Kris Marszalek is the Co-Founder and CEO of Crypto.com, which he established in 2016. Crypto.com is a pioneering payments and cryptocurrency platform seeking to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency. A passionate entrepreneur Kris has tremendous experience and expertise in building companies from scratch and helping them reach the optimum levels of success. He co-founded prominent businesses like Starline Polska Sp. z o.o., YIYI Hong Kong Limited, and BEECRAZY. He has also led senior executive positions as COO and CEO at iBuy Group Limited and Ensogo respectively.
CryptoNewsZ: Please tell us about yourself and your journey so far. What attracted you towards the crypto space?
I’m Kris Marszalek, Co-Founder and CEO of Crypto.com. I’m a lifelong company builder, having spent almost 20 years in company building. Crypto.com is my fifth business; before that, I’ve twice grown companies from $0-$100 million in revenue.
I enjoy building products to solve real problems — our team founded Crypto.com as we saw the huge potential it has in terms of giving everyday consumers more power over their money and data. We have a comprehensive suite of financial products to provide a viable alternative to traditional bank services. Our mission is to put cryptocurrency into every wallet.
Kris Marszalek
CryptoNewsZ: Crypto.com strives to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency. How are you progressing to achieve that?
We’ve just announced that we are shipping our MCO Visa Cards to customers in the US. The cards will enable our users to spend cryptocurrency at over 40m merchants worldwide, without any monthly, annual, or transaction fees. We also have an app that ties everything together – think of it as a super crypto app – it takes care of all of a user’s cryptocurrency needs, covering everything from saving, investing, to spending:
– Buy crypto at the true cost
– Earn interest up to 8% p.a. on your crypto (Crypto Earn)
– Instant crypto loans by depositing crypto as collateral (Crypto Credit)
– Fiat support (bank transfer and credit card)
– Send crypto instantly and for free
– Build an instant crypto portfolio that automatically trades based on market trends (Crypto Invest)
– Track market performance
– Coming Soon: Pay with a QR code (Crypto.com Pay – See Below)In addition to consumer products, we are also building a native blockchain, Crypto.com Chain, that powers Crypto.com Pay. This does two things:
– For customers, they can pay for goods and services with cryptocurrency by scanning a QR code (and at the same time receiving generous cashback rewards);
– For merchants, Crypto.com Pay offers the option to get paid in any crypto without being exposed to its inherent volatility (while enjoying greatly reduced processing fees and near-instant settlement).
– We currently have over 600,000 customers on the platform. It’s a small but very passionate community. We’ve got a super useful, sticky product, so the platform as a whole is growing at a very healthy 20% month over month. Our focus is to continuously build, test, roll out, and improve our products to give people the ultimate user experience. By playing our part, we hope to see 1 billion people using crypto globally.
Kris Marszalek
CryptoNewsZ: Crypto.com recently added $ZRX, $HOT, and $ATOM as an option for the wallet users. Are there any plans to add some other tokens?
Yes, we currently have 40+ coins listed and more on the way.
Kris Marszalek
CryptoNewsZ: The partnership with Enjin coin focuses on what strategy? What developments have taken place after the partnership?
We partnered with Enjin to enrich gamers’ experiences, online and offline. Enjin has the largest online gaming platform, with over 250,000 gaming communities and 20 million registered gamers. The gaming community has got massive potential for the adoption of cryptocurrencies, and we can also enable users to spend their crypto in the real world using the MCO Visa Card.
Kris Marszalek
CryptoNewsZ: There are two key products of the Crypto.com MCO visa card and Crypto.com Pay. Do they both serve the same purpose? How can they be differentiated?
The MCO Visa Card is paired with the app to allow users to easily convert cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies before spending at merchants. With Crypto.com Pay, we allow both users and merchants to pay and be paid directly in any crypto, directly, for free.
Ultimately, both MCO Visa Card and Crypto.com Pay go hand in hand, serving the same purpose of putting cryptocurrency into every wallet and accelerating the global transition of cryptocurrencies.
Kris Marszalek
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CryptoNewsZ: Currently, which is the most promising cryptocurrency market: Malta or South Korea?
We can’t compare apples and oranges, but we believe both Malta and South Korea are promising crypto markets. On the one hand, South Korea is a market with huge potential in APAC. It is so far ahead of other countries in terms of percentage of people who use or people who are into crypto. In 2017, three out of every 10 salaried workers in Korea had invested in cryptocurrency. We actually see real consumer interests in digital currencies. On the other hand, Malta has become the blockchain island and has direct access to the EU market. It also has a government that is committed to blockchain and crypto development in the country.
Kris Marszalek
CryptoNewsZ: Please brief us about Paxos Standard PAX listing? Would you like to tell us about how it is serving its purpose?
Stablecoins play a critical role in the adoption of cryptocurrencies. This is important to Crypto.com as we strive to accelerate the world’s transition to cryptocurrency. We listed Paxos Standard’s PAX stablecoin as it’s the world’s first regulated stablecoin and a coin that is designed specifically to provide cryptocurrency markets with stability, which helps enhance user confidence. Our users can also easily redeem Paxos for USD and transfer it out to their bank accounts.
Kris Marszalek
CryptoNewsZ: How will crypto.com revamp its platform for the payment of cryptocurrency after the license of Intel?
We won’t be revamping as we have, from day one, baked security into our products. With the license, we will continue to build high performance, secure, and privacy-protected financial services for customers.
Kris Marszalek
CryptoNewsZ: What would you prefer to do if you were not in the crypto space?
Can’t imagine not being in the crypto space! We’re on a life-long mission to put cryptocurrency and every wallet and give people back the control over their money, data and identity.
Kris Marszalek
CryptoNewsZ: According to you, what is the future of Bitcoin? Where is it heading to?
Bitcoin is the best money we’ve ever had. As one of the US Congressman put it recently: it’s an unstoppable force and those who tried stopping it have all failed. It’s destined to become the ultimate store of value and there will be countless other use cases built on top of the same technology that powers Bitcoin. Recent moves by large players like Facebook will only accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin.
Kris Marszalek
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