Airfox files to be among first registered U.S. blockchain tokens
AirToken as a blockchain bellwether on compliant exchanges
Airfox, a startup providing transformative financial services to emerging markets, today announced it is one of the first blockchain companies to file a Form 10 and register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company’s AirToken may become one of the first registered tokens in the United States under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
According to a recent VentureBeat article: “2017 ICOs issued in the U.S. will be the first security tokens traded on exchanges… expect ‘remediated’ ICOs that have registered their shares with the SEC to be the first issuers to trade in volume on compliant exchanges.” Airfox is among those candidates.
During the Airfox initial coin offering (ICO), nearly 2,500 AirToken purchasers contributed to the development of an entirely new financial platform to empower the two-thirds globally who are not equitably or reliably served by traditional banking services. To power its revolutionary peer-to-peer microloans program, Airfox developed and released its own ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum blockchain, AirToken (symbol: AIR).
Filing a Form 10 and registering AirToken with the SEC marks a big step in Airfox’s evolution. The Form 10 automatically becomes effective within 60 days after the filing. “This is a path to compliance with federal securities laws, and we expect it to provide the regulatory certainty needed to spark the next wave of innovation,” said Victor Santos, co-founder and CEO, Airfox. “Airfox is focused on extending financial inclusion to all and establishing an accessible alternative to traditional financial institutions.”
The company holds a deep sense of gratitude to AirToken holders for supporting its vision of a truly open, safe, and fair financial system for all. Airfox ultimately aims to share with AirToken holders 20% of the profits the company generates from its peer-to-peer lending platform, which remains in development.
Airfox believes decentralized governance and a blockchain “bank” powered by AirToken will democratize access to banking, payments, and lending to empower billions of new customers. Using AirToken, Airfox expects to build a virtually cost-free, near-instant bridge between currencies that provides access to capital for populations traditionally shut out of financial markets.
Airfox continues building solutions that provide an opportunity for people without a bank account, credit card, or credit history to access financial services and lift themselves out of poverty. The company’s roadmap includes:
- Major strategic partnerships — Airfox is extending its mobile digital wallet to Brazilian retailer Via Varejo’s enormous national customer base to drive mainstream adoption. Airfox plans to be accessible in all 676 Casas Bahia stores across Brazil. As Airfox rolls out in more stores, it expects scaling user numbers to rapidly accelerate algorithmic improvement and alternative credit scoring development opportunity.
- Peer-to-peer lending platform — As the Airfox app user base grows, Airfox intends to evolve the AirToken web application into a full-featured, blockchain-based, peer-to-peer lending application that will enable anyone from around the world to provide capital for a microloan to a diversified cohort of borrowers.
- Alternative credit scores — Airfox aims to advance and improve credit-scoring algorithms leveraging data science and machine learning. Utilizing in-app behavioral analytics and novel smartphone data sources (such as GPS history), these algorithms are expected to streamline identity verification and generate personalized credit scores — regardless of whether the individual has a traditional credit history.
- Global expansion — Once the platform is mature, Airfox expects to franchise the model to other organizations and institutions in other emerging markets. Airfox plans for AirToken to be an integral part of this global platform, enabling its partners to reduce transaction costs and increase settlement times while maintaining security, transparency, and decentralization.
The complete Airfox white paper, which details the company’s expected roadmap, is available here.
About Airfox
Airfox is on a mission to provide the roughly four billion unbanked and financially underserved individuals in emerging markets mobile access to financial services. Airfox aims to create an entirely new financial services model that serves the underbanked with reliable, egalitarian, and democratic access to capital and financial services. Airfox is a venture-backed, financial technology company based in Boston and São Paulo. To learn more about the future of decentralized digital banking, visit www.airfox.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements of the Company that involve substantial risks and uncertainties. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “target,” “potential,” “will,” “would,” “could,” “should,” “continue,” and similar expressions. The forward-looking statements in this press release represent the Company’s views as of the date of this press release. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause its views to change. However, while it may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, it has no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.
