We are on a Mission to Make Cryptocurrency More Accessible and Available for Everyone — Interview with Georgy, Co-Founder of Wirex

What's good in the hood, folks? I'll tell you what. Today my guest is Georgy Sokolov — Co-Founder of Wirex.

Chris: Hi there! Thanks for being here. Wirex is on a mission to make cryptocurrency more accessible and available for everyone — how successful have you been doing this in general?

Georgy: From a modest 2-page website back in 2015 we’ve evolved into a fully functional mobile banking app. Wirex users can pay and get paid in well over 100 traditional and digital currencies – whether it be via crypto rails or bank transfers, or our crypto enabled debit card. In terms of ease of use and overall experience there is virtually no difference whether you want to get paid in euros via SEPA or send your bitcoin anywhere in the world or use the Wirex card to spend your DAI stablecoin on a coffee.

We have over 5M registered users and are the only crypto-native company in the world to have principal membership with both Mastercard and Visa.

Chris: Would you please tell our readers about the main features of you system?

Georgy: Think of it as a combination of a neo-bank and a crypto exchange all in one. You can receive, send, hold, spend and even earn a yield on well over 100 traditional or digital currencies within the same app. You can send and receive SEPA or Faster Payment bank transfers, send and receive crypto, spend any currency available on the app via Wirex card whilst earning cashback on every transaction and saving on FX fees.

There are also several yield generating products allowing you to earn a passive income.

Furthermore, if you feel you are ready to self-custody your cryptocurrency, you can use our non-custodial Wirex Wallet, which also saves you from the pain of remembering and storing your private keys or seed phrases by using biometrics instead.

Chris: What do you think about the current state of crypto? Is it worth for people to still use it?

Georgy: We are currently in the midst of another crypto winter. Not the first and probably not the last one. The same question was asked about Internet when the dotcom bubble burst and everything was crashing, and it was all doom and gloom. Yet, what matters is the fundamental technology and its potential, not the immediate sentiment which can fluctuate depending on various external and internal factors. Crypto still has the potential to fundamentally change and improve the inefficiencies of the existing financial system. So yes, it is worth using. It is not about the immediate price of bitcoin or short term speculation.

Chris: I can see your efforts are focused on De-Fi. Why De-Fi?

Georgy: DeFi is about making financial products like borrowing, lending, exchange more accessible to people. It is also about self-custody and avoiding the reliance on any one centralised entity. Multiple events of 2022 have shown how important those are. This trend is likely to continue, and we certainly want to be part of it.

Chris: On your blog I have seen a few articles in Ukrainian. Are you a Ukrainian company? Tell us about your backgrounds please.

Georgy: We are a British company, headquartered and licensed in the UK. But all of our development, tester, designer and customer support teams are in Ukraine. This has obviously changed in 2022, with a lot of our colleagues moving to various countries in Europe, and we tried to provide them with all possible support in these difficult times, but the core of the technical and product team is still in Ukraine.

Chris: What are some vital lessons that you have learned along the way of building the company?

Georgy: Resilience is very important, especially In a market as prone to bull and bear cycles as crypto is. People are key. Grit often matters more than pure ambition.

Chris: Would you do something differently if you could start everything afresh?

Georgy: Buy Bitcoin when I learnt about it in 2014I first paid attention to it when Dmitry, one of the founders and co-CEO of Wirex mentioned the idea to me. It was around $400, then went up to about $600 and dropped to $200 when we launched. I felt it was the bottom, but in the moment was close to thinking that could be the end of it all. Obviously, it wasn’t in retrospect.

I also remember skimming through the Ethereum whitepaper when it was just about to launch. It seemed too complex and futuristic back then to have the guts to get involved. Another, even bigger, missed opportunity..

Sometimes even when you fundamentally believe in something it takes a lot of courage to stick to it and put more skin in the game.

Chris: What are your you plans for the foreseeable future? 3-6 months.

Georgy: It is a very difficult time for the industry. Not our first ‘crypto winter’ and likely not the last, but probably the ‘coldest’ to date. The next 3-6 months will be all about sharp focus, sticking to the bottom line and making it to the next up-cycle.

Chris: Thanks for a captivating talk. Any last word?

Georgy: Action is better than just a word. Try using Wirex. Even if you know nothing about cryptocurrencies – you can start by just using the card and be much better off than with your high-street bank’s card. Avoid the FX charges, earn cashback on every card transaction. And learn something new along the way – who knows, maybe it is your ‘2014 moment’ now