KAIN Warwick is seen as an OG in the world of DeFi and blockchain finance after founding Synthetix, an Ethereum-based protocol that allows ‘real-world’ assets, like stocks and shares to be bought and traded using cryptocurrency.
But what is the story behind the entrepreneur?
Who is Kain Warwick?
Kain Warwick was born and raised in Australia, studying Genetics at the University of New South Wales.
Warwick started his career working in IT before joining a band called The Lie Society in 2005 and spent the next four years touring around Northeastern America.
But in 2009, Warwick parted ways with The Lie Society and founded Pouncer – a live auction site.
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In January 2013, Warwick then Founder Ai, a music retailer that operated online to deliver the best prices on music equipment in Australia.
It wasn’t until 2014 that Warwick joined the cryptocurrency world after co-founding Blueshyft, an iOS-based platform now installed in over 1,500 retailers across Australia, that allows businesses to accept cash payments for their digital goods and services.
Blueshyft was the first payment gateway in Australia to allow customers to purchase cryptocurrency over the counter.
Blueshyft then led Kain to start looking at other Blockchain Finance solutions, specifically Ethereum, realising quickly that this represented a shift in the future of financial infrastructures.
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Two years later, Warwick founded a stablecoin project for a trustless and decentralized payment network named Havven.
Havven raised $30 million in funds in an initial coin offering but was later rebranded as Synthetix.
Even after being one of the few successful 2017-era ICOs to survive the 2018–2019 bear market, Warwick stepped down as Synthetix’s CEO as the project transitioned to a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
Warwick was able to grow Synthetix to become one of DeFi’s major tokens and a pioneer in the asset class.
Synthetix was also one of only five DeFi unicorns, with over $1.2 billion locked in the project.
What is Synthetix?
Synthetix is a decentralized platform that allows users to go long and short (bet the price will increase or decrease) on cryptocurrency assets, stocks, currencies, precious metals such as gold, and other assets in the form of ERC20 tokens.
Synthetic assets or “Synths” in simple terms copy the price of an asset in the ‘real world’ and puts it onto the Ethereum blockchain giving that Synth all the properties of an ERC20 token.
Warwick’s vision for Synthetix is to create a world where all assets can be tokenized and traded on blockchain protocols. This would create unprecedented liquidity and efficiency in financial markets and open up new investment and speculation opportunities.
The company plans to launch a synthetic version of the US dollar, which would allow users to trade against the dollar without converting their currency.
This would make it easier for people to use cryptocurrencies in everyday transactions.
What is Kain Warwick’s net worth?
Kain Warwick has a net worth $657 million thanks to the success of Synthetix.
Its native token, SNX, has a market cap of $530,000,000, making it the 68th largest cryptocurrency.