Simon McLoughlin (CEO, Uphold) and Ian Andrews (CMO, Chainalysis) discuss Uphold's self-custody wallet, seamless trading between assets, partnership with Ripple for cross-border payments, regulatory landscapes in different jurisdictions, and Uphold's global expansion plans.
Uphold introduces Vault, a self-custody wallet that combines security and ease of use, making it convenient for users to hold and trade digital assets.
Uphold's unique trading infrastructure allows for seamless trading between different assets and has attracted partnerships with reputable projects like Ripple for cross-border payments, positioning Uphold as a reliable infrastructure provider in the crypto industry.
Deep dives
Uphold's Solution: Easing the Complexity of Self-Custody
Uphold introduces Vault, a self-custody wallet that combines security and ease of use. With Vault, users have control of their keys and can trade with just one click. Traditional self-custody wallets often pose challenges in usability and security, making it difficult for the average person to operate a crypto wallet. Vault addresses this issue by offering a multi-sig wallet where users hold two keys and Uphold holds one. In case of key loss, users can still access their funds with a replacement key. Additionally, Vault allows easy trading, eliminating the need to rummage through hardware wallets or other wallets when users want to trade.
Uphold's Journey Through the Bull and Bear Markets
Uphold, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges, has experienced multiple market cycles, including the 2017 and 2018 bull and bear markets. During those periods, the company saw significant growth in user numbers and transaction volumes. Uphold's unique trading infrastructure, with servers located globally, enables ultra-low latency and deep liquidity. They support multiple assets, including digital assets, precious metals, and carbon credits. Uphold's robust control frameworks and commitment to transparency have helped retain banking partnerships and attract institutional interest in their B2B services.
Uphold's Approach to Token Listing and Trust
Uphold takes a careful approach to token listing, ensuring they support projects with genuine communities, open-source code, and sound token economics. Their listing committee, consisting of various departments within Uphold, rejects around 70% of token proposals. Uphold's focus on trust and security has attracted partnerships with reputable projects, such as Ripple's Ripple Payments, where Uphold helps facilitate cross-border money transfers for multinational companies. Their commitment to compliance, fraud prevention, and strong governance has positioned Uphold as a reliable and trusted infrastructure provider in the crypto industry.
Regulatory Landscape and Uphold's B2B Focus
Uphold observes different regulatory landscapes across the US, Europe, and the UK. While European regulations, particularly MICA, provide a progressive framework, regulatory clarity in the US is still evolving. Uphold sees the UK as a crypto-friendly destination, witnessing advancements in legislation and attracting crypto businesses. Uphold aims for the majority of their revenues to come from B2B payments by 2026. They are focusing on expanding into new markets like Canada, Brazil, Australia, Turkey, and Vietnam. Uphold plans to serve as a white-label infrastructure provider, enabling third-party firms to leverage their trading architecture and compliance frameworks.
You wouldn’t expect a centralized crypto exchange to be launching a self-custody digital asset product, but Simon McLoughlin (CEO, Uphold) speaks with Ian Andrews (CMO, Chainalysis) on the podcast to talk about VAULT, a self-custody wallet that aims to make holding digital assets easy and convenient for users.
Simon shares the growth and challenges Uphold faced during the 2017 bull market and emphasizes Uphold's unique trading infrastructure, which allows for seamless trading between different assets.
He explains the rigorous token listing process and the partnership with Ripple to facilitate cross-border payments and their efforts to attract large banks as partners.
Simon also covers the various regulatory landscapes in jurisdictions they operate in like the USA, Europe and the UK, as well as global expansion plans to Canada, Brazil, Vietnam, and Australia.
Minute-by-minute episode breakdown
(2:07) - Simon's first encounter with cryptocurrency and joining Uphold during the 2017 crypto boom
(6:58) - The challenging process of listing new tokens
(9:23) - Uphold's unique "anything to anything" trading experience
(12:17) - Partnership with Ripple for cross-border payments
(16:27) - Encouraging signs with banks approaching crypto partnerships after industry shows resilience
(19:50) - Different crypto regulatory approaches by the US, Europe and UK
(21:45) - Introduction of Uphold VAULT for easy self-custody
(25:13) - Future prospects for the industry and Uphold’s global expansion plans
Related resources
Check out more resources provided by Chainalysis that perfectly complement this episode of the Public Key.
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