CVA Podcast: Tom Albright, Bittrex Global

Transcript

[Music] hello hello this is your host trash ahmed ready to kick off another bite-sized episode of the crypto valley association podcast a special thank you goes out to script for supporting us now let's discover together the growing trends of this fast-moving space and try to shed some light on the mysteries it contains we are joined by tom alvarez ceo of bittrex global one of the most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges especially renowned for its next level security so let's dive straight into the hidden world of exchanges tom thank you for joining us how are you doing i am doing very well and thank you so much for having me it's

really a pleasure to be here oh the pleasure is ours so um maybe let's dive straight in and and you can tell us a little bit more how you first uh found out about cryptocurrencies or and or blockchain technology yeah absolutely absolutely and it really is such a fascinating industry and people come into it from so many different directions so back in so my background is actually as a lawyer as an attorney so i spent 12 years as a transactional lawyer in the silicon valley and san francisco offices of melbourne myers and starting in mid-2017 we started really doing more and more fintech

work and uh started bringing in blockchain and cryptocurrency clients as the technology and the industry and the whole sector was was heating up and started doing more and more work with blockchain-based companies through the second half of 2017 and in november or december of 2017 is when i first started doing work for bittrex as outside counsel and i met the founders and a number of the executives and you know really loved what they were doing with the mission of the company and really just started doing more and more work with them over the next five or six months until i was essentially doing almost all of my work for the tricks and at that point it started to make sense to

transition out of the law firm and come in house at patrick so in uh i think may or june of 2018 i transitioned over to work full-time at bittrex as the general counsel in the u.s so i did that for about a year and a half and then this past february i transitioned into a different role and i'm now the ceo of bittrex global so my discovery of cryptocurrency was really sort of organic through the work i was doing and i as i said i really loved the work that pitrix was doing the mission and i started looking at the cryptocurrency and blockchain space and i was just amazed at the innovation that was going on what people were building pace of innovation especially and i you know fell in love with the technology

and thought this is essentially like being in the internet industry in the mid to late 90s it's so cutting edge and it's changing the world and it's something that i just really have to be a part of also i'm looking forward to hearing more about what what fuels your passion well absolutely for british and and so you can tell us more about bittrex global and and the role that it plays within this growing industry and the importance of it absolutely yeah so bittrex as a whole the bittrex umbrella essentially has three separate companies there's the bittrex technology company that you know builds the technology and the tools uh wallets matching engine all of the technological underpinnings

to the exchanges then there's citrix us which is exchange that operates in the u.s for u.s only customers and then third is bittrex global which is the company i'm the ceo of and we are based in vaduz-lichtenstein we operate under the blockchain act in liechtenstein we're supervised by the fma there and we service all of the non-us customers under the bittrex platform so in europe asia south america africa and really anywhere that's not u.s those customers come through bittrex global okay okay so yeah it's always a common common question that arises is what's the difference between bittrex us

and bittrex global why are there two different ones and it's great to know that there are three actually which is which is very very interesting and maybe you can tell us why bittrex global is said to be one of the most trusted crypto exchanges absolutely yeah so metrics as a whole if you look at bittrex technology the initial exchange and the beginnings of the platform was founded back in 2014 and our three founders at the time were working at amazon and and had worked at microsoft and various other really large technology companies basically building an operating cyber security platforms for those companies for example they built

the amazon payments platform and they continuously helped to secure that and we're really in that industry sort of widely recognized as some of the world's leading experts on cyber security and so they brought that ethos over to blockchain and to building and launching bittrex fundamental priority was you know having the best security in the world the absolute best uh technology for securing blockchain and cryptocurrency asset and protecting customers that way and you know that was sort of coming off the mount gox hack and you know crypto was really viewed as the wild west at that time and was kind

of a niche industry and so you know there are people dabbling who didn't have the same background that our three founders had so they were really able to build a platform and an exchange that just had you know a much higher level of security than i think anyone else in the industry had at the time and you know that commitment to security that commitment to you know doing the best thing for our customers to keeping them safe protecting them from all sorts of bad actors that there might be in this industry has really been the driving force and the foundation and the backbone for what we do at patrick's global and what the other bittrex companies do as well so that is is really the foundation you

know in our to this day our commitment remains to secure our customers assets to help them build and grow their wealth by being able to access cryptocurrencies blockchain assets which we think is the absolute best way to build wealth going forward and to do it in a safe and secure manner yeah okay i definitely say that i'm just picking up firm from the point i think people some people still regard crypto and blockchain is the wild west that's true it really depends on yeah your perspective and how how long you've been watching the industry i think but i like to think we're evolving oh yes slowly but surely and maybe are there

any other points than security that you'd say differentiate bittrex from from some of your competitors like kraken coinbase etc yeah absolutely so you know i think we sort of mentioned very quickly but we regulation and licensing compliance are really foundational as well as part of that you know the we really do want to move past this wild west ethos and outlook where anything goes and you know we think that in order for blockchain and cryptocurrency to take the next step in its evolution and integrate with the traditional financial system and open up access to the billions of people around the world that haven't discovered blockchain yet that there

needs to be appropriate well thought out regulation there needs to be licensing and oversight of entities operating in the space including exchanges and you know that's why we're headquartered in valdos that's why we operate under the blockchain act that's why we've actually just added a second license in bermuda to operate a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange which will be expanding our product offerings but we thought it was absolutely critical rather than just you know launching in sort of this gray area or maybe later maybe you're not maybe you're supposed to do kyc aml best practices maybe you're not like a lot of competitors do we wanted to have that license we wanted to be regulated and overseen by the bma the

bermuda monetary authority which is the regulator there so customers can feel safe using the platform knowing that we're following best practices and that there's a regulator that's overseeing and able to validate that i see it's in and maybe let's let's move forward on that point that you just touched uh quickly that you've most recently brought out the ability on bittrex global to be able to trade with leverage we'd like to provide us with a little bit more of the the reasoning behind that decision yes absolutely so you know i think that the you know adding the ability to trade derivatives to leverage tokens futures all those sorts of things are incredible opportunities for customers that want to trade want to boost their returns that can successfully manage their

risk versus you know their positions and all those sorts of things and it's something that's really offered in the traditional financial world and we're seeing that people that are coming in as institutional traders or other sophisticated traders really want these cutting-edge products and you know we see a lot of other exchanges offering them and as i said this uh either completely unregulated area or in a regulatory gray space and you know i think we've seen some fallout from that recently um in the last couple of months or so but we want to be able to offer those products and we want to do it in a safe and secure manner so we're starting with leverage tokens you know we're going to

be able customers are going to be able to get leverage positions up to 3x leverage without having to manage their own margin their own collateral you know managed positions the these will be leveraged tokens that trade the same as any other token on our platform but give customers exposure to leverage so for example the the bitcoin bull token will move for each 24-hour period it will move in price three times the amount that bitcoin does so it gives customers who want that leverage access to it but again they don't have to manage positions they don't have to deal with posting collateral they don't have the potential to be liquidated if the market suddenly gaps up or down

so it's a i would say an easier way for most people to get exposure to leverage i see i said it's very it's very interesting and that approaches is a very interesting one and maybe you can tell us about the importance of education because i mean if you're offering these more advanced features to your traders it must be important for them to actually know what they're doing right that is absolutely right yes i think it's critical for really anyone who's trading cryptocurrencies tokens or frankly if you're trading traditional equities or bonds or you know exchange foreign exchange fx on fiat markets even to understand the products you're trading and how they work what underly what assets are underlying those tokens all those sorts of things so yes we view customer education as a critical

part of this we want anyone who's accessing these tokens to understand exactly what they're getting into how the assets work how they obtain the 3x leverage or you know the other ratios how they move in price and why and so we're making a big effort to make sure all of that information is available on our website we're talking about it on podcasts and things like that so we want to make these things accessible and in a lot of ways we want to demystify what's going on here i think there are many many people out there look at the traditional financial world you see etfs and things that are similar where customers can get 3x leverage on the s p 500 via an etf and i think a lot of people jump into those

things without knowing exactly what they are or how they work just because they're available through their broker so we want to empower people to you know access these products and use them to help build with their wealth in a safe smart and deliberate way okay and yes as you said this demystification approach i think it's it's very important and if you follow on from that do you do you believe that education is the key then to to adoption do you would you believe that there are other factors that need to come into play for more users to come on to the the crypto markets well that's a really interesting question i think that education and exposure absolutely a critical part of increasing adoption i

don't think that it's obviously the only key item but it certainly is a very important one and one of the things that that i see and you know you can see how i got drawn into the industry is that you know as people are exposed to this technology into the industry and you know to the fundamentals of what these assets can do uh you know as people get introduced to bitcoin they learn a little bit about it they start looking at how does it compare to fiat assets and things like that and you know what's the outlook if i put money into bitcoin versus if i keep it at my bank what's my outlook for you know one two five years from now in terms of my ability to grow my wealth and

as people start seeing that they are essentially inevitably drawn into the ecosystem it's almost impossible to look at what's going on with uh central bank money printing and the way you know unemployment is just crushing the real world economy you know and and then look at bitcoin and how it's you know anti-inflationary and you know such an amazing store of wealth and a backbone for a new financial system and not think of that as a better way to move forward and grow your wealth so i think you know education and exposure are definitely keys to getting people into the ecosystem and i think you know as people start exploring and looking at things and understanding

what cryptocurrency is what bitcoin is you know they it really empowers them to take control of their own financial health and financial future yeah absolutely a critical part of growing the ecosystem okay and and i know that we're going further down into the rabbit hole by 22. it goes deep so it's hard not to sometimes definitely and maybe i'll just go a little bit one one layer uh deeper before we uh arise back up and you mentioned that cryptocurrencies could bring about a new financial uh system and and how how far do you think that that's going to that's going to take us do you believe that cryptocurrencies will will will be a break we'll have a breakthrough

within the financial systems i absolutely do yes i i view blockchain technology as you know sort of a transformative technology that is ultimately going to filter through the entire financial system you know i think there will be a lot of people who intentionally choose to access blockchain and blockchain technologies cryptocurrencies but i think there was also going to be a huge component of people who are relying on blockchain as part of their day-to-day life without ever even knowing it um you know and i so i i mentioned i was an attorney for a long time doing corporate finance and i worked with companies throughout their entire life cycle and you know companies would start

founders uh you know put some money in and bootstrap it then they get money from friends and family and they might go out to a vc fund and they might go out to you know bigger vc funds or private equity and then ultimately they can do an ipo and access public markets and there are massive inefficiencies at each of those stages where you know tracking who owns a company as simple as it as it might sound actually becomes really complicated and really hard as you go from these you know you know i i know that there's three of us and we each own a third you know simple but then you bring in you know five or six family members and you have to start

tracking on an excel spreadsheet and then you bring in a vc fund and there's complicated conversions and you know it's it's easy to get lost in that down the line but you know if you start at the beginning of the life cycle of the company you found your company you tokenize the stock you put it on blockchain with smart contracts and then you move through that life cycle really simply and easily you know there's always a everyone knows who owns what it's decentralized it's an immutable record and it lets you go from a tiny private seed stage company all the way through to public company utilizing the same record keeping the same technology you know limiting who can access

the stock and buy it at certain points and you just change the smart contract essentially push a button and you go from private company to public company and i think that you know that's just one example of how blockchain technology and the tokenization of real-world assets makes the financial system much more efficient and much more accessible you know and i think that that's going to again anytime you can remove that friction it helps people grow their wealth it helps people focus on doing the things that they need to do rather than you know spending time on logistical inefficiencies so that i'm a huge believer in the long-term growth of this technology and is that you see that in artwork in real

estate you know digital identities and just all sorts of applications for this technology that are driving incredible use cases so it's fascinating to watch and it's fascinating to be a part of oh and indeed it is and maybe if we continue on that on that trail of thought where do you think exchanges are are headed within within the crypto space yeah so i think that exchanges are really uniquely positioned to provide access to people all around the world to this technology you know obviously the there's a to continue that example you know where companies form and they have their their stock on the blockchain you know if you want to start trading in a private pool you can do that really

easily if you want to limit access to you know say vc funds or private equity you can let them trade that way through the exchange or then ultimately open it up to the public so i think as people build and you know these use cases tokenize real world assets all those sorts of things that i think that people around the world are going to primarily access those through exchanges similar to how you access the traditional financial system through a bank or a broker or things like that so i think exchanges um you know with the expertise that we have in managing hundreds of assets and managing different blockchains and most importantly securing those things uh those assets you know as well as managing the

different regulations aml kyc the you know uh transaction monitoring all those sorts of things the exchanges are really you know perfectly situated to be the entry point and the gateway to the blockchain ecosystem and then also to help bridge the gap between traditional financial system and cryptocurrency financial system and you mentioned exchanges being that that entry point into the crypto sphere what do you see as other main components that are going to develop in the future and and their importance within the industry in the future yeah it's it's a great question and i think that as the the industry evolves uh and again i really

think we're right at the beginning of of this technology accelerating you know we're moving from you know say over the last six years or maybe a little bit earlier you know very technical people who really understood the technology understood how to secure their private keys you know understood how to use hardware wallets understood you know sending and receiving funds all those sorts of things and we're very happy to deep dive into uh the ecosystem and the technology and you know there's always going to be those those kinds of users there's always going to be people who want to live on that cutting edge and i think that there will be a portion of the industry that evolves to serve them and we're seeing it now with uh really the

rise of defy you know people that want to be managing their private keys want to do things on chain really want to be technologically sophisticated will have that avenue you know there will be other people who want to access the assets but either don't feel comfortable or just learning and need assistance with that and i think you know exchanges like bittrex global where we've had you know six or seven years of securing these of experience of securing these assets and protecting customers and you know it's in it's a great way even for anyone who just wants to get started in the industry to do that and then if you want to go farther and move into d5 or move into more complicated things that's

fantastic but you know exchanges provide a gateway where you don't have to you know so i think the the industry overall is and i think it's important as we add you know there's eight billion people in the the world today and i think again almost all of them are ultimately going to be exposed to blockchain and cryptocurrency but i think a very small percentage of them are going to really deep dive into the technology and so you know linking the traditional financial world making blockchain as simple as going to your brokerage or your bank account be an app on your phone to see your holdings to make trades to buy and sell you know all those sorts of things i think that's critically important and i think that's long term how the the industry is going to look there's going

to be you know a whole spectrum of simple for people who want simple all the way down to complicated and self-managed for people who want that so i think it's going to provide people a lot more choice in how they access financial system how they build their wealth how they access these assets all those sorts of things okay yeah the liberty of choice right that that freedom to do uh what you believe is right and if you want to take the responsibility of holding your private keys then you should be able to do so so um well it's um it's very interesting tom thank you so much for those valuable insights for unfortunately coming to the end of this conversation you could probably go on for for much longer but it's yeah anytime you start going down the rabbit

hole you could talk for hours on it but yes i i don't know the listeners would appreciate that but but please do you have anything else that that you'd like to share with our audience today yeah absolutely i would really just like to ask all the listeners out there to come check us out at global.bittrex.com to follow us on social media our twitter is uh pretty simple at bittrexglobal you can follow me at tom albright and if you really want to learn more about what we're doing at bittrex global and and start going down the rabbit hole you know obviously follow the crypto valley association podcast but we've also just recently launched our bittrex global podcast called the bit it's myself and our ceo cfo steven stoneburg

you know similar bite-sized content and we're doing some deep dives with some fascinating guests so i would really encourage everyone to check that out awesome give it a listen thank you well well if our audience have gone this far into uh into the episode then they'll know to to go and watch the the bitcast uh the bit drake's podcast and and enjoy that so thank you so much for for sharing that and uh if you've enjoyed this conversation feel free to check out more on our website cryptovalley.swiss where we host plenty of events educational content and even provide information on how you can join our growing community so thanks again tom for joining us charles thank you so much for having me

it's been lots of fun and again thanks so much it's my pleasure so stay tuned stay safe and until next time from the crypto valley in switzerland bye bye