Mento, a key FX infrastructure within the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem, has announced a strategic partnership with Wormhole, a leading interoperability platform. The collaboration seeks to expand Mento's onchain FX capabilities beyond Celo, enabling real-time, decentralized currency exchange across more than 40 blockchains. This partnership aims to modernize the traditional foreign exchange (FX) market, valued at $7.5 trillion daily, by addressing its inherent inefficiencies through decentralized solutions.
Mento, which started as the stability protocol behind Celo’s decentralized stablecoins, became an independent project in 2022. We are committed to creating the most accessible local currency stablecoins to serve emerging and developed markets alike. As Celo continues to grow and develop into an Ethereum Layer 2 solution, Mento’s importance in the EVM ecosystem has deepened. By removing the middlemen with a decentralized model, it allows for peer-to-peer instant settlements and lessens the dependence on current infrastructure. Mento is especially focused on emerging markets, where the power of stablecoins to facilitate payments, microloans, and other savings is imperative.
By leveraging Wormhole's proven infrastructure, which has processed over $60 billion in cross-chain transactions and supports over 200 applications, Mento combines its stablecoin issuance expertise with Wormhole's cross-chain capabilities. This unique combination helps to overcome the disadvantages of the antiquated FX market.
"This integration begins the process of moving FX onchain, making it faster, more accessible, and more interoperable across blockchain ecosystems." - Robinson Burkey, Co-Founder of Wormhole Foundation
Markus Franke, CEO of Mento Labs, emphasized that the partnership enables real-time cross-chain currency exchange with:
"instant finality and zero reliance on legacy infrastructure." - Markus Franke, CEO of Mento Labs
Mento seeks to be the leading FX infrastructure powering borderless finance. It profoundly defies the limits of archaic silos ingrained in the traditional FX market.
