Description

Xapo Bank is a Gibraltar-based crypto bank and custodian that offers dollar and Bitcoin exposure to global customers - US excluded. This wasn't always the case, however. Xapo previously served the US market until 2021 and pioneered the Bitcoin-backed debit card in 2014. The CEO of Xapo is Seamus Rocca. He has a background in traditional finance after spending a decade at Standard Chartered Bank working in Liquidity and Funding Risk. 

After talking about Xapo, banking, and regulations, Rocca and I spent several minutes on the geopolitical angles supporting the US dollar as global reserve currency. He's bullish Bitcoin, but Rocca seemed highly pragmatic in this conversation. 

Topics covered:

• Rocca's crypto origin story
• Bridging crypto with banking, breaking the fear of crypto in traditional finance
• Xapo starting as a custodian and adding banking as a product
• How Xapo generates a profit
• Making an interface that works for the majority of consumers
• Why Xapo closed its US business, difficult to do business
• American market doesn't need banking but the rest of the world does
• Why Latin America and emerging markets could be the growth opportunity for Xapo
• Xapo's customer is already comfortable with crypto
• US Dollar as global reserve currency
• A lot of Bitcoin is outside of the US
• Do the BRICS nations get a say in how the global currency story changes?
• China's regime and wealth controls make it unappealing to the rest of the world
• Europe is going to be holding the bag on rebuilding Ukraine, which means Euro likely goes lower
• Local currencies in emerging markets will also likely lose steam vs the dollar
• Foreign governments holding US treasuries can't dump US debt without realizing a loss
• Reaction to Europe's MiCA legislation- TLDL: don't get too excited
• The effort to get fully registered and licensed in every US state isn't worth the return
• Xapo userbase has grown during 'Crypto Winter' - "positioned as a flight to safety"

I wish we could have kept on going but Rocca had a hard out and I had to be respectful of his time. Maybe sometime down the line I can bring him on again. I hope you all enjoy this episode. Remember, you can get access to the full downloadable version of every BCR podcast episode by subscribing to my Seeking Alpha research service ⁠⁠BlockChain Reaction. ⁠⁠

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of myself and my guest. None of this is investment advice or a solicitation for you to buy any financial instrument. I am not a licensed investment advisor. This content is for information purposes only. This episode was recorded on May 11th, 2023.