Women-Led Startup Defy Trends Wants To Make Crypto Investment Sustainable

Amid growing concerns about the energy-guzzling nature of cryptocurrencies, Defy Trends, a women-led startup that provides AI-backed analytics to investors, is planning to launch a sustainability index on its platform in the third quarter of this fiscal year.

Scores on the sustainability index will help investors make environmentally effective decisions.

In an exclusive interview with International Business Times, Imge Su Cetin, chief executive officer and founder of Defy Trends, said, "It is important for investors to know whether a project on a blockchain is sustainable for our Earth or not."

While the potential of cryptocurrencies is widely acknowledged, there are concerns regarding its energy-guzzling nature. Analysts have often singled out Bitcoin as one of the most electricity-consuming tokens.

Cetin said investors tend to get confused amid technical discussions on proof of work versus proof of stake with regard to energy consumption.

Proof of stake and proof of work are the mechanisms through which a distributed network of participants can agree on which new block of transactions is added to a blockchain. Proof of stake is regarded as somewhat less energy-consuming than proof of work.

"We just want to give a justification for this decision-making and not just rely on social media to alter their (investors') opinions. Get the real data, that's going to be all done from our internal team," she said, adding that the sustainability index will also help investors pick the most energy efficient coins based on data analytics.

Defy Trends is a startup led by an all-woman team. Cetin launched the AI-backed data analytics platform with two other founding members, Daniela Henao, the chief operating officer, and Elena Garidis, the chief financial officer, last year. They secured a $120,000 investment from Panoramic Ventures.

The platform provides data-backed analytics for newbie investors in the cryptocurrency universe.

"We simplify data-backed investment decisions. A user can go to our dashboard, learn what's happening in the market at all times, both in social sentiment, meaning like what is the public opinion, think of digital assets of cryptocurrencies and NFT's, and see what is happening on the blockchain," Cetin explained.

Some of the direct competitors of Defy Trends include nansen.ai, lunarcrush, amberdata and thetie.

Defy Trends has a 70% B2C customer base and the rest is B2B. Half of this women-led startup's customers are women.

This year, the company plans to launch a Defy ambassador program. "We're launching an ambassador program so women around the world can learn about digital assets and learn how to invest so we're having little units in partnership with other crypto companies," Cetin said.

The platform, which is free as of now, is also launching a Defy token that would be used in its rewarding program.

Cetin was unfazed by talks of a "crypto winter", sparked by the recent market crash. "It's a good time to build, to buy, to work on projects and then see all these new emerging technologies and tools for the spring."