OKX crypto exchange recently announced a partnership with Jamba, a Web3-enabled smartphone brand. Through this partnership, both brands want to push the Web3-powered digital economy in smartphone-friendly emerging markets. Although Web3 and smartphones – both create individually recognized markets in their own right – their mutual integration is a concept that has not yet been thoroughly explored. With this smartphone, Jambo and OKX also expect to compete with the Solana Saga smartphone.
As part of this deal, OKX will integrate its crypto exchange and wallet applications with JamboPhone, which already comes with support for Web3 functionality. The phone is priced at $99 (roughly Rs. 8,230), according to the website.
“By building OKX directly into the Jambo ecosystem, we’re making it easier for users in emerging markets to safely and efficiently engage with the digital economy,” said James Zhang, co-founder of Jambo, commenting on the development.
After securing $30 million (roughly Rs. 249 million) in Series A funding in 2022, Jambo Technology, which is said to be an Africa-based technology company, launched its JamboPhone in March 2024. The phone comes with built-in features that allow users to play , earn and store digital assets within their ecosystem. Along with Web3 capabilities, the smartphone comes with a 6.5-inch LCD display, an octa-core T606 chipset, a dual rear camera setup, and runs Android 13.
The smartphone was launched in partnership with the blockchain company, Aptos Foundation. According to the JamboPhone official website, it is currently available in over 120 countries where OKX is also now looking to expand its business and operations.
For OKX, its venture arm called OKX Ventures is investing an undisclosed amount in Jambo and has officially announced this on its X handle, which has over 123,000 followers.
The partnership also aims to compete with the Saga, a Solana-powered smartphone that will launch in June 2022. The Saga phone has a built-in Seed Vault to securely store all private keys associated with the device among other Web3 features. It was developed by OSOM, a relatively new technology company.
3/ Currently web3 is not built for smartphones and you need a desktop browser to take full advantage of it.
Solana Mobile Stack is a crypto layer built on top of Android to make the mobile web3 user experience seamless. https://t.co/jBhmTFGs1f
— Solana (@solana) June 23, 2022
The Saga smartphone comes with a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with full-HD+ resolution (1080 × 2400 pixels) and a 120Hz refresh rate, a 50-megapixel primary rear camera, a rear fingerprint sensor, a ceramic back panel and titanium details. It also runs Android 13 out of the box.
