Today, we’re happy to be joined by Przemysław Kral, CEO of zondacrypto!
Chris: Let’s start with the bigger picture. zondacrypto isn’t just an exchange anymore – it’s becoming a full ecosystem. At what point did you realize that trading alone wasn’t enough?
Kral: It was when we started preparing for MiCA regulation three years ago. We analyzed the market data and saw a brutal truth: pure exchanges are becoming commodities. It is a race to the bottom with fees.
If you only offer spot trading, you compete with everyone. But we have a unique advantage – we are the gateway for fiat currencies in the CEE region. We realized that if we connect the exchange with a debit card, a payment gateway for merchants, and a launchpad, we build a "moat". A user who has his salary, spending, and investments in one app does not leave because fees are 0.01% lower somewhere else. So, it was a strategic decision to switch from a trading venue to a neobank model with a crypto backbone.
Chris: Staying on product strategy for a moment – how do you balance building for beginners through the ZND Platform while still satisfying advanced traders on the main exchange?
Kral: We don't balance it. We separated it completely.
Pro traders need raw data, API access, and complex order types. Beginners need a "Buy" button If you try to put this in one UI, you fail both. So ZND Platform is the clean, banking–like interface, while the Pro exchange is the engine room. Different doors, same building.
Chris: Let’s talk scale. Nearly 180,000 transactions daily is serious volume – what’s been harder so far: attracting users or keeping liquidity healthy?
Kral: Of course, we care a lot about both liquidity and marketing. You need marketing to bring new people to the platform, but you also need deep liquidity, so they can actually trade without bad spreads. They always work together. But the absolute hardest thing about scaling to this level is the human factor. When you grow fast, you need people. You need top developers, support team that answers the tickets in the best way on time. You can’t scale the servers, you have to scale the company structure. That has been one of my biggest challenges these days. But I think we did it – we have really great people here.
Chris: Shifting toward real–world usage – what types of businesses are actually using zondacrypto pay today?
Kral: It comes down to pragmatism. With zondacrypto pay, you can even do your everyday shopping or buy a car in many places. But when it comes to professional use, the types of companies vary widely. We see plenty of software houses, import-export companies, and law firms. There are also entities that simply need to move money across borders quickly. They do not care about 'decentralization' – they care that the transfer takes 5 minutes and costs 1 euro, not 3 days and 50 euros via SWIFT.
Chris: Let’s dive into the ZND token. Many exchange tokens exist mainly for speculation — how do you make sure ZND delivers real, long–term utility?
Kral: There are two key elements here. First, we hard-coded the utility into the platform mechanics. It is not optional. Look at the fee structure and the launchpad access. If you want to participate in projects like TMPL efficiently, you mathematically need to hold ZND. Second, as for the long-term utility, we chose deflationary tokenomics. As long as the exchange makes money, the supply of ZND decreases. It is basic economics: supply shock meets constant demand from active users. No magic, just deflationary tokenomics.
Chris: Now I want to switch gears to TMPL and sports. TMPL connects Web3 with real–world athletics – what made you confident this wouldn’t feel forced or gimmicky?
Kral: It would be a gimmick if we launched a token for a random curling team. But TMPL is the official token of the Polish Olympic Committee. We are a company with Polish roots, now global, but our heart is here. When we sat down with PKOl, we didn't talk about "crypto". We talked about how to bring young people back to the Olympic idea. The problem is that the average fan is aging. Technology is the bridge. There is nothing "forced" about giving fans a piece of ownership in their national team's success. It is the most natural connection I can imagine – national pride meets digital economy.
Chris: Following up on that – how does TMPL avoid becoming just another fan token?
Kral: I will tell you a story. When we finalized the deal with the President of the Committee, Radosław Piesiewicz, we agreed on one thing: this cannot be just a "souvenir". Most fan tokens fail because they offer trivial things, like voting on the bus color. TMPL is different because it is connected to the Olympic cycle – specifically Milano Cortina 2026. We built a model where the token holds value because it opens doors that are normally closed to the public. It is not just a token; it’s rather an element of ‘being’ with all these athletes, and contributing to national sports.
Chris: From your perspective, what does success look like for TMPL: price appreciation, community engagement, or real impact for athletes?
Kral: If TMPL becomes a liquid currency for the winter sports sector, effectively financing the training of future Olympic medalists, that is the real win. If TMPL becomes an inclusive tool for democratizing sports and making it easier to contribute, that is a real win too. I mean, everyone likes green candles, but this project had a much broader vision from the very beginning.
The TMPL token proves that you can bypass the old, rigid sponsorship model and let the community fund success directly. I believe that if we achieve this circular economy between fans and athletes, the price will take care of itself.
Chris: Zooming out a bit – do you see tokenized sports ecosystems becoming mainstream, or is this still an experimental phase?
Kral: The "experimental phase" ended when major US leagues started looking into this. Now we are in the "early adoption" phase, and it is moving fast.
The old model is broken. Sponsors are cutting budgets, TV rights are fragmenting. Sports teams and organizations need new liquidity sources. Tokenization is not just a trend – I believe that it is the only scalable way you can monetize global fanbases in the digital age.
We are just the first ones to do it in a fully regulated, compliant way in Europe with TMPL. But mark my words: by 2028, every major sports federation will have a digital asset strategy. They will either build their own or come to platforms like ours. We are betting on the second scenario.
Chris: And to wrap things up – looking ahead. If we’re sitting here again in 2030, where do you hope zondacrypto stands – and what real–world impact do you want this project to be remembered for?
Kral: Let me explain. I want zondacrypto to be as standard and trusted as a major bank. No more "wild west". In 2030, I want people to use our card to buy coffee and not even think "oh, I am using crypto". I want us to be the bridge that made digital finance normal for millions of people in Europe. That would be a good legacy – and a good thing to do
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