Gordon Meyer on crypto adoption in emerging markets

0:01I'm Ashton Addison from Block West capital for investment pitch media and today on the Crypto Coin Show we have Gordon Meyer head of marketing at mamaRoo Gordon welcome to the show and thank you for taking the time oh my pleasure Ashton glad to be here likewise excited to hear a little bit more about mamaRoo today I've seen you guys around and it looks fascinating

0:21Excited to dive into also Emerging Markets your insight into where cryptocurrency is going and who will benefit from it and how mamaru is helping people as well I would love to just dive into the conversation with a little bit about mamaRoo for those who haven't heard of it and what your team's been working on and then we'll dive into all the details

0:40sure I think you know to tell the memorial story first let's kind of zoom out a little bit and talk about the parent company so AP capital is a crypto focused hedge fund 450 million dollars plus been around for the last decade headed by our CEO Patrick Chu we're in 16 different countries over 20 cities with established offices and importantly Fiat

1:04on-ramps in those countries and so you can imagine it's a pretty natural extension then from that Core Business to expand to the retail Market with a crypto focused exchange and open that up to the people of the in these countries that we do business with again we have those Fiat on-ramps so we already had a leg up versus a lot of the competition in those markets and the decision was

1:25made to build an exchange from the ground up you know a lot of exchanges these days and maybe some of the Traders out there don't know that but it's it's off this off the shelf code a lot of the exchanges are literally line by line of code exactly the same so I'm proud to represent a company that really took the user experience to heart and a mind and built from the ground up

1:45with the end user as the focus so you have this Great Brain Trust of over a hundred professional crypto Traders market makers adding their input into what makes an exchange good combined with you know people like myself in marketing or in product who are making sure that we're building something that's going to be really attractive to Traders around the world especially

2:08in markets like Emerging Markets where there's that deep need to get involved and whereas in let's say a more established place like America where people are more entrenched elsewhere in the world it's a little bit more of a necessity honestly and rather than looking at the sort of like the early adopter right in places where it's a necessity you're going after a

2:33little bit more of a mass population maybe somebody who's less technologically savvy less likely to jump through all the hoops and all the kind of silly things that exchanges make you do in order to just get involved and not necessarily trade Bitcoin but buy it to just get involved and acquire some satoshi's and get into the game and start diversifying your portfolio

2:53wow great intro Gordon and yeah it's fascinating to see and to hear about the growth in the emerging markets and I feel like that's where defy it can be most benefited from from the you know it's not just the people that are in America that are already in the system and they're like oh like this is nice I get to you know finally use this technology myself and take control of my

3:14own finances it's those people that they didn't even have access to sort of centralized Solutions or out of necessity they need to find other ways to get access to Capital and get into cryptocurrency and I feel like when you're in America you know you hear about some of these American exchanges and you see like oh there's a lot of growth there but I feel like you know

3:34the turning point for you know mainstream adoption is going to be outside of that in these other countries and I'm interested to hear on you know out of all these countries that and the parent company and what the exchange is working on where you have any examples of some of these higher growth areas on where you know the exchange is actually functioning well and you know where

3:52we're going to be seeing more defy kind of adoption in different countries sure I mean if you're following the crypto story there's no doubt in my mind that you're looking at the top markets and you know Turkey happens to be in the among the top markets in terms of the population of turkey and their willingness to adopt and there's

4:13good reason for that right unlike in let's say the USA where people are kind of gambling in a sense or they're looking for those big pops in other parts of the world it's very very different turkey's inflation rate has surpassed 83 it's a 24-year high right so this is not necessarily something that is a nice to have this becomes something that is a have to have right

4:33this is where crypto is not a game but a necessity and so it's it's a very different mindset of the trader in a in an emerging market like turkey or say Brazil than it is in the United States or in Western New York right so you know crypto can be a refuge from turkey's High inflation the Steep devaluation of Lira you know even as I'm enabling marketing in that

4:59country the prices for these things are fluctuating so high that I establish a budget and a price for whatever that initiative might be we're going to be at a simple blockchain week and you know the check that I have to write it's changing week over week so you think about that right because a lot of the downside for I think a lot of the people waiting on the sidelines

5:18about getting into crypto is that at the volatility is an issue and you know it depends on your mindset for some Traders the volatility is a feature not a bug the volatility can be very fun the fact that this is a market that's open 24 367. you can trade on New Year's Eve if you'd like you don't need to wait for the tank to open you don't need the

5:38markets to open they're always open and for that adrenaline rush for a lot of us that's a lot that's a big part of the fun I think for certain Nations where the national currency itself is more volatile than Bitcoin you can imagine then you know we say that Bitcoin is digital gold in some places that's really true or at least it's it's safer than the volatility

6:04of their own domestic currency wow that's a great example and it is nice to hear something like you know Istanbul Istanbul blockchain week it's like there's actually it's not just people you know trying to get out of their National currency because of the hyperinflation there's actually you know people building in like web3 and development going on in there as

6:25well to sort of get people involved more than just buying the currency and from from what I've seen in Turkey for example I also saw that you know some of these major exchanges like that are popular in the west like like binance for example they also see these opportunities in the emerging markets and they're also trying to get into turkey and you know get their

6:46piece of the pie to help people get in there but also grow their user base so I feel like obviously there's a lot of potential in emerging markets and you know memory can definitely benefit from that but also all the other changes we're trying to do the same as well it is there you know is that a friendly competition or you know how do you approach these markets that are like

7:07there's ripe for user base but also the other competitors sort of see like hey they also see the same thing but I think one important distinction for Memorial versus the competition is not only do we build the exchange from the ground up with the end user in mind but we've also got people on the ground in these places right so we have an office in downtown Istanbul our customer

7:28care team is there on the ground and so for the attendees for instance coming to Istanbul blockchain week when they come to their our booth they'll be able to talk to sort of like a Genius bar but they'll be able to talk to you Customer Care Professionals from our company to help them either sign up or to deal with any kind of questions or concerns

7:46they may have with their account now I've been in the business for a long time I've been to plenty of events that are sponsored by the larger exchanges and yeah if you really do and I'm on pretty much all of them but if I have a real question for coinbase right who do I ask do I go to a conference with their title sponsorship and everything else am

8:05I able to walk up to a table and say hey I got a question about my account and get the question answered very often the answer is sadly no and I think this is a central issue you know back in the 90s I was involved with the.com Revolution IHOP schwab.com build their first website to do banking on the internet when that was considered to be kind of risky right back in those days

8:26getting things shipped to you from an e-commerce retailer was you had to second guess whether or not you could give away your credit card but what the crypto exchanges are getting wrong is you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater the banks got certain things very very right namely Customer Care customer service I know for a fact with my Fiat bank if I have a problem I

8:47can pick up my phone I can physically walk to a branch I know who I can talk to and I know get my problem resolved I think very often these larger exchanges there's just nobody home you know it's just like a failing of say say Amazon if I have a problem going want to call Amazon there's no phone number there's no one I can really talk to there's the

9:05delivery person who drops off my package and that's about the only human contact that I have with this company and I think when it comes to your finances your financial future and especially if you're in a market where times are tough and people are watching their life savings dwindle day over day having that point of contact having somebody that

9:23you trust is Paramount and I think that's a lesson that the larger players are slowly going to learn I think that they're moving a little slower than a company like ours which is much more Nimble again backed by AP Capital backed by this great hedge fund and able to take a Long View but staff it right yeah great Point Gordon and you know I feel like when you

9:47bring an exchange into these Emerging Markets sort of the onboarding process might be slightly different than you would see in the US I'm curious on you know obviously there's people they're looking at the rank accounts and they're like oh man like our money is getting worth less and less each day how can we quickly get this into an asset that's going to

10:06preserve value and then from there you know can can we make money or how do we not continue losing money right so with Maru how do you onboard people for example in Turkey the same way like from your bank transfer and then you just leave it in Bitcoin and hold it on the exchange or you know can you give an example of how somebody would be able to

10:29preserve their wealth and then maybe make something off of it afterwards sure well I mean first and foremost there's you know a process known as kyc and for those of you out there who don't know the acronym it's not your customer and that's that's an anti-money laundering capability in the financial industry that the Fiat world knows very very well that the

10:50crypto World has self-adopted you know before regulation comes down and Stomps this all down so there are certain requirements that we go through and ask of the user in order to establish their identity and obviously if you want to on-ramp fiat currency from a financial institution in your home nation right where that's automatically helping us establish who this person is and what

11:12their identity is what their home address is and that they're a legal citizen or whatever so those those hurdles if you will for signing up are present in the regular banking industry all of us are used to filling out that big obnoxiously long form when we want to get the credit card this is not that much different I think the question then becomes once once you've onboarded

11:33your bank and funded your wallet with a convenient you know Fiat on-ramp we don't just take you know Bitcoin or crypto as a lot of our competition in the emerging markets do but we also take the local fiat currency and then the user has the option and I think I think any smart Trader is going to hold back a certain amount of fiat currency in their crypto trading account because you want

11:54it there you don't want to delay when you see an opportunity in the market you want to be able to hit that buy button and get involved right so having 100 of your funds in crypto can maybe be a bad thing especially if you want to Arbitrage the volatility that's even inherent in all crypto right but what we're also expanding is our products so it's not just buy sell trade crypto it's

12:16Earned it's staking it's getting involved in other projects like that will benefit the user and then we've also offered I think what's very novel is in nft and an nft in itself is not particularly novel but here I think what is rather than having it be just like a JPEG photograph which is probably the most simplistic use of a really what I

12:40find a really exciting technology and I look forward to the day when documentation I mean I have there's a there's a diploma over my shoulder there's going to be a day when that's going to be an nft right then it's verifiable it's secure so what we are offering is actually an nft with utility it's a VIP membership card that gets you in as an early adopter of Memorial which unlocks

13:02better yield rates it unlocks access to parties we're throwing a big party for instance in Istanbul during blockchain week if you're a holder of this VIP Genesis nft you get automatic access you also get a dedicated customer service representatives and other benefits so you know we do that because at the end of the day our community and our Traders you know it's like a family it's like

13:25you're joining a club right and we're developing that relationship you know if you think about a traditional Fiat Bank you may feel if you've had a relationship for decades or whatever you know you have that or if you're used to going down to the brick and mortar and talking to the staff over there when you open up your account you have that relationship with crypto

13:44exchanges it's pretty easy to move your money from from account to account it's pretty easy to bounce around crypto exchanges and play that game if you want so the question becomes what does make it sticky what does keep people there and first and foremost it's it's the court offering you know where anything that you want whatever it's a trading

14:01specific cryptos or diversifying your portfolio with other crypto products we have it but it's also giving people entrance into a club let's say even getting into our Discord where our Advanced Traders from our parent company are there to offer some Sage advice on trading strategy or to talk to other Traders amongst the community I think that's powerful because I think you know

14:23at the end of the day this always was satoshi's Vision was that this is a Grassroots effort it really does need to start from the people this is about the will of the people and getting together as a collective and in this endeavor and it's no reason why you know the politicians around the world see this as a threat I think that this technology blockchain technology is not just going

14:44after the world of Finance it's not going to stop there politics is next voting is next the abilities of nfts to become your voter identification card is coming and so you know we see governments especially governments and Emerging Markets having a you know somewhat welcoming tentative relationship with it they get it you know erdogan himself has come out and

15:06said that blockchain has real value I think what concerns him is the gambling I would side with that I think it's a very rational position let's not go out there and gamble be smart with your money but that being said I don't think a government really necessarily in this day and age has the ability to stop the will of the people from using their finances in any way that they choose

15:26yeah great point and I like that approach with the nfts and I'm looking forward to seeing you know nfts 2.0 and 3.0 and sort of Beyond just these jpeg Arts to actually have more utility so I'm I'm interested to look a little bit more into momoru's like nft strategy and how you're using that's very cool Gordon now traditionally in the in the crypto

15:53markets we've seen you know Cycles where there's like a huge bull pump and a lot of people get excited and like a lot of new people sort of file into exchanges and the volume goes up a lot and then on the way down a lot of people just start holding or they don't trade and you know there's not a lot of volumes but in this case I feel like it's a

16:13little different with mamaru because at the same time as it's going down there's these National currencies with hyperinflation and it's a little bit different in the Emerging Markets because you know people aren't just going into the exchange for the first time because they see Bitcoin they see Bitcoin rising and they're like oh like I should get into this and sort of catch

16:32this wave they're like my currency is dying like I need to get out and like this is even if Bitcoin is just flat it's better than my national currency so with that said I feel like maybe there could still be an uptake of new users even in a sideways or down Market in crypto because it's really not as bad is what they're used to I'm curious if you've seen that reflection

16:54in Memorial's exchange and you know are you seeing a huge growth despite what the Market's doing in new users going into Memorial I think this is a matter of this is a protective maneuver from people in Emerging Markets right so I think there is a general misunderstanding of crypto I think I think especially where people have a pain point of their local currency being

17:20highly highly volatile and heading towards you know the floor is you got to get smart fast right and so I think a lot of misconceptions for instance is that people believe that you have to buy one whole Bitcoin right you don't need to buy one whole Bitcoin it goes out eight decimal places unlike the US dollar which only goes out too that is a new idea for certain people not

17:40everybody some people listening to this right now they will now learn that right you can buy a dollar's worth of bitcoin if you want So if you think about it if you're risk-averse and let's say you're you're comfortable with I don't know what you're you're think about your your non-essential bill but you pay it anyway your Netflix bill or something like that

18:0015 bucks a month 20 bucks a month can you get in but you can buy 20 dollars worth of crypto on Memorial you can do that and even automate it right so you can set that pull the money from your account in a non-threatening amount something low but get involved and start to accumulate and that's the mind of you know the what we call the trader I think for a lot of people it's not

18:20necessarily trading they don't have four monitors on their desk they're not day Traders they're these are not people executing five plus trades a day this is accumulate total get involved in the exciting projects where you feel like there's going to be a big bump right but this is a an investing strategy that includes all the other things whether that's real estate

18:40or you know holding your regular currency gold you name it buying stocks right but any smart person investor is going to want to be involved and the great thing about crypto is you can get involved for small amounts of money for an exchange like hours where we have no hidden fees we make it very easy for people to get involved and in a country like turkey where

19:03their Republic is turning 100 next year right so we've we've also enjoyed the fact that the government I think not wanting to rock the boat has largely left this area unregularly regulated so they've frowned at the gambling aspect of it and I do too I think that's wise but we haven't seen you know a major Smackdown of crypto and I think with good reason I think I think the

19:27the power in Turkey understands that this is the will of people I like to shut it down now I could could affect the elections happening next year erdogan is up for re-election in 2023. I think we're seeing that around the world whether in other Emerging Markets as well is that when in these Emerging Markets adoption is higher on a percentage basis than elsewhere and I

19:49think the ruling government knows that this is not something they want to necessarily trifle with and get to crack it down too much we have to let the Innovation grow there's a lot of amazing Innovation happening in turkey and walk down the streets of Istanbul you will notice you'll see the ATMs if you want to exchange your local currency there's a lot of really amazing

20:10crypto focused businesses there and it'll be great to see that growth as time goes on especially as turkey celebrates its Centennial incredible Gordon and have fun at that Istanbul blockchain week and some of my friends organizing it and they've been doing it for a long time and I know it's an incredible event so I'm sure that will be fun as well now looking forward

20:33to the next couple years for Memorial and hopefully the next Bull cycle what's part of the strategy or road map for Memorial's growth in getting more users and expanding and expanding out so I mean it's sort of a cliche but it's but it's accurate right this is the time to build them right this is what the we're in this crypto winter I think it's

20:57going to go along for quite a while while more I don't know that we'll see us buying of the crypto winter at all in 2023. That's a dire prediction no one's a bigger fan of this technology than me but I have to be honest with your viewers and listeners I think we're in it for the long haul but this is good news for those who are

21:16developing a product that really does fit the needs of the people right this is these are not imaginary human beings out there that you think about in The Boardroom when you're you're brainstorming a new business this is very high good Market fit all we have time to do now is to expand our offering and enrich its capabilities so that it's much more attractive and

21:40once the crypto winter thaws and we start to see a lot more people jumping in order to take advantage of what they're reading and never on the home home screen of their local news website on the front pages of their newspapers that Bitcoin and crypto is taking off will be ready and we'll be there and more importantly we'll be there too with our own office a brick and mortar office

22:02with our staff with our team right to guide people as they jump in but what I'm seeing right now and it's really encouraging is getting people to sign up in Emerging Markets is pretty easy you know there's a real appetite there and there's no harm in joining more than one exchange and what we're seeing certainly is people that may have already been involved in crypto joining with us just

22:23to see what we have going on I think they're attracted to some of the novel offerings we have in the marketplace you know the membership nft being a great example something that we launched just last month and already has a pretty a major adoption and those those nft holders in Istanbul get to go to a great party get to meet me get to meet the rest of the team and have some

22:44fun and get some advice very cool great insights Gordon and all the best with the grow for mamaru and you know throughout 2023 and let's hope the you know the crises in these in these countries don't get too bad but this the people get into something that can help preserve their wealth before it's too late so I really appreciate your insights

23:06into the industry and into Memorial all the best with the growth and let's follow up in the near future thank you so much