Request Finance in Numbers: November 2022

Commentary for November 2022

Overview. November has been yet another month of shock and anger, in an already tumultuous year for the blockchain space. The egregious revelations following the collapse of Alameda and FTX are the latest in a string of scandal-ridden implosions of centralized crypto lenders, hedge funds, and venture capital funds originating from exposure to Terra and UST.

Thankfully, our users, and our own team are largely unscathed from these events, save some minor personal losses on individual accounts. This is in large part thanks to the non-custodial design of Request Finance. It allows us to serve organizations no matter which crypto wallets they already use to manage their treasury. 

But more importantly, it enforces the discipline of self-custody at the organizational level. Time and again, that has made all the difference between survival and collapse, for the thousands of DAOs, enterprises, and Foundations using Request Finance. 

The conviction we have in the value of decentralized finance (DeFi), and crypto payment rails has never been stronger. Now more than ever, is the time to build applications that address real world problems, and unlock new value in ways that Web2 fintechs cannot.

At the business level, November saw record growth compared to the previous months, with both the number and value of crypto payments made on Request Finance continuing to inch higher. 

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. 

The macroeconomic outlook remains tenuous, with investors conserving capital in a wait-and-see approach. Flagging returns in traditional asset classes like growth equities may drive more interest in DeFi alternatives to payments and financial services. As currencies dip against the USD, more individuals may turn to owning stablecoins, or deploying their funds towards higher-yield avenues such as DeFi lending pools.

While nascent, and still contending with teething issues on the road to maturity, we may see growing adoption of an increasingly credible alternative, internet-native financial system composed of crypto payment rails and DeFi platforms. We will continue to partner with other players in the stablecoins and RWA space to push for more real world uses of crypto rails.

At the product level, we spend a lot of time talking with our users to understand what new features we should build. There is no better way to build useful tools that meet the real needs of enterprise teams, and DAOs managing crypto payments. We’ve come a long way since we built a crypto invoicing tool for MakerDAO that eventually became Request Finance. 

We’ve been working hard on new features in November which you can expect to see over the coming months. To better serve teams paying, or getting paid in crypto, we plan to introduce an expenses app, as well as a dashboard to visualize your cashflows, and allowing finance teams to set granular permissions and controls.

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New Crypto Payment Options

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.

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New signups in November: 942

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 November, the number of users registered on Request Finance grew slightly less month-on-month compared to October. The total number of registered accounts on Request Finance currently stands at 19,040 up 942 from the previous month. 

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New monthly active users in November: 33

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. 

Note: We are changing how we measure active users from this month onwards. As we continue to grow, we are applying a more conservative definition to this metric. To be considered an active user, an account must have made a crypto payment on Request Finance in the last 35 days. 

The past month saw 33 new monthly active users performing in-app activities like sending and paying invoices. This represents a slight increase of +2.1% from the previous month, bringing the total number of monthly active users to 1,627. 

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Number of crypto payments in November: 6,852

The number of crypto payments made in November saw a +296% increase in the number of new payments made per month. The total number of crypto payments made on Request Finance stands at 25,423.

This spike is attributable to a sharp increase in a large number of crypto payments that were made in the ANKR token.

Note: Depending on contractual payment terms, it can take more than 20-30 days for payment requests like invoices to be paid from when they are issued, sometimes longer. That means that some invoices issued last month are still pending for payments likely to occur this month.‍

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Value of crypto payments in November: $8.86m  

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 $263 million of cryptocurrency payments have been made through the Request Finance app. 

Of which, around $8.86 million in crypto invoices were paid last month in November alone. This represents a +8.81% rise in the monthly value of invoices paid, or about 0.7 million more in new crypto payments than the previous month.

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

Another data point to keep track of is which cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are most often used by organizations.

USDC continues to be the most preferred cryptocurrency being used on Request Finance, accounting for about 28.7% 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 60% of the crypto payments on Request Finance. 

The past month saw ANKR claim second-place in the list of top crypto payment options in Request Finance. ANKR is the native token of the decentralized Web3 infrastructure provider that helps developers, decentralized applications, and stakers interact easily with an array of blockchains. 

The Sandbox’s native token, SAND came in third, accounting for about 18% of the total invoices paid in Request Finance, followed by USDT (14%) and DAI (9.5%), and ETH (3.7%). 

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.

GRT, OCEAN, AAVE, 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 over 21% of the crypto payments volume in November. 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 5% of transactions made through Request Finance. 

Celo remains largely unchanged at about 4% of total crypto payments volume, though we hope that future collaborations with projects in the ecosystem, particularly in the African continent will help to drive the use of stablecoin payments within the region.

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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! 

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