Infinex partners with Near Foundation to integrate chain signatures

Quick Take

  • Infinex, founded by Kain Warwick, has inked a partnership with Near Foundation to integrate Near Chain Signatures into the platform.

Infinex has announced a partnership with Near Foundation that integrates Near's Chain Signatures into the decentralized exchange platform. Chain Signatures is a protocol that lets users sign transactions on third-party blockchains from one single Near account.

In a statement shared with The Block, Infinex said the collaboration will enable users to “easily control and interact with non-smart contract chains like Litecoin and Bitcoin.” Other chains supported by Chain Signatures include Cosmos chains, Dogecoin, and XRP Ledger.

"Our smart contract architecture is key to how we combine groundbreaking UX with onchain transparency and funds recovery," said Infinex CTO Jed Watson. "With NEAR, we can bring the same functionality to chains like Bitcoin, offering users genuine self-custody of native assets without compromise.”

Infinex, established by Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, seeks to offer a centralized exchange experience on a decentralized infrastructure. The company said in the release that the partnership with Near will help the platform reach "parity" with centralized exchanges.

“Infinex is a monolithic platform that will accelerate the extinction of centralized exchanges,” Warwick said in the statement. “To do this, we’re thrilled to partner with NEAR to connect legacy chains like Litecoin and XRP to DeFi.” 

Infinex claims to have over $125 million in total value locked.

Last month, Infinex netted $67.7 million from selling Patron non-fungible tokens, which sold 43,284 NFTs to a group of notable investors, including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko and Aave founder Stani Kulechov.


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© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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About Author

Timmy Shen is an Asia editor for The Block. Previously, he wrote about crypto and Web3 for Forkast.News from Taiwan after spending more than three years in Beijing covering finance, entertainment business and current affairs at Caixin Global and Chinese tech at TechNode. His China-related reporting has also appeared in The Guardian. When he's not chasing headlines, you'll find him savoring hot pot and shabu shabu in a Taipei local haunt. Timmy holds an MS degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Send tips to [email protected] or get in touch on X/Telegram @timmyhmshen.

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