cryptocurrency

BLOCKTV: Interchange Founder is Setting the Stage for Institutional Investors in Crypto

March 27, 20190

“Satoshi planted the seed of Bitcoin in the absolute moment of despair in the 2008 financial crisis and that wasn’t a mistake. That was a clear shot across the bow of central banks,” Dan Held, the co-founder of Interchange said in an interview to BLOCKTV.

Held, who has been part of the San Francisco crypto community since its earliest days, is currently busy laying the groundwork for the entrance of the big institutions that are eyeing the space.

“I don’t think we’re going to see the herd. I think we’re going to see more of a trickle than a flood right away. And those institutions are looking for specific types of foundation that has been laid out for them in order to come into the space,” he said.

“We are seeing different components of that being built. Interchange is one component of that around reconciliation and reporting. You’ve got other components like custody that is being built by Bitgo, anchorage and others. And then you have some of the bigger players coming in like Bakkt and Fidelity. So I think we’re seeing really cool, really forward-thinking companies coming into the space and building the necessary institutional framework.”

STAGE IS SET FOR INSTITUTIONAL INFLUX

When asked when the institutions will take the plunge, Held framed it in terms of a play. “The backdrop has been set. The actors are in place. The orchestra is in the pit. Now, all it takes is the conductor to begin the show,” he said. And what will get the show started, according to held can be a range of things, from the Bitcoin halvening in 2020 to the anticipated approval of the Bitcoin ETF by the SEC.

Held said he remains extremely Bullish, despite the ‘Crypto Winter.’

“I got into Bitcoin in 2012, with the vision that it would be gold 2.0. and I think it’s largely been executed along that roadmap,” Held said. “we are on the verge of seeing what happens when institutional money, the biggest amount of money in the world when they start to worry about things that bitcoiners have been worried about for almost a decade now.”

He went on to say that as monetary policies continue to degrade and populist leaders continue to get elected, people will look at safe places to park their money and that bitcoin is much better suited for that purpose than gold.