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CoinSmart announces strategic equity investment in GASLESS, cross-bridge NFT marketplace Curate

April 5, 2022

Investment in Curate builds on CoinSmart's rapid expansion in digital asset sector

TORONTO, April 5, 2022 /CNW/ - CoinSmart Financial Inc. (NEO: SMRT) (FSE: IIR) ("CoinSmart" or the "Company") one of Canada's leading crypto asset trading platforms, today announced its strategic investment in NFT cross-bridge marketplace, Curate. The partnership agreement includes an undisclosed investment from CoinSmart in Curate's NFT Marketplace, with an option to acquire a majority stake in the company later this year. CoinSmart expects to complete the first tranche of this investment around April 30, 2022.

Curate is the world's first blockchain agnostic, gasless, NFT marketplace that serves as a multichain bridge between major chains such as Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Binance Smart Chain (BNB), Algorand (ALGO), Elrond (EGLD), and Avalanche (AVAX). Other notable partners of Curate include Theta (THETA), Ankr (ANKR), Polkadot (DOT) and Chainlink (LINK). Curate's native marketplace allows buyers and sellers to exchange physical and digital goods such as NFTs, gaming, electronics, GIFs and more. The platform accepts payments through traditional options like credit/debit cards, as well as cryptocurrencies, while providing a reward to creators and buyers in the form of Curate's native token, $XCUR.

The partnership will see CoinSmart take an active equity stake in Curate's NFT marketplace, with the two companies working collaboratively on future projects to bring further adoption to the digital asset ecosystem.

"I am thrilled to be able to formally announce CoinSmart's partnership with Curate," said CoinSmart CEO, Justin Hartzman. "The digital asset industry continues to rapidly expand, and CoinSmart is excited to diversify our operations to take advantage of the incredible opportunity offered by the rapid adoption of NFTs. Curate is one of the NFT ecosystem's most advanced marketplaces with an incredibly talented team and an exciting roadmap. We are greatly looking forward to our partnership with Curate, as the industry continues to evolve and mature in the coming years."

CoinSmart's investment in Curate further represents the company's commitment to make investing in the digital asset sector accessible to the regular investor. Curate's gasless, cross-bridge platform is the first NFT marketplace to be available on both IOS and Android devices. This accessibility has allowed Curate to amass over 100,000 active users in the 6 months since launching and has led to over 100,000 NFT mints on the platform to date.

"This is an exciting time for Curate as we welcome our new partners and investors CoinSmart to help accelerate our growth and adoption globally," said Curate Founder and CEO, James Hakim. "Curate and Coinsmart both share the same vision of 'making crypto accessible' and we believe the team behind CoinSmart perfectly align with our vision on where Curate is heading. The best is yet to come!"

About CoinSmart Financial Inc.

CoinSmart is a leading Canadian-headquartered crypto asset trading platform dedicated to providing customers with an intuitive way for buying and selling digital assets, like Bitcoin and Ethereum. CoinSmart is one of the few crypto asset trading platforms in Canada to be registered as a securities dealer and marketplace with the Ontario Securities Commission. CoinSmart is also one of the first Canadian headquartered trading platforms to have an international presence, accepting customers across 40+ countries at a time when the digital asset industry continues to rapidly expand.

CoinSmart further builds on its mission to make cryptocurrency accessible by providing educational resources tailored to every level of cryptocurrency knowledge and unparalleled 24/7 omni-channel customer support. Offering instant verification, industry leading cold wallet storage, advanced charting with order book functionality and over-the-counter premium services, CoinSmart ensures every client's needs are met with the highest level of quality and care. For more information please visit https://www.coinsmart.com/.

Connect with CoinSmart: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

About Curate

Curate is a gasless NFT marketplace that allows buying or selling NFTs, as well as physical goods. The platform offers digital items such as NFTs, games, GIFs, electronics, clothing, and more. It is an all-in-one marketplace that is created to allow users to trade both physical and digital goods such as NFTs. For using this platform, the users also receive the platform's native token $XCUR as a reward.

For more information about Curate's NFT Marketplace, please visit https://curate.style/.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information and Other Disclosures

This press release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking information" ("forward-looking information") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that discusses predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may","could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking information. In disclosing the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made certain assumptions. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, it can give no assurance that the expectations of any forward-looking information will prove to be correct. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include, but are not limited to: regulatory approvals. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information to reflect actual results, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, changes in factors affecting such forward-looking information or otherwise.

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