Building in a Bear Market with Bobby Zagotta

Today’s guest is Bobby Zagotta, the Chief Executive Officer of BitStamp. Bitstamp is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Luxembourg. It allows trading between fiat currency, bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies. Bitstamp is the world’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchange, continuously supporting the Bitcoin economy since 2011. With a proven track record and mature approach to the industry, Bitstamp provides a secure and transparent venue to over four million customers and enables partners to access emerging crypto markets through time-proven infrastructure. The company was founded as a European-focused alternative to then-dominant bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. While the company trades in US dollars, it accepts fiat money deposits for free only via the European Union's Single Euro Payments Area, a mechanism for transferring money between European bank accounts. Bobby has demonstrated success in building and growing businesses in established and emerging markets, including significant experience in cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. He’s proven to have the ability to develop and lead business lines, product development, global marketing and sales, international business development, and M&A/VC investing. He has significant experience building and leading winning teams, strategy and M&A, big data analytics, operations, lean principles, planning/forecasting, and leadership team facilitation and execution. Before joining Bitstamp, Bobby was the Chief Commercial Officer at Kraken Digital, where he was a member of the senior leadership team accountable for Business Operations & Strategy, Global Business Development, Corporate Development/M&A, Intelligence & Analytics, Banking & Payments, as well as two business line P&Ls, CF Benchmarks and OTC Trading. We discuss various topics, including Bitstamp, crypto adoption, surviving a crypto crash, regulatory clarity, and much more. We begin our conversation by discussing how TradFi institutions are being forced to understand the crypto space and what kind of product offerings they should build to give their clients access to crypto. We transition to discuss how in emerging markets, crypto is viewed. Bobby explains how in a survey conducted by Bitstamp, emerging markets trust crypto more than the traditional financial system. We discuss how crypto, for a large part of the world, is not an investment but a lifeline to the financial world. We move on to discuss Bitstamp. We discuss Bitstamp’s rich history and its commitment to customer success. We stress the need for crypto companies to focus on customer support and success to continue growing adoption and trust. We pivot our conversation to discuss the politicization of finance and how the Fed has grown in importance within the general public’s mindshare. We discuss the growing desire of the general public to understand how economic policy is made and its implications. This leads us to discuss the current economic fallout and its impact on the crypto markets. We focus on discussing various ways to survive the crypto winter. We also touch on the need to build through the bear market and how every successful company was started during a bear market. Our next conversation topic centered around regulatory clarity. We discuss the regulation of the broader crypto market, stable coins, and the need for Spot Bitcoin ETF. Please enjoy my conversation with Bobby Zagotta.

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