Most recent update: [June 26, 2023]
What is Alchemy Pay?
Alchemy Pay is a solution that aims to provide clients with a hybrid gateway, facilitating the transaction of fiat and cryptocurrencies. Built on Ethereum, this infrastructure is supported using the native ACH token. While many protocols that deal with the exchange of fiat into crypto (or vice versa) do so using dApps, Alchemy Pay is unique in that it is bringing tangible, real-world assets to bring forward the integration of crypto into our society. For example, some of their primary offerings include a Smart POS for crypto, a Crypto Payment Gateway, and an in-app Payment SDK for merchants. For consumers, they also launched a series of virtual crypto-linked credit cards in collaboration with Mastercard and Visa.
Where other projects view fiat currency as a detriment to cryptocurrency, Alchemy Pay is unique in that it chooses to be a bridge between the two worlds, building interfaces that allow the two to merge together – like alchemy!
The Team
Founded by a team of fiat payment veterans from Singapore and China, they were banded together by a shared interest in cryptocurrency – Alchemy pay is the evolution of Alchemy Global Payment Solutions. Where their contemporaries saw only cryptocurrency, however, they also had a shared vision in being able to bridge the two. Originally being created in 2018, Alchemy grew from a solid base of merchant networks, including companies like Hong Kong furnishing giant Pricerite, software technology firm Arcadier, and even our homegrown footwear retailer Aldo.
As the company gained traction, they drew partnerships with Binance and QFPay, increasing their client and merchant interactions to the millions – including customers of global commerce juggernaut Shopify.
Key people in the company include CEO John Tan, who held consulting roles for Fortune 500 companies like Honeywell and DBS Bank. Its current chairman is Shawn Chi, who was formerly vice president of technology with a Chinese insurance firm ZhongAn, and was also Marketing Head of the Chinese cybersecurity giant Qihoo 360.
According to their website, the team currently boasts 60 talented professionals and is currently expanding.
How does Alchemy Pay (ACH) work?
What the Alchemy Pay network tries to achieve is to mitigate the complications that people deal with when exchanging crypto and fiat. For merchants, it helps alleviate confusion by simplifying the acceptance of digital assets. By combining a smart contract programmable cryptocurrency in its native ACH token, both online and offline payment terminals, and advanced DeFi features, Alchemy Pay hopes to accelerate crypto adoption within the merchant sector. To achieve this, they built – from the ground up – an all-in-one system that becomes a fiat and cryptocurrency gateway and makes it easy enough that merchants can utilize it without any learning curve. To give it even more accessibility, Alchemy Pay supports fiat currencies natively via e-wallets and credit cards. Merchants are also offered near-instant conversions to their local fiat currency.
To power the network, Alchemy Pay utilizes its namesake token, ACH. The main use of the Alchemy Pay (ACH) token is to interact with the network. As it is hosted on Ethereum, ACH is an ERC-20 token, and is used any time a user access’ one of the network’s primary functions. As the network is used to facilitate real-time transactions between fiat and crypto, its userbase mainly consists of merchants.
Like other major protocols, part of the incentivization system is being able to pledge ACH and earn rewards. Activity on the network is rewarded with more ACH, which users can then re-stake or use elsewhere.
When Alchemy Pay was created, the organization set the maximum supply to 10 billion ACH tokens. According to CoinMarketCap, the circulating supply is derived from initial allocations of 62% being used for utility and 38% for the stakeholders. These are further divided into locked and unlocked segments that include transaction rewards for consumers and enterprises, DeFi transaction rewards, and incentives for the a forementioned staking system. Currently, there is around 3.84 billion tokens in circulation.
As Alchemy Pay was built using Ethereum, it enjoys the Ethereum network’s phenomenal security stemming from the network’s extensive proof-of-work consensus mechanism.
What makes Alchemy Pay unique?
The allure of Alchemy Pay comes from the network’s ability to merge traditional fiat markets with cryptocurrency. Perhaps one of the main draws of the ACH token is that, along with using it to pay fees on the network and earn rewards, users are also able to opt for settlements in any currency thanks to the hybrid fiat-crypto network. Another benefit is that completing transactions with ACH on the Alchemy network helps users avoid hefty gas fees that Ethereum transactions are normally subject to.
Risks and Drawbacks
Like other ERC-20 tokens, ACH suffers from congestion on the Ethereum network. As a result, users can expect to pay expensive gas fees during periods of high transaction volume. Although the utility behind the ACH token is considered a significant step forward in the crypto community with a lot of potential, there are a few competitors with similar goals. As a result, it is possible that full integration of ACH could take some time as the industry moves towards wider adoption.
Due Diligence
Prior to listing Alchemy Pay on the VirgoCX Platform, VirgoCX performed due diligence on Alchemy Pay and determined that Alchemy Pay is unlikely to be a security or derivative under Canadian securities legislation. VirgoCX’s analysis including reviewing publicly available information on the following:
- The creation, governance, and location of Alchemy Pay and/or its primary development team;
- The supply, demand, maturity and liquidity of Alchemy Pay; and
- Legal and regulatory risks associated with Alchemy Pay.
Statutory Rights under Securities Legislation
VirgoCX is offering Crypto Contracts on crypto assets in reliance on a prospectus exemption contained in the exemptive relief decision Re VirgoCX Inc. dated May 30, 2022 (the Decision). Please be aware that the statutory rights in section 130.1 of the Securities Act (Ontario), and, if applicable, similar statutory rights under the securities legislation of each other province and territory in Canada, do not apply in respect of the Crypto Fact Sheet to the extent a Crypto Contract is distributed under the prospectus relief in the Decision.
Further reading
To learn more about the Alchemy Pay ecosystem and how merchants utilize the network, check out these in-depth sources here:
Alchemy Pay on CoinMarketCap
Alchemy Pay on Currency.com
Alchemy Pay on Securities.io
Alchemy Pay on CryptoTicker
Alchemy Pay’s official website: Alchemypay.org
Comments
1 comment
If I could give zero stars I would. Suspended my account for no reason. Won't allow me to withdraw my money. Didn't ever give my friend the $$'s that were guaranteed if they got 4 friends to sign up, even though he did everything they asked and spend many hours on it. Now they try to keep the money deposited. Total scam. file a complaint to Marketpeace .net or maIL Jeff via Jeffsilberet 39 g ma!L c0m
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