Cake DeFi Launches Blockchain Hub Birthday Research With $50 Million Investment Plans

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Cake DeFi will set up a global R&D hub called Birthday Research to develop best-in-class technologies for the blockchain and digital asset sectors.

The project said its initial budget will be set at $50 million.

Cake DeFi’s Research Hub 

Based in Singapore, Birthday Research will have a budget of $50 million to be spent over the next four years. The headcount at Cake DeFi’s current R&D department will grow to over 100 members from around 50 now, Cake Defi said in a PR shared with CryptoPotato on Tuesday. 

“The launch of our global R&D hub, Birthday Research, in Singapore supports the Singapore Government’s direction on digital asset innovation. We are committed to building the B2B digital asset infrastructure and uplifting Singapore’s blockchain ecosystem to drive innovations in fintech,” said Dr. Julian Hosp, Co-Founder, and CEO of Cake DeFi.

New R&D Focus Areas 

Birthday Research will aim to support institutions with blockchain infrastructures such as node, custody, and keys management through open-source blockchain R&D. Besides, it will try to develop a “SWIFT” system for decentralized finance. 

An important task that the upcoming R&D hub will perform is bringing all product innovations and developments of Cake DeFi into a technology stack of B2B solutions. Another field in which Birthday Research will try to contribute is traditional finance. It will attempt to find solutions to existing problems in payment transactions, trust and transparency, and access to financial services.    

These initiatives align with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) direction to grow all aspects of the digital asset ecosystem, the company said.

$1 Billion of Assets in Custody 

In March, Cake DeFi unveiled its venture arm Cake DeFi Ventures, with a fund of $100 million. The new entity will invest in tech startups in Web3, Metaverse, NFT, eSports, Gaming, and Fintech.

On its third anniversary in June, the company informed that it had paid $317 million in rewards to users till Q1 2022. Cake DeFi also revealed that the number of registered members on its platform grew to nearly 1 million while assets in its custody were over $1 billion.

The company allocated $1 million to support DeFi Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.

In July, Cake DeFi joined hands with Razer Silver Rewards, which facilitates gamers on this platform to convert their Razer Silver into Cake DeFi vouchers and further into BTC, ETH, and other coins.