Shares in BBlue Star Capital PLC (AIM:BLU) jumped 110% after its blockchain investee company, SatoshiPay, announced a major milestone for its decentralised payments platform, Vortex.
Since launching in Europe and Brazil, Vortex has handled $1 million in transactions, more than half of which came in May alone.
The platform lets users swap stablecoins, digital currencies pegged to the US dollar, into local currencies like the euro and Brazilian real quickly and at significantly lower costs than traditional providers.
Blue Star’s market cheer reflects the scale of the opportunity. Global cross-border stablecoin payments were worth $27 billion last year and are forecast to hit $137 billion by 2028.
Vortex aims to capture a slice of that by making digital-to-fiat currency conversions simpler and cheaper.
Built on Pendulum infrastructure and integrated with blockchains such as Ethereum, Polkadot and Polygon, Vortex also uses Nabla’s technology to streamline the process. It currently supports conversions from USDC and USDT to EUR and BRL.
For Blue Star, it’s a timely boost. The company, which focuses on early-stage investments in blockchain and digital payments, has been looking to validate its portfolio. Vortex’s early momentum may help do just that.
The stock rose 5.5p to 10.5p.