Finance.
Now it's new and improved.
Fortified with the ingredients that investors
love.
On today's episode, easy access to crypto
exchanges.
Are you here guys to buy bitcoins?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Take the line.
They told me, actually, we have a car.
It's a huge black Cadillac.
It was parked on the main street in Moscow.
I was waiting and the door open and I came
in and two big guys, like really bald guys.
They ask me ok how much do you need?
Okay, give us the cash.
They had a special machine to count all the
notes right in the car.
So we take like two percent if you don't wait
for the conformations, what is confirmations?
If you will wait.
When you get these coins, we will charge you
five percent.
Okay.
I ask.
No, no, no.
I will wait for confirmations, so they took
5 percent.
They send me these bitcoins with my public
address and everything.
And then I analyzed all this and thought,
it's so stupid.
For many people, the world of crypto currencies
has been like the Wild West.
One of the worries is how to safely buy and
store large quantities of these assets, especially
for people living in developing markets.
Vladimir Smetanin has already experienced
these issues, which is why he has set up the
brokerage company NewCent to provide easy
access to crypto exchanges.
My name is Vladimir Smetanin.
I was born in Russia, actually at that time
it was Soviet Union.
I started NewCent actually by chance, by coincidence.
When it was 2013, the peak of development
of Russia I think at that time, we won the
Olympic Games and then we have all this Crimea
story, with Ukraine.
So for me of that time, it was absolutely
obvious that to do business anymore in Russia,
it's not worth enough.
Because when we did it and all our investments
moved back, our exchange rate again changed
and my net wealth just decreased three times
immediately.
I had a lot of talks with my friends from
the states or Europe.
Bitcoin is a big thing.
What's your reason?
What's the intrinsic value behind it?
But for people who are living in developing
countries, it's a huge advantage.
That's why like in Zimbabwe, Argentina, Vietnam,
Russia, Ukraine, penetration of bitcoin and
cryptocurrency is much, much higher in comparison
with the states and the U.K..
Later, I started to read more, more, more
about this technology and thought yeah, it's
really cool.
And I started to check what are the institutional
and trustworthy organizations that exist to
make the big deal.
So I decided okay, I will try to contact this
broker.
So now it's a big broker, still big broker
here.
I tried to call them, I tried to write them,
they didn't answer.
So I decided to take a flight.
A flight to Zurich, took the train from Zurich
to Zug, to visit the office.
I ring the bell and they told me, do you have
an appointment?
No, I don't but.
We can't let you in.
We can’t sell you bitcoins.
And I was so surprised actually, it's like
I have one million, I want to buy one million
worth of bitcoin, which at that time was still
only the crazy people could do this.
And they are super busy.
They don't have time for me to buy this.
Then I cross the road, I drink a beer, I was
watching this office and I was thinking, well,
it's my future business.
I use my network, found the guys from PricewaterhouseCoopers
that help me create the company and get the
license, get all the connection and presence
in Switzerland.
And I moved with my family here and I started.
So my idea was to make the movement in and
out very easy.
And the second point was to make it safe by
design, by default, that no counterparty risk
or at least to eliminate it to a minimum.
If you want to invest, you want to make it
transparent.
Yeah, we can provide you this opportunity.
Most people in our target audience in our
Target segment, they drive German or a Japanese
cars, they drink Italian wine, but they still
keep money with the Russian banks or Vietnam
Bank or Kazakhstan bank.
They are sometimes limited with their financial
services, which they get right now.
So we want to give them access.
We provide a consumer service for these guys
and we try to work hard 24/7 to help these
people to get this opportunity.
You want to trade the S&P 500 or when it will
be maybe the S&P 300 or whatever.
You can do it.
You could buy Bitcoin, you could buy gold,
you could buy some real estate, but you have
your money and it's like world recognized.
And this money is somewhere.
And I think Switzerland is the best place
to have money here.
So we want to create this kind of service.
So we are connected to 18 liquidity providers
and if a big client is coming, so a big, big
client is more than five million, because
even if you buy at the moment five million
Bitcoin or sell five million, you will see
that this deal will influence the market.
It will go down or up.
So we'll help the clients to buy and sell
these big amounts.
So we have an order execution system.
We have a very secured way of how to work
with our liquidity providers.
We have a few banks, again, to make it very
transparent and very safe for the clients.
We're really working 24/7 and we try to on
board you work week.
We understand that for people who really invest
significant amount of their capital, they
need to have a trustworthy counterparty.
And a financial company in Switzerland is
like one of the most secured by default counterparty.
That's why when I was choosing where to create
this company, Singapore, Malta or Gibraltar.
Of course, it was the first answer and it
was the right answer to make it in Switzerland.
If we compare how the software market evolved.
Twenty five years ago, it was OK.
Are you IBM or your Apple?
And you'll have all software from one provider
or from another.
And now we're living in a world where we have
Apple but we use Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
and we use Zoom, whatever possible.
So I think with finance at some point, it
will also be free.
And we want to occupy this space which provide
the people from different countries access
for very stable place to have your money and
then do whatever you want with this money.
Experience breeds wisdom and wisdom breeds
vision.
NewCent was born out of Vladimir's incredible
first hand experience of trying to buy Bitcoin
in significant quantity.
Today, he's giving easy access to crypto exchanges
for people in both developed and developing
markets so that they can choose to preserve
their wealth in this exciting financial frontier.
As global debts soar, alternative stores of
value are going to become increasingly popular.
Finance.
Now it's new and improved.
