Crypto Exchange Unizen Receives $200M Boost from Investment Group GEM

Centralized-decentralized (CeDeFi) exchange Unizen has received $200 million from investment group Global Emerging Markets (GEM) to build out an enormous ecosystem, accelerate trade aggregation system and potentially become the leader in CeDeFI, according to a CoinDesk report. 

Opposed to a traditional funding round, GEM’s $200 million is labeled as a “capital commitment”, which means it is milestone-based and performance-related. In other words, in order to actualize the total funds, Unizen still must perform well to continue to receive money injections from GEM. 

The funds will be used to improve Unizen’s systems, expand its team and product, improve its in-house aggregation system and build out its incubator arm known as ZenX Labs. ZenX Labs aims to identify and support emerging decentralized apps within its ecosystem and help them gain momentum and traction. 

The exchange is built on the BNB Chain, also known as the Binance Chain. Binance’s CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Chao, is rumored to have created the term CeDeFI, which describes a system where users gain the benefits of DeFi without the risks of DeFi. Unizen is just that, a platform that combines the benefits and functionality of both centralized and decentralized exchanges on one platform. 

CeDeFi’s goal is to address scalability issues that exist on DeFi protocols built on Ethereum by sacrificing some decentralization. However, it is able to draw more users, which creates greater liquidity. 

Global Emerging Markets is a $3.4 billion alternative investment group that manages a diverse set of investments focused on emerging markets worldwide. 

Author: Tyler Irvin

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