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Moola Q & A Summary, 15 July 2022
Thank you to all the community members that joined us in our live Q&A voice chat Telegram session on Friday, 15th of July. We responded to over 20 submitted questions in this Q&A and we intend to host these on a regular basis going forward, so please do participate and submit questions for future sessions. It is worth noting that this was our first live Q&A and we plan to host these at least once a month to ensure regular communication with you.
We will be sharing a form soon where we will be requesting your help. Through answering a few questions, we will have greater insight into when our global audience would prefer us to run these Q&As.
Below, we have provided a ‘transcript’ of the recent Q&A conducted in our Telegram group. Please note that these answers are not verbatim, however they cover the topics in detail.
1) When will Moola release in the U.S.?
As part of our go-to-market strategy, we will look to launch in the U.S. next year. When it does release in the U.S, it is likely that we will have to exclude certain features from the release for regulatory compliance. Licensing-wise, our partners enable us to launch there, so it’s a question of finalising the rest of the compliance requirements. We’ll share more information on this when we’re able to.
2) What are the staking requirements for each card tier and will there be staking rewards for doing so?
We haven’t made the staking requirements public yet, but we’ll make this available as we get closer to the app launch date. For AXPR token holders, there will be staking rewards in AXPR for locking your tokens within Moola. The amount of tokens and duration of lock will determine your reward rate, as well as the card tier you get access to. The top tier will allow you to get a gold plated Moola card for free!
3) What are the staking percentages for the tokens on the platform?
All staking rates, or APRs, are now correct on the TryMoola.com website. The only rate not yet mentioned is AXPR’s, however as mentioned this is something we’ll share as we get closer to the release date.
4) I live in Costa Rica. Am I eligible to sign up and participate in staking and debit card rollout?
Yes, Costa Rica is eligible for the Moola Card and crypto debit card program. We will update the website with the V2 release of the site to include all excluded countries. These excluded countries mostly comprise those on the OFAC list (i.e. sanctioned countries). All eligible countries will currently have access to all features in the app, so it’s only with the U.S. release that certain features may have to be geo-fenced.
5) Is Moola regulated and compliant to the upcoming regulations being implemented globally?
Yes, Moola is 100% regulatory compliant. We are not licensed ourselves as an entity, but we have procured partners that enable us and allow us to operate under their licensing, including FCA licensing for the UK, virtual currency service and financial institution licensing for the EU, and U.S. and other relevant global licensing. This will be more clear in T&Cs, disclaimers and such as we get closer to the launch, as we’re not quite ready to share all this information yet.
6) How will you prevent a Celsius type event?
We use a close partner of ours to generate yield, and they are the sole party involved in this generation of the yield. We’ve been really careful about vetting and choosing this partner, and in making sure we don’t step into a Celsius or Voyager type situation. Yield is not generated through a lending book like with most CeFi providers, but through a yield and prop trading desk that operates across both traditional and crypto financial instruments, with sufficient cash deposits and funds in highly liquid positions available to honour early redemptions.
This entity, which we’ll have more information to share about soon, guarantees the principal funds (meaning the amount you deposit into the vaults) and ensures that this is siloed from the rest of their business – this means there is no impact from their core business, and there would be no external creditors with claims to the customer deposits in the event of that core business’ bankruptcy.
However, we are making it clear in the Moola app that there is risk when generating yield, even with the entity guaranteeing the principal funds. We will never mislead you about how yield is generated, or the risk that comes with it. You can choose not to participate in the yield feature, and in that case your funds would not have any exposure to this third-party partner.
7) What date will marketing start?
There’s no specific date, per say, but we’ve now already begun ramping up our communications and this will just continue since the new branding and website is live. Our marketing will ramp up now in order to meet our objectives of building our user base, retaining them and generating revenue. This marketing will entail both organic initiatives as well as paid advertising to drive eyes towards Moola, and most importantly, signups.
8) Will AXPR still function as a token for the current and future B2B solutions?
AXPR is pivoting to focus solely on the new Moola product as we’ve realised that the prior project branding and scope was confusing, and ultimately the B2B solutions didn’t lead to direct utilisation of the token within the products. With full focus on Moola, we’ve committed – and are committing – significant resources into making the app and thereby the token a resounding success with utility within the app and beyond, and use from what we aim to be a large and ever-growing user base.
9) How will funds be safe?
Moola utilises the market-leading infrastructure providers BitGo and Fireblocks for custody, each for different parts of its functionality and app. This, coupled with stringent compliance requirements, strong security processes and comprehensive insurance cover keep customer funds safe from any hacks or exploits.
10) I was wondering if the yield paid out would be in AXPR or the token that is being staked?
Unlike Celsius, Nexo and a few other similar companies, there will be no option to get paid in AXPR, in exchange for extra % yield. All yield is paid in-kind, meaning in the same token you staked, and not with newly minted tokens.
11) How can you afford to pay out a 15.6% yield rate?
The 15.6% number was placeholder and not accurate. The updated website now accurately states 8%, which is the highest possible APR or yield able to be achieved for USDT, and only when locked for 12 months. As mentioned earlier, yield is not generated through a lending book like with most CeFi providers, but through our partners yield and prop trading desk that operates across both traditional and crypto financial instruments, generating profit that represents the yield.
12) Do you guys have a plan for a giveaway on twitter to attract users to sign up for Moola?
Yes, we’ll conduct several giveaways and other campaigns and initiatives to create awareness of Moola and ultimately sign ups.
13) How would you attract a big investor or firm to invest into MOOLA? ?
We’re going to bring in lots of users for Moola, all incentivised to use the AXPR token in order to get benefits within the app, and with this we aim to attract traders for the token. If you mean equity investment, then this is not currently something we are looking for, but if we were it ultimately comes down to the metrics. Users, revenue, and so on.
14) Does aXpire team also plan on giving out "newsletters" to the email addresses you guys have collected? That would be a great idea for marketing to send out info on what to expect for Moola monthly.
Yes, we’re going to be publishing regular content, including news from the market in the form of a new blog type and series called Moola Markets. Complementing our content strategy, we will be distributing regular ‘newsletters’ to our users (those whom we have email addresses for) with general crypto content as well as related to the Moola project.
15) When are we having USDT pair on kucoin?
We don’t have a fixed date or timeline for this as there are other priorities first, such as the token swap. Our market makers have also observed that projects have more strength with BTC pairings in these specific market conditions, so we’re holding off in part for this reason as well.
16) How will you increase the liquidity of AXPR?
The high-level answer is this: we’re going to bring in lots of users for Moola, all incentivised to use the AXPR token in order to get additional benefits within the app, including our card program. This utility will increase demand for the token on secondary markets and therefore should increase the liquidity.
17) How confident are you that you will get the App published by Q3, and what can you give an estimated release month?
Quite confident, but no specific dates yet. Likely to be the very end of Q3, so September.
18) When the token swap occurs will the amount of circulating supply stay the same?
There will be no redenomination of the token, or an inflation of supply, so yes it will stay the same. You will get 1:1 the same amount of tokens as before.
19) When can we expect the token swap to occur?
Depends on a few different factors, such as our main exchange. No set date yet, however the swap will be really easy and users won’t have to do anything. It’ll be a pure airdrop, likely on an L2 such as Optimism or Arbitrum, or on Polygon. All AXPR holders' public ETH address is available and is the same address for EVM compatible chains like Polygon. Therefore, we can distribute the new tokens to all users quickly and easily. Due to how simple this process will be, we don’t see any need for users to wait until the airdrop takes place. Just carry on as you are.
20) What lessons have been learned from Celsius and other failed businesses that were overleveraged and were forced into chapter 11. How can Axpire ensure their product will keep their users' funds safe and available for withdrawal?
We’ve spent a lot of time making sure that we go with the correct partner for yield generation, and specifically making sure that there was no merry-go-round of borrowing akin to what we say with Celsius, Voyager and the like. We are making it clear in the Moola app that there is risk when generating yield, and how the yield is generated.
21) The overall crypto market has the customer scared to send funds to any crypto institution - how can Moola ensure this won't happen and how will they market that their crypto is safe with Moola?
Transparency and honest communication. The core issue with what’s been happening with crypto in recent times is that so many retail participants had no idea that their funds were at risk, with Anchor and UST being the leading example of this. Certain VC funded startups were effectively wrapping their services around this risky platform, without letting users know of the risk. So we ultimately think it comes down to being clear about what you’re offering, and if there are risks, then outlining what those risks are. As it relates to our yield offering, we are making it clear in the app to all users that there is risk when generating yield, even with our partner’s entity guaranteeing the principal funds. Users can choose not to participate in this part of the app, and if so then there is no risk or exposure to the yield generation at all.
22) Is there an official announcement somewhere on the web that you are really working together with Bitgo + Fireblocks?
There’s no partnership with BitGo or Fireblocks, but users’ crypto deposits are situated within their environments and platforms. This means that their insurance coverage protects all funds on their platform, including all Moola deposits, from hacking and exploits. To be clear, the insurance would not cover any of the yield bearing positions, and it also wouldn’t cover any incompetency or maliciousness from our side or partners’ side, but the insurance covers if BitGo or Fireblocks as the custodians were to get hacked.
23) I have a few questions about Moola/aXpire. In which countries do you have licenses to offer cryptocurrencies/fiat gateway/debit card and where can these licenses be found on the internet?
We have licensing available in the UK, EU, US and certain other global jurisdictions from partners that enable us and allow us to operate under their licensing. These licences cover card issuance, financial institution activity and virtual currency service provisioning. These licences can be found on the internet and will be able to be independently verified by you all when we list them on the site and in T&Cs closer to launch. The licensing will not be kept a secret.
