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NPP: The First CBDC Platform Consolidating Banking, Payment, and Merchant Services

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The financial system plays a significant role in the economy. Merchants form one of the greatest clients of financial institutions, and for years, merchants have been following bank policies religiously. Furthermore, the banking sector has been dormant, with banks operating conventionally with no notable innovation. Although most of them adopted mobile transactions, they were still heavily dependent on traditional systems. Besides, the transactions still have their share of setbacks, especially on fees and unsupported international transfers, making them inefficient. 

However, financial technology gurus are waking up to the realization that the financial industry and, more so, banking systems are due for a change. Apollo Fintech, a blockchain company based in North America and Africa, seems to be the new hope for the industry. The company utilizes modern technology, blockchain to revolutionize the banking service experience, including central banks, merchants, and people. Apollo Fintech has successfully integrated banking, payment, and merchant services in a single platform, dubbed the National Payment Platform (NPP), through blockchain technology capabilities.  

NPP Banking Service

Merchants have been content with traditional banking procedures and policies as they had no decent alternatives. According to most of them, the challenges associated with traditional banking were a cost they had to pay in their business. The system was generally characterized by slow transaction processing, high cost, limited usability, and inaccessibility. Apollo Fintech is changing the game in banking services and adding some value by giving central banks the ability to introduce a new currency, a digital currency. 

Several central banks have, in the past, attempted to launch a digital currency, CBDC, although none of them has been successful. However, the National Payment Platform is providing the necessary infrastructure. The platform will allow any central bank to issue a digital currency and onboard commercial banks, agents, merchants, and the people. That way, banking services will be accessible to all populations provided they own a phone. The digital currency will be held in an online wallet, and users only need to sign up online. 

Under traditional banking, over 1.7 billion adults had no access to banking services by 2017. The situation could be blamed on banks’ conditions on opening accounts and the accessibility of commercial banks due to their characteristic of concentration in urban centers. The NPP makes all banking services available on mobile phones, including phones utilizing outdated technology. Deposits and withdrawals will be instant through the online wallets, and they can also link the wallet with bank cards as an additional option for funds top-up or withdrawal. People will have banking services with them wherever they go as long as they have their phones, and all through the day and night. Further, authorized agents will be spread across countries to make the digital currencies and banking services available for the people.

NPP Payment Service

Among the significant challenges with payment services in conventional banking include payment processing speeds, especially for payments made abroad, and transaction fees. The National Payment Platform will solve these problems with the platform’s online wallet, the platform-compatible Apollo Knox Pay, and the CBDC. Users will be able to make peer-to-peer payments using digital assets in their wallets, at reduced costs. The payments will be frictionless, and users can even make payments abroad in minutes.

The platform offers different ways of sending payments, including SMS, its app, offline codes, and QR codes. It will allow economic players to save significantly on waiting times and resources, 

NPP Merchant Services

Aside from banking services, merchants utilize other platforms to advertise their goods to catch the eye of potential customers. Some make use of free social media, while others pay for slits in advertising platforms. However, Apollo Fintech’s new payment platform is providing merchants with this functionality. 

Merchants using the platform can publish a catalog of their goods and services directly on the payment platform. Interested users can buy the goods and make payments to the merchant directly through the platform. It also features a point of sale system that will allow users to sell their products and services directly and receive payments, although locally. 

Summing Up

Apollo Fintech has been among the top companies utilizing blockchain technology to revolutionize various sectors. While this article focuses more on the integration and added capabilities and functionalities in banking, payment, and merchant services, platform users will benefit from blockchain characteristics. 

Part of the benefits they will all enjoy is the quantum-resistant data encryption mechanism on an immutable ledger. The immutable and distributed ledger ensures that no more action can be taken once a transaction is complete and recorded. It will be the ultimate platform that solves cybersecurity threats all at once.

Blockchain technology will provide unprecedented safety in the financial sector and foster privacy in an individual transaction. For now, people only have to wait for the first central bank digital currency based on Apollo Fintech’s National Payment Platform and enjoy a seamless experience.

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WEMIX Solidifies Global Reach with Listing on Kraken

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The milestone listing propels WEMIX’s native coin into Western markets including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia

SINGAPORE, 8th July, 2026 — WEMIX, the Layer-1 blockchain ecosystem developed by gaming giant WEMADE, today announced that its native coin (WEMIX) has been officially listed on Kraken, one of the world’s longest-standing, most liquid and secure cryptocurrency exchanges. Trading is scheduled to commence on 7 July 2026, allowing Kraken’s global user base to deposit, withdraw, and trade WEMIX against the USD.

Listing on Kraken represents a pivotal shift in liquidity and market exposure for WEMIX. While WEMIX has historically maintained an entrenched position within South Korea, South America, and regional Asian markets, this integration into Kraken vastly expands its global reach. It opens access for Western institutional and retail investors across regions including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia, which will serve as a base for international users interacting with WEMIX’s extensive digital economy.

Shane Kim, CEO of WEMIX and Vice President of WEMADE, said: “Aligning with partners who share our commitment to compliance and security is paramount. Given Kraken’s reputation, we are honored to collaborate with them as we scale our market reach, establish a strategic foothold in the U.S. — the world’s largest financial market — alongside other key Western regions, and evolve into a truly global blockchain ecosystem.”

As WEMIX sets its sights on scaling its Real-World Asset (RWA) initiatives, securing this major listing by tapping into the immense capital pool of the biggest financial market in the world also significantly elevates WEMIX’s global visibility, enables deeper liquidity, and positions the ecosystem to attract a vast new wave of participants.

WEMIX’s listing on Kraken comes amid its parent company’s aggressive expansion across fintech, cross-border payments, and the RWA market. Along with upcoming AAA game launches designed to solidify its market leadership and deepen the WEMIX Web3 gaming ecosystem, WEMADE recently launched StableNet, Korea’s first dedicated Layer-1 blockchain for KRW-backed stablecoins, and established the Global Alliance for KRW Stablecoin (GAKS). Key alliance members include Web3 behemoths such as Chainlink, Chainalysis, and CertiK.

“Bolstered by massive infrastructure leaps like StableNet and the GAKS alliance, WEMADE is building the future of Web3 gaming and its convergence with fintech. Now, cementing our footprint in the Western financial ecosystem further proves that WEMIX, our Web3 arm, is built for the global stage,” Kim added.

Beyond its milestone listing on Kraken, WEMIX remains committed to securing further high-profile exchange integrations, systematically driving global liquidity, and expanding access for its growing international community.

For media enquiries, please contact: pr@wemix.com

About WEMIX
WEMIX is a leading blockchain ecosystem for gaming and digital economies, powered by its highly scalable, EVM-compatible Layer-1 mainnet, WEMIX3.0. With a wide range of integrated services-including NFTs, DeFi, stablecoin payments, and tokenized in-game assets-WEMIX enables seamless integration between gameplay and real-world value. Designed to be transparent, sustainable, and developer-friendly, WEMIX serves as the foundation for the global Web3 gaming ecosystem. For more information, please visit https://wemix.com.

About WEMADE
WEMADE is the only company combining over two decades of AAA game development success with a fully operational, game-proven blockchain ecosystem-built entirely on its proprietary Layer-1 mainnet, WEMIX3.0. Known for global hits such as The Legend of Mir, MIR4, NIGHT CROWS and Legend of YMIR, WEMADE is leading the industry in seamlessly integrating gameplay, tokenomics, NFTs, stablecoin payments, and blockchain infrastructure. Through WEMIX PLAY, WEMADE delivers a unified digital economy where players, creators, and investors can own, trade, and benefit from digital assets-powering the next generation of interactive entertainment and driving the evolution of Web3 gaming. For more information, please visit https://wemade.com.

About Kraken
Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the world’s longest-standing and most secure crypto platforms globally. Kraken clients trade more than 600 digital assets, traditional assets such as US futures and US-listed stocks and ETFs, and 6 different national currencies, including GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, CHF, and AUD. Trusted by millions of institutions, professional traders and consumers, Kraken is one of the fastest, most liquid and performant trading platforms available.

Kraken’s suite of products and services includes the Kraken App, Kraken Pro, the Krak App, Kraken Institutional, Kraken’s onchain offerings and the Ninja Trader retail trading platform. Across these offerings, clients can buy, sell, stake, earn rewards, send and receive assets, custody holdings, and access advanced trading, derivatives, and portfolio management tools.

Kraken has set the industry standard for transparency and client trust, and it was the first crypto platform to conduct Proof of Reserves. It complies with regulations and laws applicable to its business, while actively protecting client privacy and maintaining the highest security standards.

For more information about Kraken, please visit www.kraken.com.

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Lido Finance (LDO) Navigates a Difficult Year With $20M Buyback, V3 Upgrade, and stVaults Push

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Lido Finance remains the dominant force in Ethereum liquid staking — but 2026 has tested that position in ways the protocol hasn’t faced before. LDO is currently trading around $0.27, down sharply from its peak and sitting near all-time lows, despite the protocol maintaining $16.2 billion in total value locked and generating meaningful annualized revenue. The gap between protocol fundamentals and token price has become the defining tension for LDO holders this year.

That tension prompted one of the more significant governance interventions in Lido’s history.

The $20M Buyback That Moved the Market

On March 28, 2026, the Lido Ecosystem Foundation introduced a proposal for a one-time $20 million LDO buyback program in direct response to the token’s performance near all-time lows. The proposal used plain language about the situation — a significant dislocation between LDO’s price and the protocol’s fundamentals — and proposed using up to 10,000 stETH from treasury reserves to purchase LDO at opportunistic market conditions.

The market responded before voting even concluded. LDO rallied approximately 18% to $0.32 on the announcement alone, before giving back much of those gains as broader market conditions deteriorated. The buyback operates outside the automated NEST framework — a deliberate one-time intervention rather than a programmatic mechanism, preserving treasury flexibility while still providing direct token support.

A separate conditional buyback mechanism was also proposed in November 2025 and remains relevant context: it would activate only when ETH exceeds $3,000 and Lido’s annualized revenue surpasses $40 million. That threshold-based design is anti-cyclical by construction — buybacks happen during favorable conditions, not during drawdowns that would deplete treasury at exactly the wrong time.

The V3 Upgrade That Repositions What Lido Is

The more structurally significant development is Lido’s V3 upgrade, which transforms the protocol from a staking infrastructure provider into a multi-product DeFi platform through modular stVaults. The upgrade introduces customizable vault structures that allow different staking configurations — particularly appealing for institutional participants who need specific risk parameters, compliance features, or yield structures that a one-size-fits-all liquid staking product can’t accommodate.

ValMart, a companion infrastructure layer, is also in development alongside stVaults. Together they represent Lido’s clearest answer yet to the question that has dogged LDO holders: how does protocol success translate into token value? The stVaults architecture creates new products and yield surfaces that require LDO governance participation, while the buyback mechanism creates a direct financial link between protocol revenue and token demand.

The $60 Million GOOSE-3 Budget

The DAO also approved a $60 million budget proposal called GOOSE-3 to expand the product portfolio beyond liquid staking, focusing on new earn products and vault structures for institutions and on-chain treasuries throughout 2026. That’s a meaningful capital commitment for a protocol with an $88.3 million treasury against a $227 million market cap — and it reflects a DAO that’s actively investing in growth rather than managing a static product.

Where Lido Stands Competitively

Lido’s $16.2 billion TVL against Binance staked ETH’s $6.6 billion illustrates the competitive advantage the protocol has built over years — but that gap is being contested more aggressively than at any prior point. The liquid staking category now holds $34 billion in TVL across multiple protocols, and Lido’s share has been declining incrementally as competitors like EigenLayer’s restaking ecosystem and Rocket Pool attract capital from holders who prioritize decentralization over market-share depth.

Lido sunsetted Solana staking, now supporting only Ethereum and Polygon — a focused retreat that concentrates development resources but reduces the protocol’s addressable market.

The P/F ratio of 0.6x against a P/S of 9.4x illustrates the valuation anomaly clearly. Lido generates real revenue at scale. The question is whether V3’s stVaults, the buyback program, and the institutional push can close the gap between what the protocol earns and what LDO’s market cap reflects.

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EVAA Finance (EVAA) Pivots From Lending Protocol to Full Crypto Neobank on Telegram

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EVAA Finance has spent the past year building the most consequential DeFi infrastructure on the TON blockchain. As the network’s largest lending protocol — having processed over $1.4 billion in cumulative volume since launch — it now has its sights set on something considerably more ambitious: becoming a full-service crypto neobank embedded directly inside Telegram.

That pivot is underway in 2026, and the roadmap changes what EVAA is competing for entirely.

Where EVAA Stands Right Now

EVAA’s TVL currently sits at approximately $14.69 million on the TON blockchain — a modest figure in absolute terms, but a meaningful one within the context of TON’s still-developing DeFi ecosystem. The protocol raised $2.5 million in a private token sale in January 2025 from backers including Polymorphic, TON Ventures, Animoca Ventures, CMT Digital, and Mythos Ventures, before launching its token generation event in October 2025.

EVAA operates on a pool-based lending model — users deposit assets to earn yield, borrowers pledge collateral and take out loans, and interest rates adjust dynamically based on supply and demand. All of it is executed automatically by smart contracts on TON’s high-throughput, proof-of-stake architecture, with low fees and fast settlement times that make frequent DeFi interactions genuinely practical rather than cost-prohibitive.

The FIVA Integration That Expanded the Yield Stack

One of the most significant recent product moves was EVAA’s integration with FIVA — the first yield tokenization protocol on TON. The integration effectively brings a Pendle-style yield splitting mechanism to the TON ecosystem for the first time, giving EVAA users access to fixed-yield products, leveraged farming positions, and impermanent loss-protected liquidity — all within EVAA’s interface.

Through the integration, users can split deposits into Principal Tokens for fixed, guaranteed returns insulated from rate volatility, or Yield Tokens for leveraged exposure to EVAA yields and farming points. With EVAA’s historical lending rates swinging between 3% and 14% — and dropping as much as 75% in a year — the ability to lock in a fixed rate matters for passive investors who need predictable income. The FIVA integration addresses exactly that need.

The Neobank Pivot That Changes the Competitive Frame

The 2026 roadmap reveals that EVAA is no longer thinking of itself primarily as a lending protocol. The team is building toward a full crypto neobank experience accessible through Telegram — one that would include a crypto card, credit services expansion into undercollateralized loan products, AI-driven personalization of financial recommendations, and cross-chain interoperability extending beyond TON and BNB Chain to Ethereum and TRON.

That’s a large surface area for a protocol with $14.69 million in TVL. But the competitive logic makes sense in the context of Telegram’s reach. The messaging app has over 900 million monthly active users — a distribution layer that no other blockchain has access to in the same way. If EVAA can embed lending, borrowing, cards, and personalized financial services directly into a Telegram-native experience, the addressable market stops being “TON DeFi users” and starts approaching “Telegram users who want financial services without switching apps.”

Whether execution matches ambition is the honest question. Cross-chain development introduces security risk. Undercollateralized lending requires sophisticated risk models that are difficult to get right in DeFi. And AI personalization at the protocol level is largely unproven. Each of these is a meaningful capability gap to close simultaneously.

What the EVAA Token Does

The EVAA token has a capped supply of 50 million tokens and serves three roles — governance, fee rebates for active users, and staking rewards. A linear unlock schedule manages inflation, and an automatic buyback-and-burn mechanism funded by protocol revenue creates deflationary pressure as usage grows. The token’s price has faced headwinds, down roughly 47% over the past 30 days, reflecting a market that’s skeptical about the neobank ambitions more than the core lending product.

That skepticism is a fair lens. The lending infrastructure is working. The neobank pivot is the trade the market is being asked to take on faith — and the coming quarters will determine whether that faith is justified.

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