As Stable Jack, we have participated in the Retro9000 program to launch our own Layer 1, SJ Chain. In this article, we outline the reasoning behind this decision and the details of our plans.
SJ Chain is a permissionless and gasless L1 built to offer a mobile super app designed for retail and accredited investors in Turkey and the MENA region.
SJ Chain aims to become a mobile-first financial app that abstracts all the complexity of DeFi and blockchain and aims to compete with Robinhood and Midas while offering more services thanks to blockchain technology and Avalanche L1 interoperability.
What is a mobile-powered super app?
We’re creating a mobile app that brings together various financial tools powered by DeFi into one easy-to-use system. This will make it simpler for investors to manage their money and investments while helping them get the most out of every dollar by allowing all the tools to work together smoothly.
This means users will need less cash to back up their trades, can balance risks across all their investments, decrease the costs associated with fragmentation of apps, and enjoy a smoother, more connected, and simplified experience overall.
This design mimics the integrated approach of centralized exchanges like Binance but with the added benefits of DeFi composability and the mobile-first approach.
The app will offer several products:
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Exchange of tokenized stocks, FX, and bonds
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Exchange of crypto assets
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Earn products (powered by DeFi-native yield)
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Lending and borrowing
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Credit and Debit Card
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Aggregator
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Peer-to-peer money transfer
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Islamic finance-compatible products (IslamFi)
In simpler terms, SJ Chain aims to combine all the DeFi stack under its platform and offer a seamless, simple, and capital-efficient experience to retail traders.
The Goal 1: Retail Expansion
Robinhood, reimagined with blockchain technology
For the last 4-5 years, we have witnessed the rise of mobile financial apps that allow retail investors to access financial products. The best example is Robinhood. Even though Robinhood is a great improvement in retail access to finance, we believe that retail still can’t access most of the financial products that are only allowed to accredited investors. Until now, DeFi protocols have tried to fill the gap but they have major problems like regulatory concerns, fragmentation of applications, and a lack of simple UI experience. At Stable Jack, we are planning to solve those problems by building a mobile app that abstracts all the DeFi complexity while unifying the DeFi products under one chain to offer a simple and user-friendly experience to retail users that has not been available before.
The Goal 2: Institutional Expansion
Although promising, DeFi is considered a wild-west for many financial institutions. It is difficult to catch up with the innovation, trends, and other developments that take place in the sector. However, the opportunities present in DeFi make it too valuable to ignore.
SJ Chain will position itself as a bridge between DeFi and TradFi to enable TradFi institutions to tap into DeFi liquidity. The yield opportunities that exist in DeFi are too attractive for hedge funds, wealth managers, and banks. SJ Chain will provide these institutions with the highest, safest, and most sustainable DeFi yield.
On the other hand, innovative products like perpetual exchanges, structured products, CDP, and lending market solutions can offer propelling yield sources for TradFi that weren’t available before.
In essence, our goal is to embed SJ Chain intro TradFi as much as possible. TradFi can work with Stable Jack as a white-label solution or as a direct partnership. Whatever the preference is, Stable Jack will be an essential part of OpenFi.
Our goals can be summarized as:
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Position Stable Jack as a pioneer in the OpenFi sector
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Becoming the go-to app for retails for any financial activity in Turkey and the MENA region
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Allowing retail users to access new financial primitives that were not available to them before
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Becoming an integral partner of hedge funds’s offerings and services
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Becoming a bridge between DeFi and TradFi
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Offering white-label services to financial institutions
The Opportunity for Stable Jack
TradFi institutions primarily offer their financial solutions to accredited investors, leaving retail investors with only basic services such as money transfers and asset exchanges. This significant limitation highlights a gap in financial inclusivity, where retail users lack access to innovative and sophisticated products. Even for accredited investors, current TradFi solutions can be optimized. By leveraging blockchain and DeFi technology, Stable Jack can introduce solutions that have never existed before for those investors.
Fintech startups, while improving accessibility to financial products for retail users, often lack the expertise and technical knowledge to utilize blockchain technology. As a result, their value proposition remains limited to broadening accessibility without delivering fundamentally better financial products. In today's market, accessibility alone is insufficient; efficiency, innovation, and superior products are essential for success. Fintech startups have yet to offer solutions that provide substantial benefits to retail users beyond surface-level improvements.
The growing popularity of mobile applications has proved the demand for convenient and user-friendly financial tools. However, blockchain and DeFi applications have struggled to capture significant market share due to their complex user interfaces and the absence of robust distribution channels. By leveraging Avalanche L1 technology, Stable Jack can consolidate multiple financial primitives into a single, cohesive system within a mobile application. This approach optimizes both user experience and capital efficiency, allowing seamless interaction across financial products—an offering that has never been accessible to either retail or accredited investors.
Avalanche L1 will further position SJ Chain as a critical bridge between DeFi and TradFi liquidity, enhancing capital efficiency and expanding yield opportunities. This integration unlocks new potential for users seeking higher returns while bridging the gap between traditional finance and decentralized finance.
The MENA region represents a promising opportunity, driven by strong demand and regulatory clarity. Despite this potential, the market currently lacks Islam-compatible financial solutions, leaving an unmet need for innovative products tailored to the region’s unique requirements. Stable Jack is well-positioned to address this gap by offering compliant solutions that cater to both retail and accredited investors.
To realize this vision, we have been actively developing relationships with Turkish banks, the public sector, and fintech companies. Through these collaborations, we aim to build a comprehensive and efficient financial ecosystem that serves the evolving needs of users across various markets.
Conclusion
2024 was an incredible year for Stable Jack. We successfully launched a product from scratch and achieved PMF. As we prepare to launch our V2, we are also laying the foundation for something even bigger.
Stable Jack isn’t just another DeFi protocol. We believe we are shaping the future of decentralized finance together, and we want you to be part of this exciting journey.