August Update — Quick Fire AMA with CEO & New Developments
Tags: Announcements, Fintech, Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

August Update — Quick Fire AMA with CEO & New Developments Plutus Follow Aug 20 · 6 min read

Welcome back! The last three months have been one of our most exciting quarters to date and the public interest in Plutus has been rapidly climbing. We have seen both our user base and our PlutusDEX volume double in just the last 30 days alone, and we expect to see this phenomenal growth continue.

Recent Happenings

We recently released a blog which discussed a number of new additions to the app including the arrival of Amazon as a new perk, free monthly subscriptions, and amendments to our fee structure starting next year. Over the last couple of weeks, we asked the community for their burning questions and produced a pre-recorded AMA with our CEO and Founder, Danial Daychopan. This blog will follow up on some of the questions asked and drop some exciting snippets as to what is yet to come.

New Perks

In 2015, we introduced the world’s first concept of a decentralised loyalty token and users are now earning thousands of Pounds/Euros in PLU every month. The PLU token already holds some amazing benefits, but we are committed to adding continual value to our holders which is why we can proudly announce the arrival of a new Perk!

Last month, we introduced 5% in crypto rewards at the world’s largest online retailers, Amazon, and so far we have seen the transaction volume at the e-commerce giant jump by 300%; our users have been taking advantage of the Perk to reap the rewards.

We would like to announce two more exciting new Perks arriving later.

Sky

We formed an affiliate partnership with the internationally known broadcaster, Sky, which is home to over 12.5 million customers. Enjoy substantial savings in both cash and crypto on a wide range of their products and services using your polished blue Plutus Debit Card! Netflix also comes free with most of your Sky bundles so you can enjoy savings on hundreds of your favourite shows.

Vodafone

We can also proudly reveal additional cashback (on top of your 3% crypto reward which comes as standard) at the household telecommunications giant, Vodafone! You can now earn double-dip rewards at the leading telecoms provider present in over 40 countries with over 340 million users.

Both Perks will be added shortly alongside some other exciting brands! Please stay tuned for further details.

Banking License Plans

One of our long-term plans has always been to transition from a finance app to a fully-fledged bank so we can offer you all the traditional and advanced neo-banking features, but operate it in a way that upholds the integrity and values of the crypto community. A fresh crypto-first mindset to banking is the future of finance and one we are soon to embark on.

Approximately 70% of the world’s adult population owns an account at a bank or mobile money provider which equates to 3.8 billion individuals. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency market still remains incredibly small in comparison with around 50 million blockchain wallets according to reports from Statista.

Whilst the crypto ecosystem remains relatively small, there is still huge interest from the general population (as high as 31% of millennials according to a study by Edelman) who are waiting to join the revolution, and we believe a bank account that offers 3% in crypto rewards is the perfect introduction.

Plutus is the only company to provide both fiat on/off ramps and at the same time the ability to attach any crypto wallet to your account, although it’s already an achievement and a rare feature, with a banking license we can truly harness the imagination of the complete crypto audience and we plan to initiate the lengthy operational process soon.

These will allow us to greatly reduce some of the finer incurred costs (e.g. card issuance and various types of transaction fees) for both ourselves and the end-user, we currently pay for these smaller operational costs so that you don’t have to.

New Fees

Since the promotion was announced last month on July 15th, any members with a Premium/Pro account have not been charged the monthly subscription fee and users are currently enjoying our services at no costs and earning up to 5% in PLU!

Other members who made a one-off upgrade using 1 PLU can still continue to do so for now without any limitations. We are continuing our promotion and adding a heap of new features, we will likely lift the promotion soon after the full release of Perks and upgraded token liquidity, details of which will be announced later this month.

From that point onwards, our fee structure for new members with Premium accounts will cost £/€9.99 per month and Pro accounts will be priced at £/€16.99. As discussed on earlier blogs, these amendments will only take effect on 1st January 2021 for our previously subscribed members (pre-June 2020) — this is our show of appreciation to our early supporters.

Overall we have distributed over £/€100,000 in value in just the first week after withdrawal/swap functionality arrived which is a huge testament to the value of our paid services. Our biggest earner has netted well over 500 PLU with a Pro account in a very short time frame which equates to over £10,000 at PLU’s recent highs, and his total monthly cost was £7.99 on our previous tariff.

When you consider the immense earning potential, the monthly subscription cost proves a worthwhile purchase.

Pluton Rewards is not the only aspect considered; Plutus provides you with one of the only truly non-custodial cards around where you can connect any wallet of your choice to your fiat account so you can be empowered with sole custody of your crypto as intended by Satoshi. Plutus lets you top up your card with both fiat and crypto via a custom-built decentralised exchange, and this security aspect is a huge benefit for those who know the industry well.

These elements coupled with the neo-banking like features we offer to our members ensure our customers are getting more than fair value for their subscription costs which is a highly important ethos for us. We will continue to build a business model built on fairness without any hidden fees or spreads that can quickly add up, and we will also persevere to deliver additional value to our users at any opportunity that presents itself.

Additional Benefits with Tariff Update

Currently, 32% of our customer base is using the paid subscriptions which is around 10x higher than the average of circa. 2–5% experienced by similar finance apps in the sector.

However, in line with the above, we want to prevent any barriers to entry for our product and introduce some additional benefits to the Starter account which doesn’t carry any monthly subscription costs.

For the Starter account, we will also be introducing Pluton Rewards with a limited monthly cap so our casual users can appreciate some of the benefits at no monthly cost and also enjoy a glimpse insight as to the potential earnings on the Premium/Pro accounts.

Customer Service & Retention Policy

One of our main objectives is to look after our current user base as much as possible and prioritise customer retention over acquisition. The aim is to drive growth of our platform organically and we believe delivering excessive attention to the end-users’ wants and needs will drive growth. With this in mind, we recently expanded our customer service team to accommodate the rapidly growing user base and we hope to deliver quick responses (always within 24 hours) to everyone’s requests.

More to Come…

We have many new partners and categories being added to our Plutus Perks feature this month as well as huge developments in terms of liquidity and token awareness which will come into effect in the coming weeks; these agreements will put Plutus in front of millions of eyes and help rapidly scale our user base.

We hope you found this insightful and we look forward to embarking on the next stages of Plutus which hold some genuinely exciting prospects. We are on the verge of making some of our biggest announcements yet and we cannot wait to share it with our founding community who have helped dramatically shape the company so far. For those who have recently joined Plutus, we consider you some of our earliest discoverers.

We recommend following either our Medium account or Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest news. Our Discord or Telegram is also a great place to speak directly with team members and the rest of the community, it is a very warming group who will welcome all kinds of discussions. Stay tuned!