AgriDex, a Solana-based (SOL) real-world asset (RWA) marketplace that aims to bring agricultural goods to blockchain rails, has tapped stablecoin platform Bridge to make transactions cheaper and faster for agriculture businesses, the company told CoinDesk in an exclusive interview.
Integrating Bridge allows lower-cost onramp and offramp for buyers and sellers of agricultural commodities and products to use AgriDex as a cross-border payment and settlement venue using Circle’s USDC (USDC) stablecoin on the Solana (SOL) network, said Henry Duckworth, co-founder and CEO of AgriDex.
Buyers and sellers don’t need to hold crypto, they can initiate and receive transactions in their local currencies, using blockchain tech and USDC as an intermediary.
The integration offers an example for Striple’s playbook to acquire Bridge for $1.1 billion earlier this month to expand the payments processor giant’s capabilities to stablecoins. Stablecoins are being increasingly used as a payment vehicle in emerging regions as a cheaper alternative for traditional banking rails.
“This collaboration highlights the power of stablecoins to solve real-world challenges in global markets,” said Zach Abrams, co-founder and CEO of Bridge.
Henry Duckworth, co-founder and CEO of AgriDex, said that growing up in Zimbabwe where waves of currency devaluation has plagued the country’s economy and his experience as a commodities trader at trading behemoth Trafigura inspired him to build AgriDex to streamline cross-border payments for agricultural goods producers.
On AgriDex, agricultural producers can list, execute and settle trades tracking the whole process within the platform. Trades are secured with non-fungible tokens (NFT) containing details of the transaction.
While traditional banking payment rails usually cost 2%-4% in fees when producers export their goods and can take multiple business days to settle, AgriDex lowers fees to around fifty basis points, Duckworth explained.
The company raised $5 million in venture capital from Endeavour Ventures, sub-Saharan African agricultural group African Crops and South African vineyard group Oldenburg Vineyard earlier this year.