Adam Cai on Virgo exchange's expansion and Bitcoin halving preparation

0:00I'm Ashton Addison from Block West capital for investment pitch media and today on the Crypto Coin Show we have Adam Kai the CEO of Virgo Adam welcome back to the show and it's a pleasure to see you again so thank you National for having me again you're very welcome it's been a pleasure having you on over the past years because you really have the

0:22Canadian crypto scene and the Canadian crypto exchanges industry nailed down to a t it seems like you and your team are always on top of it and I'm excited to hear about the latest updates with Virgo and the exchange as well as just the Canadian crypto landscape so I would love to start off our conversation for those who haven't seen our previous interviews with just a high level on

0:44what you and your team are working on at Virgo and then we'll dive into all the details but the survival group was actually founded back in 2019 we start off as a you know crypto spot exchange providing you know Canadian dollar Fiat online France for the Canadian users and starting actually from last year we expanded our exchange to Australia and we were able to launch our

1:10Australian Branch since 2022 October and we also rebranded our robust CX group to become Virgo and our newly official website at robo.com which will be actually our global company going forward that will contains all kind of different cigarettes within it in addition to the Austrian expression we also are working at U.S and Hong Kong as well trying to see whether we can

1:37provide a crypto minus Market Training Services over there as well and in addition to just the spot exchange we also recently expanded through the crypto Asset Management space we acquire art recent acquired astronomic investment a fully licensed investment manager portal manager except a market leader in Canada that does give us the ability to offer a

1:59crypto private fund crypto separate match accounts as well as crypto public found in the very near future so we're now becoming a more kind of integrated comprehensive crypto financial service providers wow that's great to hear Adam and it's always nice when you hear that a crypto exchange is expanding you know vertically and throughout different jurisdictions around the world

2:22that's a good sign for crypto as a whole now 2023 has been an interesting year for Bitcoin so far and in the last month we've sort of seen you know Bitcoins barely moved it's been 30 000 which can't complain compared to the past years it's a high price but it seems like sideways movement and not a lot of people interested maybe just because it's summer

2:45usually crypto exchange Founders have a good hold on what's happening with Bitcoin or at least the trading volumes on their exchange and do they see interest peaking year over year month over month do you have any insights into the current market conditions of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry as a whole right now the current market condition I think

3:07it's a very interesting one so from the retail trading side I wouldn't say that you know the return investors have you know come back away trying to invest heavily into crypto I don't see that Trend yet probably because of the high interest rate in situation people just put their money you know back in your bank account and also they have to fight for the

3:29inflation and also the rising living costs so I think the risk uptight on the returning message back to crypto is still Limited at this point in time however we do see the price went back from you know as low as 16 000 to over 30 something dollars I think that many because of a couple reasons one is we're seeing obviously some big you know so I guess asset

3:55management companies and institutions now announcing big plans to get into crypto ETF plays such as BlackRock Fidelity you know these big big players so confidence that in the near future if this gets approved we're going to have way more asset flowing to crypto so that does you know increase the confidence within like for the crypto investor within industry

4:18and also the fact that we don't have that much bad news lately it's also something that's going to play on the positive side you know in 2022 everyone knows it's pretty crazy with one after another Black Swan events you know one of the other clubs for the major crypto ecosystem players but it has been quite dull to an end of 2012 and going into trying to kind of straight so we're

4:43seeing lots of that so that does actually give the market a bit a bit of time to recover from you know the disaster mode back in the Years definitely and it's a great point about you know the Canadian landscape for retail investors the inflation and the cost of living it seems like Canada is you know at least Toronto and Vancouver it's like that one of the

5:06highest costs of living throughout all of North America it's hard for you know regular old people to have any extra income to start investing in Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies for the long term when they're just trying to pay the rent yeah for sure for sure and on the institutional side you mentioned there that a lot of positives about the ETF filings BlackRock some

5:31of these major institutions that you know they're usually working behind closed doors probably buying up lots of Bitcoin when it's low when the retail Traders can't afford to I'm curious on the you know a lot of that you hear is sort of on the American side I'm curious if you have any insights into the Canadian landscape specifically and is there on the institutional side

5:56is there just as much interest and obviously it's going to be not as large as America but our you know the big institutions also are you in discussions with them about you know are they buying Bitcoin for the long term and is this a positive thing for Canada right I think from a community perspective first thing we have Advantage is you know the regulatory

6:19oversight so I would say in general the Canadian Security Regulators have to be you know having relatively open to Innovations right and they approve crypto ETF way before us did and they also you know gave some clear guidance in terms of what you can do you know on crypto Asset Management private fund wise what it can do on a crypto trading platform wise and what do you have to

6:43get yourself compliant so I think they're trying pretty hard in providing that Clarity so that does add quite a bit of I would say confidence into the Canadian institutions or Canadian like financial advisors investment advisors broker dealers you know trying to get access potentially to crypto because we now have a much better regulatory Frameworks than what US does right so I

7:08think the general sense from the regulatory perspective is like it's it's definitely moving things along obviously that has some kind of obstacles you know there's a limitations on what you cannot do which sometimes is also a little bit frustrating but in general speaking I think it's it's pretty good so when we were in Canada I think now people

7:29recognize that Canadian major ecosystem players drawn a centralized you know governance piece have been proving its I guess validity and also proving that it does have a proper governance structure so the trust that we lost from FTX collapse was potentially able to get back through all those you know relative movements so I'm definitely seeing that you know

7:55there are some you know I would say small institutions and Hannah was in individuals now are definitely looking to you know put some Capital back to bitcoin for the long term and people seem to have some you know ultimate optimistic stance toward you know what's going to happen after Bitcoin happening even though we don't see like huge I guess you know

8:19pension plan or like you know family office putting you know smaller ticket size but within a current market liquidity and concerning all these market conditions I would still consider this as a very positive sign and hopefully you know Virgo when they actually we're actually in the process of getting ourselves also registered with our Rock

8:44has broken you know we're hoping that early next year we can get a broken leader license as well so that will connect us a lot more with the you know another Channel it does help us a lot very interesting insights Adam and from the from the Canadian crypto Exchange side I've seen over the past year or a few years a consolidation of exchanges being

9:10bought up acquired merging together it seems like there's fewer now than there was I'm curious on your insights into that being one of the biggest crypto exchanges in Canada you know what's going on with the consolidation of exchanges there okay sure yeah this is actually I guess pretty much expected you know for the Birch Market we have

9:33experienced in the last 22 years obviously the trading volumes on the exchange side has been going down significantly so in order to survive in such a market it obviously isn't easy for the trading platform business right so I guess within the Canadian landscape we're seeing a number of appears now trying to consult it into one and there are constant you know acquisition emerge

9:56kind of discussion here and there so I think the main reasoning behind it is obviously people want to survive people want to have synergies because of emerge and people want to have a better runways you know trying to get through and to the next bullish cycle I think that's kind of the main reason behind it and of course like there's no point to have that many exchanges in Canada

10:19anyway right so I think from our side where decision is available bit different so instead of merging or consolidating with horizontal I would say with similar business nature appears we're more interested in doing vertical integration and we were lucky to be able to have you know the investor support and have our shareholders support to be able to now looking at you know very

10:46good assets such as you know the recent acquisition we did with aqueous Norman that's very like a very legit asset management company we have full vision that we can grow the eum and provide the services to a number of investors in Canada to begin with a potential globally in the future so and also we're we're also seeing a lot of other you know Canadian players doing some other

11:11I guess business lines such as SEO Security tax tokens right and some people doing that you know could be specifically doing I guess like the description channel on the community building side so we're also looking at whether we can actually include in you know different players into our ecosystem that can add values to each other so that we can be like more

11:38virtually integrated I think you know one way or another the consolidation is happening I think it's a great approach and I feel like there's a balance because having too many exchanges they all have low liquidity it's not going to be good for the industry but if there's only one exchange there needs to be healthy competition and you can't you know what

11:59if you want to have an option and you have to go with one option so I feel like there needs to be a balance between you know not having too many exchanges but not just having one correct 100 yeah now you've spoken a bunch about the vertical Integrations and expansions and mergers I feel like this is a great sign for Virgo and just for the Canadian crypto

12:26landscape as well it just shows a healthy sign that you know you're not one of those exchanges that's being forced to be acquired by some other group because you're struggling to get users or trading so congratulations so far on that what else can you tell me about what are the next steps and the strategy behind vertically integrating and expanding them to specific jurisdictions

12:48and how Virgo group is growing sure I think from our side obviously to be to be only a Canadian exchange wouldn't be enough because Canadian Market is good but it's also small to innocence so obviously in terms of the region wise for the well for this year and the next year we'll be focusing on you know Australia United States for a few States but

13:13obviously not for you know across all us but we're going to picking a few states such as California taxes Florida things like that and also we are also focusing on Hong Kong and hopefully we can also bring the Asia perspective to our group that we can be able to connect from the West to the East and making the blockchain ecosystem truly Global because we did actually see there

13:37were some disconnects between Asian counterparties and the Western kind of parties especially after all those disaster happens I think the disconnect becomes wider I think there needs to be some ecosystem players to be able to connect that so that's a radio focus and interesting foreign obviously we are you know I mentioned where we're definitely interesting

13:55cryptography management private public fund that stuff in the line and we're also looking to whether we can enable production technology to fulfill the I would say the public I would say that the security token rail so that we can fractionize real world assets you know so actually the real world asset has been a very popular topic recently to bring worldwide asset on trend is

14:22also certain a trend so I think that's something we're also looking at as well yeah it's interesting with the United States and the way that you guys have to take small steps to get in there it's like there's only certain states that you can go into and it just seems like you know a lot of regulatory scrutiny around the entire the us as a whole you know and crypto exchange is creating

14:47separate entities and only being able to work in certain ways I feel like that connection that you're talking about with Hong Kong and the Southeast Asian exchange movement you know there's a few large Southeast Asian exchanges you'd probably know better than me on you know what the volumes look like but from what I understand the population is huge

15:06they're very interested in trading I feel like that would be a great move an expansion you know probably a much bigger Market than Canada for Virgo correct we also strongly believe that you know to be able to funnel the Asian investors users into a truly globalized platform it's also going to be helpful for learning as well because we can provide the safety

15:33the trust they would need after seeing all these claps right so I think this is what you know it's in exchange from Canada would actually be able to provide and because we're fully regulated we're fully trustworthy so that's part of the component we are becoming a much bigger I guess the influencer and Factor when it comes to the user selections to which provide

16:00us platform they're using it's not only about how much return we're talking about the trade it's also about whether the principle I had over there is going to be safe right over time yeah definitely and now looking forward in terms of the cryptocurrency markets and Bitcoin itself I'm expecting eventually that Bitcoin is going to rise back in price there'll be a lot of more retail

16:25interest and the trading volumes will increase significantly I think it's a matter of when not not if what are your insights or your predictions into will when will that be happening you know the one of the significant events coming up is the Bitcoin having Which is less than a year away in Spring of 2024. are you optimistic about the market you know thriving around

16:52that time or do you have any other insights into what else might be happening in the future yeah for sure like this is a very big event that every ecosystem players oh like it's just a normal users would that be actually looking at so I think in Industry consensus like obviously there's no guarantee the history will replicate the future but Industries

17:15consensus is definitely you know after The Happening there could be some positive price movements and maybe like just by instead of predicting where the future where the people has message but if you look at the past three round of the Bitcoin halfling so typically you know the high of the price in the past happened somewhere around one year after

17:38the happening right so we're probably looking at Tucson 24i that's kind of what we're like we're in the like actually the top could appear if like let's say if the historical would replicate but also not let alone which is happening part we're also seeing very positive Bitcoin ecosystem building right like I remember like when I was attending the Pico Miami

18:04Earlier this year's brain so there's a lot of Bitcoin ecosystem development such as you know Audino Bitcoin inscriptions you know and people want to build some you know decks out of Bitcoin I'm still not sure like how that's going to be really possible considering that 10 minutes for the confirmation time but people are actually working pretty hard attributing applications on

18:29that even though the attractions they made so far is so much smaller the ethereum network but still that does empower Bitcoin a bit more and also and also I think people are now thinking what else like you know what else can be there like after Bitcoin ecosystem can be developed will be able to attract more you know value like more

18:55asset people locked on blockchain at work we have yet to see right so I think you know the next cycle it has to come from you know some particular narratives and we're still waiting for that narrative to be very obvious but you know Bitcoin that ecosystem is definitely one and it's Syrian like Layer Two even now even people talk about layer three you know how how how

19:19how how much more it can bring for the smart cultural perspective right and nft is kind of bad right now but what else can bounce back from nft is also another question yeah I know I'm glad you brought that up Adam I think the there's promise in the expansion of the Bitcoin network and on the you know Layer Two side should be able to remove the 10-minute confirmations I think one

19:45other thing that hasn't been mentioned is maybe more nation states adopting Bitcoin as a national currency which if some of these countries experience inflation or hyperinflation it could come soon I think that there's a short list of countries that may adopt it that could be good for Bitcoin on the global scale I still see Tim Draper and some of these

20:07you know Bitcoin entrepreneurs touting you know Bitcoin is going to be 250 000. I've seen 180 000 predictions for one Bitcoin and yeah I think I believe that it will happen it's a matter of when not if but the time frames always seem to be keep extending and extending and like okay maybe they say by next year and then actually it's 10 years later

20:31I'm curious on your thoughts on you know Bitcoin reaching those prices and if it will ever happen and if you have any idea when it might happen obviously as a registered entity Personnel I couldn't really you know predict features otherwise I may have some issues on a compliance side but you know just if you look at you know the historical trends

21:00so I believed you know obviously every happening does have a narrow or a smaller multiples right like you know the first couple of happening you're looking at really astonishing numbers right it's going up so much percentage but for the recent times I believe it's less than 10 times right so it's you know I don't know actually it's probably more than ten times it's the

21:21first three thousand dollars to 60s or not it's actually about 20 times right so as the Bitcoin price is higher we naturally would actually expect the multiples will be smaller right however this is one key element we have to remember is the Bitcoin adoption rate around the globe is probably low like it's probably less than 10 could be even like five percent so if we get like

21:47more adoption rate we don't even need to worry about like you know whether the people who have crypto now is going to buy more the Bitcoin price is just naturally goes up so I think in the future whether the price is going up or not is it really about adoption and of course also about you know the market conditions whether people would have experiment money to do

22:05it but adoption will be the key good insights and I like how you played that the I'm really optimistic about you know other countries Beyond North America and developing countries really adopting this technology in the same way that you know they don't have such a developed traditional banking infrastructure that they're sort of able to LeapFrog

22:30The banking 2.0 to banking 3.0 because there's not these huge conglomerates that are you know lobbying against it I feel like across North America that's why we've seen the rejection of the Bitcoin ETF for futures for so long because you know the traditional system has has a strong infrastructure over the last hundred years that's trying to protect what they

22:54have and I at the same time I feel like they're they're also jumping in to it but they want to protect both sides they play both sides of the game so I'm optimistic about Central America Latin America especially especially with regards to bitcoin as well not just those countries adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender like we've seen in El Salvador which seems to have

23:17you know positive effects on GDP and overall health of the economy but what I've seen with the with the Bitcoin ecosystem with regards to what you mentioned about layer twos side chains defy ordinals I feel like a very strong presence of Latin America is pushing this Bitcoin narrative forward and I did go to some Bitcoin conferences in Central America and they

23:43you know they have been working on bitcoin smart contracts and side chains for years now so I feel like that could trickle up towards North America as well and have a positive effect so we'll see what happens as the industry continues to grow but I really appreciate your insights on that now we don't have a lot of time left Adam but moving forward with Virgo

24:04you've mentioned you know the expansion and the Acquisitions is there anything else that is up the sleeve of Virgo in you know day-to-day operations or how are we going to continue to move forward into next year and grow in all avenues sure I think this is a question that has been I guess

24:30On top of mind for a lot of blush entrepreneurs and do as entrepreneurs I think they just have to figure out where they're fitting to right so I think with Virgo group so our main focus was to be focused on a centralized piece of the business which is you know trying to be able to be compliant trying to be able to register across different countries

24:52and try to provide all kinds of crypto compliant related Services you know trading Asset Management Insurance potential in the future and also being able to helping on the retail High networks institutions all kind of channels so I think the focus for us would be through you know getting that piece to be bigger bigger and having bigger market shares but also I'm also

25:20contaminating what are some of the Innovative market lines marketing opportunities we can capture so we're paying really close attention to the new trend coming out like can be like we're also considering like whether we're going to launch a like a virgo-backed you know VC fund so it helped you build ecosystems right so that's something we're also considering so I think

25:46it's like it's too early to say like what where exactly we may become but I think just in terms of the vision wise we will only be able to bring crypto to millions or like hundreds of millions people to use it so I think in order to reach that Vision the service or provider have to be like getting to the bar and have to provide consistent values it's definitely not pump and dump

26:11right it has to be like more kind of consistent value driven Services so that's what we're having because you know considerate thinking and obviously we want to be able to also weather all kind of market conditions so that we're not going to be like you know broken like for one major disaster we can be there for the next five 10 20 years right I think that's what will

26:37make us become a potential conglomerate one day exciting to see and you know you're the hope of Canada for all crypto so keep up the Great work hope for the best and prepare for you know if Bitcoin as you mentioned potentially it doesn't do any crazy Rises until a year after the having if that's two years away you know crypto moves fast but also

27:02When you run big corporations like this you know there's cost to pay and you have to sort of expect that Bitcoin couldn't go up and play play Both Sides so I'll be definitely be watching Virgo's expansion because it's quite exciting it's great to see the Canadian exchanges is going International for the viewers that are in Canada

27:25what is the best way for them to test out the platform try it and also for the international users and the expansion you know how can they trade in and see what assets are on Virgo and use it sure yeah so the best way is definitely just go to robot6.ca and just find you know go through the registration process and we recently will actually launch

27:49a very interesting new feature that actually combines a bit of gamification so that's going to reward you know active users reward our VIP clients depending on your trading volumes so that it's a little bit of thumb just to even stay in the app so that feature will be released before the Futures conference this year so it's going to be August like the

28:09first week of August we're actually going to release the whole gamification system to try to retain our customers and also give give them kind of more power to earn even Bitcoin day by day so I think that is coming coming live and just stay tuned hopefully you can you know be able to use this before our new future day is live amazing well all the best moving forward

28:29With that I will leave the links to virgocx.ca and the Virgo group information and the social media links as well in the description box below and I appreciate all your insights into the industry in Canada and internationally and with Bitcoin thank you so much Adam really appreciate it and let's definitely follow up in the near future thank you so much Ashton for having me

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