Conduit: Making Financial Growth Accessible for Everyone

Diagram is proud to announce the launch of Conduit, a DeFi enablement platform that is simplifying how traditional fintechs offer mainstream customers access to crypto-based services. Conduit streamlines integrations and minimizes go-to-market hurdles for crypto-based services; meaning fintechs can build DeFi products within days, not months.

Diagram believes cryptocurrencies as an asset class are here to stay, and a new financial system based in crypto is emerging. Retail consumers seeking exposure to cryptocurrencies have few options: signing up with a new third party or using an exchange-traded product at a premium. That being said, the landscape is shifting quickly and a growing number of DeFi platforms offering blockchain-based financial products and services (e.g. borrowing and lending, transactions) are on the rise.

Data shows, however, that the growth opportunity is significant, particularly for traditional financial institutions who want to deepen their relationships with consumers. For instance, 15% of US consumers own Bitcoin or some other form of cryptocurrency. Among crypto owners, 60% would use their bank to invest in cryptocurrencies and 32% said they might do so. Just 4% of current crypto owners said they wouldn’t use their bank to invest in crypto because they wouldn’t switch from the exchange they’re currently using.

So why haven’t more financial institutions acted?

Fintechs Face Significant Friction in Offering Crypto-Based Financial Services

Through extensive research, analysis and conversations with financial services and crypto experts, we learned that ultimately, financial institutions — including many fintechs — are not equipped with the tech and expertise required to offer crypto-based solutions to their customers. While the crypto-based financial system is growing rapidly and maturing, there remains significant friction in participating in it: requiring new kinds of expertise, navigating complex regulatory frameworks, and more.

Our vision to find a way to help fintechs leapfrog these challenges aligned with that of co-founders Kirill Gertman, CEO and Michael Gregson, CTO — both of whom have extensive experience building companies in the crypto space. As a result, Conduit was born to provide one customizable plug-and-play API for connecting to DeFi services. With Conduit, fintechs will be able to create custom, white-label, and fully integrated crypto applications with ease. In turn, companies building financial applications can:

• Maximize entirely new revenue streams

• Attract and retain more customers with crypto-based offerings

• Experience lightning-fast speed to market

When financial applications use Conduit to add crypto-based products, they can reveal simple tools for their end users to access digital assets. With Conduit, crypto earnings can be more widely available to the average non-technical consumer. We see a future with a growing ecosystem of companies connecting to Conduit and their partners to offer crypto access that answers market demand in a variety of geographies and markets.

To learn more about Conduit, visit their website here, and watch this space for updates over the coming months!