Author: Team Young

Young Platform wins the ‘Startup of the Year 2022’ award from I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino

Here at Young Platform we ended the year on a high note with an award that we’re really proud of! In December, we received the ‘Startup of the Year 2022′ award during the 23rd edition of the ‘Festa delle Startup I3P’, the annual event of the Incubator of the Politecnico di Torino that celebrates innovative Italian start-ups. 

The Startup Party 

Every year at the ‘Festa delle Startup I3P’, the new companies selected to enter the Politecnico di Torino incubation programme are introduced and awards are presented to the start-ups that have distinguished themselves through their successful journey.

The event was an opportunity to discover innovative products and services ready to conquer the market, and to tell the story of start-ups that took their first steps from the Politecnico di Torino and have proven their value over time. During the ‘Festa’ on 21 December 2022, Young Platform received the ‘Startup of the Year 2022’ award, tied with epiCura, the first digital platform providing home care services. 

Young Platform’s 2022

There are years made for dreaming and planning, others for building, and some for reaping the fruits of one’s labour. In 2022, we at Young Platform expanded and gave our all, we became one of the top three cryptocurrency trading platforms in Italy, with a 36% market share and over a million active users on our products. We launched our YNG token, inaugurated the Clubs and concluded a 16 million euro funding round led by Azimut. Throughout all this, we stayed focused on our goal: facilitating access to the world of cryptocurrencies through simple and clear applications and through intensive educational activities on blockchain technology and its solutions. 

Thank you I3P!

In the course of our history there has always been a fundamental figure who never stopped believing in us. We could not have achieved these milestones without the support that I3P has guaranteed us since 2019, when we joined its incubation programme for fledgling start-ups. 

Last December, Giuseppe Scellato, the president of I3P, commented on our award as follows: ‘Young Platform, with its crypto exchange features, is operating in a sector that is constantly evolving and is thus able to address the new generation of investors.’ and referring also to epiCura: ‘we are proud to have supported these start-ups on their path to growth: our goal is to continue to be a point of reference for innovation in Italy, supporting and promoting ideas and projects with high technological potential that work on services with a direct impact on the lives of citizens’.

Even today, after three years: thank you I3P!

The Startup of the Year award put the fintech sector in the spotlight, once again at Young Platform we raise a glass with our community to going even further together. An unforgettable 2023 awaits us! 

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A partnership between Young Platform and Save the Children kicks off to facilitate crypto donations and help children in Italy and around the world

• The organisation chose the Italian exchange community leader’s platform to open a wallet;
• Users can send Bitcoin, Ether or other cryptos to support Save the Children projects;
• The collaboration will be ongoing and will continue after the Christmas campaign.

Turin, the 21st of December 2022 – Bringing immediate support to where it is most needed, taking advantage of the security and speed of blockchain, helping families and children who, even during Christmas, will have to face hunger and the cold of winter. These are the objectives of the partnership that Young Platform has entered into with Save the Children Italia. This charity is an international organisation that has been fighting for over 100 years to save the lives of girls and boys in order to guarantee them a future. The partnership will enable anyone to use cryptos and donate to the organisation, which is present in over 120 countries worldwide.

Save the Children was the first international organisation ever to accept a Bitcoin donation in 2013. The goal was to raise funds and take action in response to the dramatic aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan that struck south-east Asia, devastating the Philippines. Now, Save the Children Italy has chosen Young Platform to open a wallet, by virtue of the scrupulous regulatory compliance of the Italian exchange community leader (over one million members  in terms of tax issues, anti-money laundering procedures as well as KYC.

To donate, all you need to do is hold a crypto wallet, even on other exchanges. Connect to the appropriate webpage (donaora.savethechildren.it/crypto/), scan the QR Code or copy the address of the Save the Children wallet indicated to send the desired amount of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Pow, Tether, Cardano ADA, Polygon, Tezos or USDC. The donation will be converted into fiat currency, to protect the amount from possible crypto market fluctuations. It will then be used to provide protection and immediate aid in areas affected by humanitarian emergencies.

Worldwide, some 774 million children – one third of the world’s child population – experience the dual impact of poverty and climate risk.. Every year globally, 1 million children under the age of five die from malnutrition. Moreover, children living in conflict zones are more than twice as likely to suffer from malnutrition as children living in countries at peace.

Vulnerable children often lack everything, from drinking water to food and psychological support to regain their lost serenity. This is also why the collaboration between Young Platform and Save the Children will continue after the current Christmas campaign, for all crypto collections.

Young Platform reconfirms its commitment to social issues, following its past collaborations with Dynamo Camp, the Italian Red Cross and Helperbit, in similar campaigns. On the other hand, Save the Children is increasingly looking to the Web3 community, having launched the #CryptoArt4Children project last spring to donate the proceeds from the sale of NFT works created by crypto-artists to support children and families affected by the conflict in Ukraine.

“Blockchain is unfortunately still a technology that is often misunderstood on many levels. However, leaders and vanguards throughout the world, such as Save the Children among other organisations, have immediately understood its potential for the best purposes,” explains Andrea Ferrero, CEO of Young Platform. With this partnership we are happy to be able to do our part by providing the means and technological support to anyone who wants to use cryptocurrencies to make a donation and help children in areas facing humanitarian crises due to conflict, extreme weather events or an economic crisis For this reason, we at Young Platform do not want to limit ourselves to an occasional initiative. We will stay ‘in the field’ together with Save the Children, hoping that this will be the beginning of a long collaboration between our two organisations. .

“Save the Children has always been an organisation open to change, looking for new ways to respond to the needs of children,” – says Lorenzo Catapano, head of Innovation, Digital Technology & Data at Save the Children Italia – “We think that at the stage Web3 is at today, understanding and experiencing it is the best way to be part of it.  We decided to do this together with Young Platform, an Italian business extremely attentive to young people and to the positive impact of new technologies. On the occasion of Christmas we want to invite the Young community to be at the side of children, to build a better future for them.”

“FTX never passed Young Platform’s due diligence checks and we have never had any dependence on FTX. AUM are safe,” guarantees Italy’s largest exchange

The crisis affecting the FTX exchange was triggered by revelations concerning the balance sheet of Alameda, a company founded by CEO Sam Bankman-Fried

Turin, the 10th of November 2022 – The liquidity crisis that hit the FTX exchange, one of the largest in the world, has caused an earthquake in the cryptocurrency sector. However, it is one of a different nature than the collapse of LUNA at the beginning of the year. It is related to the particular condition of the companies FTX and Alameda Research.

The management model represented by Young Platform, Italy’s leading exchange community, differs markedly from what emerged from press reports concerning FTX and Alameda. This can be traced back to the managerial activities of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX as well as founder of Alameda. The latter company was dedicated to hedge fund and trading activities, and was also previously administered by Sam Bankman-Fried.

“FTX never passed Young Platform’s due diligence checks and we never had any dependence on FTX, so our clients’ Assets under management are safe. Moreover, the FTT token was not even listed on our platform, which means that no Young Platform client has lost money in connection with the FTX affair,” assures Mariano Carozzi, president of the Italian cryptocurrency trading platform, which has over one and a half million members.

FTX and Alameda Research were not as separate as advertised, according to news site CoinDesk, who had learned about Alameda’s balance sheet, causing solvency doubts to arise. This revealed that Alameda’s main asset was the FTX exchange’s token FTT, worth about $3.86 billion out of $14.6 billion in total assets.

Not only that, but the third largest asset was USD 2.16 billion of ‘FTT collateral’. This is therefore a huge component of the balance sheet, but what matters more is the quality of the asset. Not only did half of the balance sheet come from their own centralised entity, but it was linked to an illiquid token whose intrinsic value is almost impossible to calculate. Moreover, in the last period, the exchange had been active in acquiring companies in crisis. So, the balance sheet shows the consequences of these purchases, which may have been economically advantageous but financially very demanding.

“Young’s economic situation is very different, we have recently strengthened our capital endowment with a significant capital increase underwritten by leading Italian institutions, the working group and our business organisation. Moreover, we have never been attracted by financial transactions that, even if advantageous, were nevertheless risky”. This was highlighted by Andrea Ferrero, CEO of Young Platform, referring to the financing round led by Azimut in June and in which a pool of investors participated, including Banca Sella and United Ventures.

Young Platform represents a principled model for managing cryptocurrencies in a secure manner that is beneficial to customers and the company itself. The platform’s goal is to provide access to state-of-the-art crypto products while maintaining a conservative approach to business operations, security and financial resilience. This approach is also embodied in our choice of excellent partners, even at this difficult time for the market, such as our industry-leading custody service Fireblocks.”“Bitcoin is experiencing a moment of high volatility in the short term, but as an asset it does not change its intrinsic value and this makes us confident, despite everything,‘ Carozzi concludes. ‘In addition to the turbulence and inflation of the period, our industry has to deal with regulatory and normative uncertainties that still need to be remedied by institutions, in order to reward quality operators. The great virtue of cryptocurrencies so far has been their ability to learn from their mistakes and strengthen themselves accordingly. We believe that the best players will be rewarded in any regulatory and market environment’.

The campaign target has been reached in less than 48 hours but the crowdfunding is still open!

Young Platform is proud to have reached its investment target (500,000 Euro) in less than 48h!

Over 285 investors trusted and believed in us, allowing us to raise over 500,000 Euro in less than 2 days!

An unbelievable outcome, and it’s all because of you!

Thanks to these funds, we’ll be able to speed up the development of our exchange.

This is not all: given the huge amount of requests, we decided to keep our fundraising open (this means we are in the OVERFUNDING phase)

In addition, to give thanks to everyone who believed in us, we intend to gift each investor with an extra 10% of YOUNG tokens, if we were to reach the next target, set to €750,000.

What does this mean exactly?

If, for instance, you invested €1,000, besides holding 100 shares of Young Platform, you already received 1000 Young tokens (YNG): if the campaign were to reach the new target of 750,000 Euro, you’ll be credited with an extra 10% of the investment (which is 100 Young).

So, at the end of the campaign, you’ll end up with 100 shares and a total of 1100 Young tokens! (still, if the campaign were to reach the total target of 750,000 Euro).

Once again, thank you to everyone in our Young Community, we are happy and proud to have a team like you to support and advise us on this journey.

How can I invest in Young Platform?

To invest in our equity crowdfunding campaign

To receive more info, write to [email protected]

Here are the winners of our weekly contest (Week 24) and their prizes in Young:

1. Celestino Marini (20.00 YNG)
2. Fabio Demicheli (13.33 YNG)
3. Miguel Arteaga (8.89 YNG)
4. Fabrizio Oliva (5.93 YNG)
5. Donatella Maugeri (3.95 YNG)
6. Sara Testa (2.00 YNG)
7. Vince 1 (2.00 YNG)
8. Nicola Ramella (2.00 YNG)
9. Raul Pigliapoco (2.00 YNG)
10. Rocco Morea (2.00 YNG)

Every Sunday at midnight the ranking will be reset, but the YOUNG (YNG) you collected during the week are always going to stay in your Wallet.

Thank you for your participation in our contest!

Keep on walking to earn YOUNG and move up the ranks!