A Deep Dive into Tribal: Crypto-Powered Financial Services for SMBs

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On March 10, we announced the Tribal Token Sale on CoinList.

Tribal’s mission is to onboard the next 1 million small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) into crypto through a community-based, self-governed protocol. Their platform provides SMBs access to multi-currency corporate cards, crypto and traditional payment rails, and short-term financing.

SMBs can earn TRIBL tokens on business payments made through Tribal’s platform and are incentivized to stake those TRIBL tokens earned to access exclusive benefits and premium tiers in Tribal’s platform. Tribal SMBs may also use TRIBL tokens to settle their statements and pay for services within the Tribal ecosystem.

This week, we sat down with the Tribal to take a closer look at what they are building, why it matters, and the types of business best suited to benefit from their platform. Let’s dive in.

1. To begin, what is Tribal and what problem does it solve?

Tribal offers crypto-powered financial solutions to SMBs in emerging markets. Emerging markets, like Latin America, face particularly troublesome challenges when it comes to financial inclusion. Obtaining access to even the most basic financial products can be a daunting and tedious task for SMBs. Around 5 million SMBs within Latin America alone struggle to access financing, credit, scale their growing operations, and manage their cross-border payments and cash across markets.

Tribal seamlessly underwrites SMBs using its proprietary AI-driven algorithm to evaluate their creditworthiness, offering them a broad suite of financial services. These services include multi-currency corporate cards, spend management, crypto and traditional payment rails, short-term financing, and rewards. At the end of each billing cycle, SMBs can settle their statements in crypto.

Additionally, Tribal is developing a lending protocol that will bridge the gap between DeFi and TradFi. As the crypto markets continue to fluctuate, interest rates are volatile, creating an unsustainable environment for both lenders and borrowers. Tribal’s lending protocol will solve this issue by connecting lenders with long-term and creditworthy SMB borrowers where interest on deposits is stabilized and consistently generated.

2. Can you describe your target audience? What types of businesses and use cases are best suited to use Tribal?

Our target audience is SMBs in emerging markets such as Latin America  and the Middle East and Africa where it’s incredibly difficult to access credit and basic financial services – even if they are well funded, growing fast, or even quite profitable.

Tribal is one of the most essential products for CEOs and CFOs who are seeking to level the playing field with competitors in the global economy. With the visibility that Tribal provides them, they are able to grant different levels of permissions according to the functions of each member of their team – whether it’s a junior accountant looking for alternatives to optimize their expense reconciliation processes or a seasoned FP&A analyzing how to strengthen the company’s forecast for the next quarter. For decentralized teams spend, team leaders are empowered through super admin controls and the ability to issue Tribal’s virtual multi-use and single-use cards to their team members, allowing them to undergo initiatives without fear of going over budget.

With the launch of our lending protocol, Tribal’s core audience will also include crypto lenders looking to earn long-term and sustainable interest rates. Through this protocol, lenders will have the ability to deposit their funds into funding pools that are accessible by Tribal’s SMB borrowers that are willing and capable of paying competitive rates.

3. What is the inherent use case for Tribal’s native token, TRIBL?

TRIBL is an ERC-20 token that may be used in numerous ways:

  • Governance: Governance stakers will be able to propose and vote on changes such as lending protocol policies, upgrades, expansion strategies, and others.
  • Staking: Lenders and borrowers will benefit from staking TRIBL tokens, making TRIBL an incentive system for higher rewards and exclusive benefits.
  • Rewards: Tribal SMBs will earn TRIBL tokens on business payments made through Tribal’s platform and are incentivized to stake their tokens to access disruptive rewards and premium tiers with exclusive benefits.
  • Payments: Tribal SMBs may use TRIBL tokens to settle their statements and pay for services within the Tribal ecosystem.

4. What about the protocol design of Tribal makes it so attractive to SMBs looking to onboard onto crypto rails?

Crypto is simply the answer to all SMB financial struggles. First and foremost, our lending protocol is designed to disrupt the way TradFi provide capital today. By bridging the gap between DeFi and TradFi, SMBs will be able to borrow funds from crypto and TradFi lenders looking to earn fixed and sustainable interest rates. Additionally, SMBs may use the stablecoin-powered rails to make faster and cheaper payments. Lastly, Tribal’s SMBs may earn TRIBL tokens on their spending through the platform, enabling them to use the tokens in a multitude of ways within the Tribal ecosystem, including maximizing benefits through staking incentives.

We are particularly excited about bringing more crypto-powered use cases to our hybrid DeFi and TradFi lending platform to further empower SMBs within the global economy. While our initial goals are to merge TradFi and DeFi to improve financial accessibility, we believe that other areas are groundbreaking for Tribal’s ecosystem.

  • Stablecoins: Over the past few years, we have seen massive growth in stablecoins on several layer 1 blockchain platforms that allow users to hold their funds as stable digital assets to avoid market fluctuations. We believe that stablecoins will continue to play a crucial role in revolutionizing financing and payments. Stablecoins not only improve transaction speed and cost, but can also protect against massive currency devaluations, especially in emerging markets. At Tribal, we continue to investigate alternative methods to offer SMBs improved solutions using stablecoins.
  • DAOs: DAOs are one of the most exciting topics in today’s crypto space that continue to thrive, democratizing global access to financial services. The transparency of such organizations installs confidence into participants of these organizations, all while giving them a sense of belonging and empowerment. Looking ahead, we envision a world where SMBs participate in DAOs where they can be heard and have a real impact on the future of how financing tools are built.

6. What is the best way for the community to get involved with Tribal?

To get involved with Tribal and receive regular updates, join our Discord and Telegram, follow us on Twitter and Linkedin, and subscribe to our Newsletter. There is no better time to join us on this journey and become a part of revolutionizing the merger of TradFi and DeFi.

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