Velo is a decentralized settlement network that enables digital credit issuance and borderless asset transfers for its business partners. The protocol does not intend to replace existing banking infrastructure or fiat money. Rather, the protocol leverages blockchain technology to facilitate trustless and guaranteed settlements for its business partners. The platform's native token is VELO, which is used as collateral for receiving digital credits.

Businesses in Southeast Asia have struggled to transfer their financial assets efficiently due to extreme price volatility and the involvement of multiple middlemen in the money-transfer market. Velo addresses these problems by issuing bespoke digital credits on the blockchain in order to cater to a business's needs. To mitigate transaction costs in the Southeast Asian market, Velo is built on Stellar because of its payment-focused approach, high scalability and vision to serve the unbanked population.

There are four phases of development for the Velo protocol.

Phase 1 will focus on building the core components of the Velo protocol: the Digital Credit Issuance Mechanism and the Digital Reserve System. The Digital Credit Issuance Mechanism facilitates the trustless settlement of digital credits and allows Velo's trusted business partners to receive digital credits in the system. The Digital Reserve System is an algorithmic rule set applied via smart contracts that manages the individual collateral pool and the lending of VELO tokens to trusted partners.

To enhance the liquidity of VELO tokens, Velo plans to introduce its decentralized exchange in Phase 2. The Velo team plans to explore further use cases and governance processes in Phase 3 and 4 by introducing decentralized lending, voting, a reputation system and an on/off ramp network for fiat and digital assets.

After the four phases of protocol development, Velo aims to facilitate frictionless value transfers in multiple business use cases — such as cross-border remittance, lending, digital credits and loyalty points.

VELO price and tokenomics

VELO is a utility token with a total supply of 30 billion. Of them, 40 million VELO were circulated at launch — 50% of which went to the founders, monetary reserve and Velo Development Reserve.

13.5% of the total VELO supply was allocated to early investors, private placements and for exchange listings. The remaining 36.5% are reserved for the market and future development of Velo.

The value of VELO would theoretically increase alongside the surging demand for digital credits and Velo's onboarding of new business partners.

About the founders

Velo was founded by Velo Labs Technology Ltd in 2020, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Its chairman is Chatchaval Jiaravanon, who has also been serving as the chairman of Finansia Syrus Securities for the past 14 years.

Launched by a Thai team, the Velo protocol attracted several notable global partners — such as Visa, Asia Digital Bank and Signum Capital.