Why are you participating for Based SEA?

Thane is on a mission to make DeFi investing accessible for everyone. Think of us as the "Robinhood meets eToro" of DeFi—we streamline the most popular chains and dApps into an intuitive, easy-to-use interface, making self-custody and cross-chain trading frictionless. Plus, our social features transform DeFi into a community-driven experience, allowing users to explore and invest together.

Since launching the beta of our Telegram mini app (https://t.me/thaneofficialbot) in early September, we’ve received over 1,300 requests for access and have onboarded 100+ users into the closed beta so far. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with users "loving the interface”. We're currently building out Thane access via Farcaster Frames and are planning to launch this quarter, which aligns well with Base given its strong connection to this ecosystem.

To now take Thane to the next level, we believe this Buildathon will help in expanding our reach. It will allow us to deepen our connection with the ecosystem, while the prize money will help fuel our growth and development. Base was the first chain we integrated into Thane, making our participation in Based SEA a natural fit. Our consumer-focused approach, combined with the mission to bring real-world utility on-chain, aligns closely with Base's objectives.

Being based in SEA ourselves, and with the region's strong appetite for crypto, this area is a critical focus for us—making this Buildathon especially relevant.

What challenges are you focusing on?

A widely recognized challenge in the crypto space is that most users remain confined to centralized exchanges, missing out on the full potential of DeFi. Despite roughly half of CeFi users expressing interest in DeFi, only about 1-5% of crypto users are currently active in DeFi (https://blog.uniswap.org/cefi-defi-uniswap-survey). So, what’s holding people back? Participation in DeFi is still complex—users need to navigate technical intricacies, deal with fragmented platforms, and often face a confusing, time-consuming process.

While advancements in cross-chain technology and wallets are helping to address these issues, the real solution lies in building consumer-friendly applications that simplify access to DeFi and make it engaging for the next billion users.

At Thane, we are dedicated to making DeFi investing easy and accessible for everyone. To achieve this, we need chains that provide an exceptional user experience, like Base. With its low costs and fast transaction speeds, Base breaks down barriers to entry and serves as the perfect foundation for Thane to deliver a seamless, engaging DeFi experience.

How does your submission address this challenge?

Our mission is to simplify DeFi investing for everyone, turning it into a more engaging and accessible experience. We bring together the best aspects of DeFi into one seamless interface, integrating top-tier protocols and empowering users with a shared, community-focused experience.

Currently, we are in closed beta as a Telegram mini-app, with 100+ beta users onboarded and over 1,300 people having requested access. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with users praising the platform, especially "loving the interface."

Our Guiding Principals:

1. Your Keys, Your Crypto: We empower users with full asset custody, ensuring that they maintain complete control over their funds without relying on third parties. Our onboarding process is designed to be quick and straightforward, featuring social login options that make it easy for anyone to get started.
2. Easily Discovery DeFi Trends: Navigating the DeFi landscape can be overwhelming. Thane simplifies this journey by providing curated insights and trends that help users make informed decisions. Whether you’re a novice or an experienced trader, our platform offers the tools needed to explore what others are doing in the space.
3. Experience DeFi Effortlessly: With Thane, users can access DeFi’s full potential from a single portal. We handle the complexities of chains and protocols so that you can focus on what truly matters — trading and investing effectively.
4. Explore DeFi Together: Our social features enable users to showcase their trading strategies and follow others on-chain. This transparency allows for portfolio tracking and strategy sharing within Telegram, making DeFi a collaborative experience.

As we work towards becoming a Neobank built on decentralized finance, we leverage over 5 years of experience in both CeFi and DeFi. Having personally faced the challenges of DeFi, we are committed to overcoming them and making the space more accessible for all.

Challenges I ran into

• Base: Integration with Base was smooth and seamless, with no major issues.
• Covalent API – Wallet Data: We are using Covalent for base wallet data and encountered reliability issues with Covalent, leading to some recent downtime.
• Wrong Token Address: At one point, we used the wrong token address for Toshi, but we quickly resolved this by updating the address and correcting the data. This led to useful lessons learned in our process for adding new tokens.

Additional Features

During this Buildathon, we concentrated on integrating yield opportunities on Base through Aave. Our goal was to go beyond seamless trading, giving users easy access to a broader range of DeFi options, including yield generation, directly within the app. We also expanded token support on Base to include the majority of the top 500 tokens by market cap, creating even more trading opportunities for our users.