally as we do: it’s still a very nascent technology with tremendous potential.”

MyCryptoSaver has rebranded to Vimba because it’s expanded far beyond being just a savings platform; it’s also a trading platform with users able to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum to anyone in the world.

Despite some volatility, Blackmore has an optimistic outlook for the crypto market.

“Volatile periods are to be expected and have been happening from the genesis of Bitcoin. The long term trendline has always been up and our outlook is long term.

“We believe Bitcoin will at least reach the market cap of gold as it is a more efficient, more accessible, more secure version of that rare asset. For it to reach the market cap of gold, one Bitcoin would be worth around $600,000 — more than 60 times what it’s worth today.”

“Some people ask whether the crypto ship has already sailed and whether it’s too late to start investing, but when you take the long term view, it’s clear this is still just the beginning.”

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