- Julian Sawyer, who co-founded Starling Bank, is the chief executive of crypto exchange Bitstamp.
- Sawyer told Insider about the expansion plans he has for the world’s oldest active crypto exchange.
- He also shared three types of cryptocurrencies with real-world use cases that he’s excited about.
As a 20-year management consultant-turned co-founder of a digital bank, Julian Sawyer does not seem like the kind of person destined to run a crypto exchange, but he sure has all the critical skills to propel it to the next level.
In May 2015, Sawyer cofounded UK-based Starling Bank and served as its chief operating officer until 2019 when he joined Gemini – the crypto exchange launched by the Winklevoss twins – as managing director of Europe.
“It was an amazing experience for four and a half years,” Sawyer said in an interview. “I learned everything from how to get a banking license, how to get your first customer, how to build the product, how to make it safe and secure, and everything else.”
Then one day, he got a call from a headhunter about an opportunity he could not refuse – to become the chief executive of Bitstamp.
Founded in August 2011 by Nejc Kodrič and Damijan Merlak in a Slovenian garage with two laptops and 1000 euros, Bitstamp was pitched as a Europe-focused alternative to the then world’s largest bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, which collapsed in a massive hacking scandal.
Despite having suffered similar but less severe hacking disruptions, Bitstamp has emerged as the world's longest-running active crypto exchange.
'A dangerous distraction'
While the public debut of Coinbase has paved the way for other industry players, Sawyer thinks that pursuing an initial public offering now would be "a dangerous distraction" for Bitstamp.
"We've got a lot to do within the business and there's a lot to do within the industry," he said. "For us to go down the IPO route right now would be a distraction."
Instead, Sawyer has laid out a 3-part growth plan for Bitstamp.
Establishing a regulatory framework for Bitstamp in different geographies is key to him. The exchange obtained a BitLicense in 2019 and is applying for a license with the Monetary Authority of Singapore in Asia, he said.
He also plans to further build out the exchange's product set too, but is adamantly against listing altcoins without proper due diligence.
"We struggle with the exchanges that are not under the regulatory framework, we struggle when they are just listing hype rather than quality," he said. "I do feel that we're going to have this divergence in the industry between those that are compliance-first and those that are not, unfortunately."
The culture of the firm is another thing he wants to work on. "For me, it's about ensuring that we take a lot of what we've learned in terms of how fintech works, how decision-making works, how focused we are on the customer and customer experiences, and ensuring that is embedded in the whole of our organization," he said.
Cryptocurrencies with real-world use cases
Sawyer candidly admits that he never had a eureka moment when it comes to bitcoin, but his passion for fintech prompted him to dabble in it in 2017.
"I opened up a series of accounts with a whole range of different companies to learn about bitcoin," he recalled. "And I'm geeky enough to think things like onboarding flow and payment rails are interesting."
While bitcoin has dominated headlines, Sawyer has been most intrigued by cryptocurrencies with real-world use cases.
For example, he points to stablecoins as a potential solution for cross-border payments, remittances, and supply chain finance, which tend to charge hefty intermediary fees and take days or weeks to complete.
Bitstamp's partnership with bitcoin gaming wallet Zebedee is another case in point. Zebedee, which recently integrated its wallet with the exchange for transfers and payments, allows users to win and transact in bitcoin in games such as Counter-Strike.
Sawyer believes that using bitcoin in this context not only boosts security and reduces fees for both computer game manufacturers and players but also incentivizes a larger audience to participate in crypto.
"What that is doing is bringing a whole bunch of other people into the world of cryptocurrencies, who didn't want to buy bitcoin for its asset value but because they wanted to play computer games," he said. "For me, this is really exciting."
Similarly, he is also impressed by tokens such as the Basic Attention Token (BAT) and AudioCoin (ADC).
BAT is the native token that powers the Brave browser, which is a blockchain-based advertising platform that is designed to reward users for their attention while allowing advertisers to deliver targeted ads to viewers. AudioCoin is a token that aims to reward fans and artists directly by bypassing the centralized business model that relies on Apple music and Spotify.
"I think that is where it becomes really attractive," Sawyer said. "We are solving problems and getting to a whole bunch of people."