After the phenomenal rise of the FTX crypto exchange came the deep fall in October. The trading platform collapsed like a house of cards and declared bankruptcy. There is a suspicion that FTX has embezzled tens of billion US dollars of client funds. “It hurts when a player goes bankrupt,” says Simon Grylka, CEO of Cryptonow Group AG. “The FTX bankruptcy demonstrated the weakness of centralized crypto exchanges, which contradicts the decentralized organized blockchain principle.”
Only those who have crypto are safe
This shows once again that securely storing coins off the stock market works. On crypto platforms like FTX, Bitcoin and Co. no one who buys it actually owns the coins. It is held by the respective exchange and is held and managed there for customers. If you want to be on the safe side, keep them at your own risk.
“Not your key, not your coin” is a popular phrase in the crypto scene. This also applies to Cryptonow. “Everyone who buys cryptocurrencies from us gets them directly and physically with our coupon cards,” Grylka says. “Bitcoins are stored on the card and therefore in the hands of the owner.”
Keep Bitcoins safe and secure
“Our goal is to make it as easy and safe as possible for Swiss people to get started with cryptocurrencies. Whether it’s to save money, as a gift, or just to try it out,” says the general manager.
“Even if our company no longer exists, the coins on the card are safe,” says Grylka. A gift card is an offline wallet that keeps currency safe and secure. After the purchase, the Swiss franc amount on the coupon card can be exchanged for cryptocurrency at the real-time exchange rate on a PC or smartphone. The coins are then sent directly to the card.
Coming out of the crisis stronger
The FTX scandal has thrown the crypto industry into turmoil. But Simon Grylka is confident that he will survive this. “We’re in a deep recession right now, the bad companies are weeding out, and the resilient ones are coming out of this crisis stronger.” And more: “This process is repeated approximately every four years in our industry. But even at this stage we are seeing a high level of interest in cryptocurrencies in Switzerland, so we have managed to record over 300 percent annual growth in the product.”
Grylka firmly believes that cryptocurrencies have a future. “We are facing a real change in the financial system. Our currencies, as we now know them, can be printed and reproduced over the air, so they are constantly losing value,” said Cryptonow CEO.
The situation is different with Bitcoins. “There will never be more than 21 million bitcoins worldwide,” Grylka explains. “Like gold reserves are inherently limited, bitcoin is mathematically limited. This scarcity gives Bitcoin its value.”