Bridging novice and professional trading: An interview with Matrixport CEO John Ge

As crypto becomes widely adopted and accepted, the need for a secure and robust digital assets management platform that connects new traders and investors becomes essential.

Matrixport offers crypto financial services to its users and aims to bridge the gap between novice traders and professional investors.

John Ge is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Matrixport, the largest cryptocurrency financial platform in Asia with $10 billion of assets under management and custody. The fintech start-up provides a one-stop solution across lending, custody, spot, and leverage trading. Previously, John worked as a Company Director and Head of Investment and Financing at Bitmain Technologies.

In the conversation with John Ge, we discuss the Matrixport platform, their products, Series C funding, and the future of the platform.

1. Can you tell us a bit about Matrixport? 

Matrixport is where both institutional clients and individuals find it easy to get more from their crypto. As a one-stop digital assets financial services platform, we offer a suite of crypto investment structured products, so users can earn yield from their crypto.

We cater to most crypto holders, who do not trade on a daily basis but want to generate passive income beyond just ‘buy, hold & sell”.

2. What’s next for Matrixport after your recent Series C funding and hitting unicorn status?

Unicorn status has propelled us to an exciting phase of growth. We intend to push out new ways to invest crypto and earn yields in a safe and sustainable manner. We do this by further investing in research and development to enhance our offerings and security. 

Our robust product innovation-driven approach has enabled us to be an industry first-mover and ride the growth wave in DeFi. We defined a new category with our ground-breaking dual current product in 2019 and we were first in class with our recent ETH2.0 staking product launch that balances liquidity with yields of up to 10 percent.

We will also continue to optimize for an even greater user experience that’s readily available for the crypto-curious to securely invest their crypto.

Lastly, we are looking to expand our team. Currently, we have 230 people across 8 cities, and we aim to increase our team size to 270 by the end of this year. 

3. What is your company’s funding strategy? Does Matrixport have any more fundraising plans in the coming 18-24 months?

In our Series C round, we had partners of DST Global, a world-class technology investor, including K3 Ventures and C Ventures representing Asia’s most successful and established entrepreneurs. With their support and network, Matrixport will make a deeper impression as the adoption of crypto widens. 

Depending on growth, we may conduct another round of fundraising within the next 24 months. We will be keen to attract strategic investors from traditional financial institutions and large private equity firms.

4. What are Matrixport’s main value propositions when it comes to other similar projects in the space? What is your edge over them?

Other industry players provide generic products that are typically fixed income, with fixed yields, and fixed terms. Additionally, investors don’t know how their crypto is specifically used to generate returns nor by what type of underlying financial instrument.

Matrixport takes a different and differentiated approach to assist users to generate passive income and grow their wealth. We provide a product matrix based on distinct underlying assets. For example, if you invest in our fixed income product, it means that your funds are used just for over-collateralized loans to generate yield and you won’t be exposed to DeFi risks.

Through our app platform, we let our customers understand the risks and yields across our suite of crypto investment products. This empowers them to construct a tailored portfolio based on their risk appetite and yield expectations.

5. Who are Matrixport’s customers? Does the company plan to enter any new markets and why?

We currently have USD10 billion of assets under management and custody. Apart from institutions, our AUM clients are high net worth in crypto. We plan to expand our user base into crypto-curious high net worth individuals and family offices.

These segments have different considerations, such as compliance and fiat on-ramp, which we will continue to work on.

6. If you had to sum Matrixport’s ultimate vision, what would that be?

We believe that blockchain presents a great opportunity to construct an entirely new financial network. It is making possible what was previously and reshaping our global financial ecosystem by addressing gaps that stem from poor financial infrastructure and meeting underserved needs, with the promise of efficient universal access at lower costs. 

With wider acceptance and adoption as an asset class, crypto will be expected to generate yield, no different from other portfolio assets – dividends from equity, coupons from bonds, and rental income from real estate properties. Ultimately, blockchain-powered networks will not only transact and settle native crypto assets but also fiat liquidity such as bonds, gold, and real estate, etc. 

We hope Matrixport will be the preferred financial service player with a stellar reputation. A company that makes important contributions that creates value for all stakeholders of this new financial system, as it takes form and mature. 

For more information check out the Matrixport website.

Disclaimer: This is a paid post and should not be treated as news/advice.