Decentralized finance (DeFi) giant Spark has shelved plans to launch a mobile app for now.
“We had an internal discussion and we’re going to put it on hold for now just because we see our advantage as being largely in the DeFi native crypto space,” Sam MacPherson, CEO of Phoenix Labs, told CoinDesk in an interview during Devconnect Buenos Aires. “We don’t build consumer apps, and this space is very competitive.”
Phoenix Labs is the company behind the development of the Spark protocol, which has amassed over $9 billion in total value locked to date, according to data from DeFiLlama.
“If and when we go in, we have to make sure we have some kind of edge there. I think there’s a tendency for projects to get distracted by doing too many things at once,” MacPherson said. “So we just want to double down on what we do best, which is liquid infrastructure in DeFi.”
The protocol will instead focus on what MacPherson called “liquidity infrastructure and trades like our latest $1 billion investment with our own balance in PYUSD with PayPal,” pointing to a focus on institutional use cases rather than the creation of more retail-friendly solutions. He referred to a $1 billion investment to scale up PYUSD’s liquidity.
When asked if the mobile app had been canceled or just delayed, MacPherson said it’s “on hold for now. Things can change, but it’s about the market; you have to see opportunities, and that’s just not there right now for us.”
MacPherson’s words come shortly after another DeFi giant, Aave, announced the launch of a retail returns app. “It’s an exciting development, but as I said, it’s a competitive environment. I wish them the best of luck,” MacPherson said when asked about the launch.
