Request Finance in Numbers: January 2023

Happy New Year, Request enthusiasts!

Welcome to another monthly edition of Request Finance in Numbers, where we’ll be reviewing our app’s growth and usage metrics since our last update.

This monthly report is aimed at providing transparency to our users, community, and others interested in Request.

Summary

User & Activity Growth in January 2023

- 📝 New signups on Request Finance: 929, bringing the total number of registered accounts to 21,262.

- 📋 Monthly active users on Request Finance: 1,437

- 📈 Number of crypto payments monthly: 1,838

- 💸 Value of crypto payments monthly: $12.8 million

- 🧾 A total of over $286 million in crypto payments have been paid through the Request Finance app since launching in January 2021.

- 💰 Top 5 cryptocurrencies used: $USDC, $SAND, $ANKR, $USDT, $DAI ‍

- 💳 Top 5 chains used: Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Celo, Fantom 

Note: This report exclusively looks at usage data from the Request Finance product, not including other apps which may build on top of the Request Network protocol. This report excludes payments settled in fiat currency. We believe the most exciting opportunities lie in the adoption of programmable money for real economy uses like subscriptions, salaries, billing, etc.

Commentary for January 2023

Overview. Despite the chaos of 2022, thousands of Web3 teams used Request Finance to pay just over $100 million in crypto invoices, payroll, and expenses. We see this as evidence that enterprise payments is a compelling use case for crypto. That’s why we’re focused on helping remote-first, globally-distributed teams to simplify and automate crypto payments.

At the business level, January saw a higher total value of crypto payments transacted, despite fewer transactions made compared to the previous month. 

Crypto-native companies that make payments, or get paid in crypto remain our ideal customers. We are also actively looking to partner with new chains, and stablecoin issuers to power invoice, payroll, and expense payments in their ecosystems. 

At the product level. As we enter 2023, we continue to focus on building what our users tell us they need. Our team is working on new features to make the app better for enterprise teams. Organizational features include the ability to add admins, and other team members to match the approval workflows, and other financial controls and processes. 

You can expect to see new reporting dashboards so that teams can easily get an overview of their crypto cash flows each month, see their outstanding payable items, and forecast their projected spending.

On/off ramping between fiat bank accounts, and your crypto wallet is important to adoption. Many teams getting paid in crypto still have limited avenues to spend their crypto - without high fees. We are working on introducing new integrations to make on/off ramps to bank accounts in EUR and USD a more seamless process.

Lastly, we have been working to make self-onboarding easier. Request Finance is used by everyone from individual freelancers to large organizational teams. Not everyone needs, or wants to have to speak to a member of our team to learn how to use all the features in the app. Our product team is working to make it easier for you to navigate and learn about the app on your own.

New Crypto Payment Options

We recently added support for a new chain: Moonbeam, the EVM-compatible parachain on Polkadot. Users can now transact with tokens on the Moonbeam network. 

We also added support for $BIT, the native token of BitDAO.

The number of cryptocurrencies supported on Request Finance is second to none, and continues to grow each month. Freelancers, DAOs, and crypto project teams can now send and receive payments in 150+ cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, 9+ fiat currencies, and 14+ blockchains. 

If you’d like to see a token or chain supported in Request Finance, reach out to us on Twitter! 

Request Finance is a chain-agnostic B2B crypto payments platform. We can support invoicing, salary payments, and more in the preferred tokens of any new Layer 1 or Layer 2 ecosystem. 

Our extensive support for new payment options enables projects across different chains to transact seamlessly with each other in their preferred token.

New signups in January: 929

One important metric is the growth in the number of new accounts created, or “signups”. They represent new companies and freelancers ready to use Request Finance to pay, and get paid in cryptocurrency.

In January, the number of users registered on Request Finance grew slightly less month-on-month. The total number of registered accounts on Request Finance currently stands at 21,262 up 929, or about +4% from the previous month. 

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Active users in January: 1,437

Having more new registered accounts is one thing, but more important is to have users who are actively using the product on a regular basis to meet their crypto payment needs. 

The past month saw 245 fewer active users performing in-app activities like sending and paying invoices. This represents a dip of -14.57% in total active users from the previous month, bringing the total number of active users to 1,437. 

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Number of crypto payments in January: 1,838

The number of crypto payments made in January saw a -19.6% drop in the number of new payments made per month. 

The total number of crypto payments made on Request Finance stands at 29,547.

Value of crypto payments in January: $12.8m  

A key success indicator at Request Finance is the dollar value of crypto payments made through the app. Since January 2021, a total of over $286 million of cryptocurrency payments have been made through the Request Finance app. 

Of which, around $12.8 million in crypto invoices were paid last month in January alone. This represents a +24.5% rise in the monthly value of payments, or about $2.53 million more in new crypto payments than the previous month.

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Top cryptocurrencies: USDC, SAND, USDT, DAI, OCEAN

Another data point to keep track of is which cryptocurrencies are most often used on Request Finance. 

USDC continues to be the most preferred cryptocurrency being used on Request Finance, accounting for about 31% of all crypto payments made by our mostly enterprise users. The popularity of invoices being paid in USDC on the Request Finance app likely reflects a flight to safety in the stablecoin market in the wake of UST’s collapse.

USD-denominated stablecoins as a whole continue to be a popular choice for enterprise crypto payments, making up three-fifths, or 61.5% of the crypto payments on Request Finance. The popularity of stablecoins can be explained with many of the same reasons why most people do business in fiat, rather than settling payments in shares of tech companies listed on the NASDAQ. Their stable prices make them ideal as a medium of exchange, and unit of account - two of the three defining features of money.

The Sandbox’s native token, SAND comes in second, accounting for about 18% of the total invoices paid in Request Finance, followed by ANKR (17%), USDT (11%) and DAI (7%). 

GRT, OCEAN, and RARE also made it to the list of top 10 payment currencies. You can find the full list of currencies supported in the Request Finance app here.

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Top payment networks: Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Celo, and Fantom

The Ethereum network is clearly the preferred payment network, being used for about 70% of crypto payments processed through Request Finance. 

BNB rapidly took the lead, claiming second place, with about one-fifth, or 19% of the crypto payments volume in January. BNB Chain is the fastest growing payment network on Request Finance.

Polygon continues to grow steadily due its lower gas fees, coming in third, accounting for about 6% of transactions made through Request Finance. 

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Through this monthly report, we hope to provide an overview of what’s happening with Request Finance, and the data driving our product development decisions. We hope that our commitment to transparency will inspire new users to take their first steps into invoicing and payments with cryptocurrency for their business.

Want to see what's going on with Request on a daily basis? Visit the Request Activity Dashboard for more exhaustive data on the Request Network.  

Any specific metric you'd like to see covered in the following report? Feel free to get in touch through email or by joining the Discord channel!