The final stage of a long acquire-and-go-public process reached completion for Wellfield Technologies (WFLD.V) Tuesday, as the de-fi roll up that has been attracting financial heavy hitters behind the scenes this past year received its go-ahead go-public nod.

The recent grouping of Israeli firms Seamless Logic and Moneyclip Inc, with 1290447 BC Ltd, is now known as Wellfield, and emerged on the markets with backers looking for a roughly $100m valuation. Early trading blew right past that number, settling in at the time of writing at $140m.

What does Wellfield do? I’m glad you asked because, in truth, it’s maybe a bit complex for people who don’t inhabit Planet Crypto.

Here’s how it was explained a few months back:

Beginning in 2017, Seamless and MoneyClip have developed complementary, cutting-edge technology infrastructure designed to facilitate decentralized finance (“DeFi“) by streamlining cross-blockchain trading and making Bitcoin compatible with DeFi. The companies combine best-in-class leadership with decades of experience building disruptive technology in Silicon Valley and Israel. The combined team of 13 engineers including 5 PhDs have developed a proprietary DeFi technology and IP portfolio since 2017 and, upon completion of the Business Combination and Concurrent Financing, will be ideally positioned to expand their R&D, product pipeline and user base.

Still confused? Yeah. It’s a thing, so let me break it down a little in super broad strokes.

I hate crypto. Not the concept, but the execution. Crypto to me is like MDMA. Sure, it might be a fun time, but the come downs are hard, and I don’t like having to meet a dude behind the Dennys parking lot just to acquire it.

If I decide to buy into a cryptocurrency, I have to navigate some barriers to entry. I have to find an exchange I trust that’s not about to go bust, go through an always weird sign up process, wire a load of cash, then make my trades days later.

If I end up on an exchange like Coinbase (COIN.Q), I’m paying big fees when I buy or sell, I’ve got to jot down a stonking long wallet key or risk losing it all, if the exchange goes sideways I could lose everything (happened to me once already, thanks Einstein.Exchange), and if the exchange decides to limit trades in some way because it’s running low on cash or there’s a run, I’ve nowhere to go for a remedy. The SEC sure as hell isn’t coming to my rescue.

Yes, crypto trades may be resplendent with big gains, but getting in and getting a win is only part of the problem – at some point you have to get your money out, and that can be rough.

Basically, buying crypto is like going into business with a Russian guy you met at the casino at 3am after several Manhattans – it may work out well, but you may also end up penniless in a ditch when you ask for your share of the profits.

Let’s be real; while the system runs as clunkily as it does, cryptocurrencies will never actually be currencies. They’re not user-friendly, they’re not consistent, they’re not protected, and nobody is using them to buy bread.

So if someone came along with tech that allowed peer-to-peer trading and commerce without needing a middle-man to make it happen, I’d see that as a gamechanger.

What’s up, Wellfield.

• Wellfield’s wholly owned subsidiary – Seamless Logic Software Limited – fills critical infrastructure gaps in today’s Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem, through the development of decentralized protocols for the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains.
• The Company’s MoneyClip brand leverages decentralized technology to offer consumer-facing financial applications powered by blockchain, giving consumers easy access to, and greater control over their money, harnessing the full value and flexibility offered by DeFi.

Shit just got real. Wellfield is the Coinbase killer.

Okay, it’s *a* Coinbase killer. There are admittedly other companies noodling in this space, but most are privately held and/or insanely valued, and few have the sort of financial markets heft that Wellfield investor Marc Lustig brings to the table as Wellfield Chairman.

Lustig was the force behind Cannaroyalty/Origin House, which got snatched up by Cresco Labs (CL.C) in a billion dollar-plus acquisition. Lustig has been quietly making big bets on Canadian biotech and international cannabis plays in the years since, but usually stays quietly behind the scenes. Company CEOs will drop his name in hushed tones because he’d rather be a behind the scenes guy..

“You know Marc Lustig? Yeah, he owns some of this.” – I have heard these words from SO MANY EXECS, because Lustig has a rep that is well earned, stemming from his lack of duplicity. If he’s in, he’s not shorting in three and a half months, he’s IN. And he’s bringing friends. And he’s adding value.

So when he decided to come out of the woods on Wellfield and be front and center, that’s a big deal. That’s reason to watchlist the ticker.

“The Wellfield leadership team has identified an area of their industry that no one in the public markets is addressing – which will generate strong interest and more importantly will support a robust valuation with a real, hyper-growth business,” Lustig told investors yesterday. “The most directly comparable projects (eg. Uniswap, Thorchain, Celsius, Aave, Synthetix) aren’t available to public equity investors and all currently have multi-billion-dollar valuations. The publicly listed companies marketed to DeFi investors today are not direct competitors, but trade at valuations far above WFLD’s latest $1.00/share RTO financing which valued Wellfield at $113M fully diluted prior to its coming public listing.”

He’s right. Here’s how Uniswap explains its model:

Uniswap is a decentralized finance protocol that is used to exchange cryptocurrencies and tokens; it is provided on blockchain networks that are decentralized, running open-source software, as opposed to any centralized intermediary. This is in contrast to cryptocurrency exchanges that are run by centralized companies such as Coinbase, Binance and OKEx.

TL;DR – If you want to swap your Ethereum for Doge, you can do that directly without involving Coinbase.

True DeFi needs this as standard operating procedure, because the exchanges have traditionally proven to be the biggest bottleneck and breaking point in crypto. When someone suddenly falls out of a helicopter with the encryption key of CryptoFlinger.RU and a billion rubles of ETH disappear, it’s not crypto that’s to blame but the middlemen jamming the works. The unregulated, uninsured, occasionally unplugged middlemen.

If the Wellfield model comes to pass, that doesn’t need to happen anymore. Goodbye exchanges, hello peer-to-peer transactions.

Those Wellfield comparables include the following:

• Voyager Digital (VOYG): $3.6B
• Defi Technologies (DEFI): $830M
• Wonderfi Technologies (WNDR): $220M

So not only is Wellfield right there in the mix, but they’re coming public at a reasonable valuation where nobody is burning cheap paper. They’ve built it so those who come aboard at the open have a decent chance of accruing profits. They have had no trouble raising money and could have simply gone to the market with their hand out, taking as much as is offered – but they didn’t. They raised enough to to do what’s needed and THAT’S IT. The intention is to not need to go back for future financing.

Of course, the best laid plans and all that, right? If an opportunity to acquire something comes up, sure, maybe they’ll go to the well once more but that would be a growth raise, not a ‘keep the server room on’ raise.

“Disintermediation has changed the way consumers interact with long established industries, from media to retail, and Decentralized Finance has the potential to do the same for the financial world,” said Levy Cohen, CEO of Wellfield. “However, much of the DeFi infrastructure in place today, and the solutions built on top of it, are either broadly centralized, or generally irrelevant to the daily financial interactions of most people. Wellfield’s mission is to enhance and harness the power of the DeFi ecosystem – and bring it into the mainstream financial system.”

“We are fortunate to have assembled an impressive senior team with the right combination of skills to continue building and commercializing unique decentralized solutions that are designed to not only disrupt a broader system, but to enable consumers to adopt and use the new internet of money in their everyday lives.”

When you talk to management, your eyes cross pretty hard because these dudes are information fire hydrants. They know this space, they’re surrounded by boffins, and they’re backed by guys with more money than I’ll ever be able to match – and who do business the right way.

Right model, right time, right people, right valuation – honestly folks, this Tuesday, find WFLD.V (it’s easy to remember, just think ‘boy Parry WafFLeD on in that story’), add it to your watchlist, and break your crypto virginity with the folks who’ll picks-and-shovels this brave new finance world.

— Chris Parry

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am an investor in Wellfield and no two ways about it.