Lucas Schoch, founder and CEO of Bitfy, which is a “Crypto PicPay”.
A Bitfy, first multipurpose wallet for own custody of cryptocurrencies do Brasil, received a Series A contribution of R$ 13.3 million. The round was led by the American blockchain-focused investor Borderless Capital. And it counted on other investors as the platform Algorand, a Dash Investment Foundation and US angel investors. Thus, Bitfy reached the market value appraised at R$ 120 million.
Cryptotech will use these resources in new technologies, hiring professionals – today there are around 30 – and campaigns to increase the user base, which currently stands at more than 80 thousand. This is the role of Tony Marchese, who has been through the iFood in Mexico and Uber. Recently, the executive went from being just an angel investor in the company to being the full-time Chief Marketing Office (CMO). Bitfy claims that it has already transacted R$70 million.
Lucas Schoch, founder and CEO of Bitfy, told Blocknews that his company is something of a PicPay for cryptocurrencies. And to grow, one of the actions is, for example, partnerships with companies like Cielo, iFood, McDonald’s, Evino and Hering for payments through their portfolio.
Schoch said that when seeking investments, there was a focus on foreign investors, although there are Brazilians who live in the US in the group. “We believe we need players who are exposed to cryptocurrencies as partners. We are looking for funds and companies to support our product”.
In addition, he added, “in Brazil there were no funds exposed to cryptocurrencies and we didn’t want to be a doubt for them. We wanted them to look at us and be sure of what they were doing.”
Schoch is a developer and learned to program from the curious at age 14 and in his father’s company. “I played online and paid in reais until bitcoin appeared. I made a software for mining machines for me at dawn”. Today, he is aware that he is not a good one. That was around 2011, when crypto hit the $1 price tag for the first time (now 16, it’s $49,000).
Two years later, in 2013, when the Bitcoin Market started to operate, a friend reminded him of the crypts. “I thought I was a millionaire.” That year, the price of cryptocurrency began to rise further and ranged from US$ 13 in January to around US$ 800 at the end of the year, reaching more than US$ 1,000 in the period. He went to check and found that he had 6. But he had already spent 1,000 playing. “I even bought a tiger for 400 bitcoins to walk beside me in a game.”
The whole point is that from then on he started to want to understand more about bitcoin. “I looked at that and understood the ‘economics’ (economic science) of a cryptocurrency, as this was easy for anyone who was a gamer. But, I didn’t understand the technology.” Then he made a mining pool, because his was turned off. He built an algorithm and arbitraged until 2017. “With the price boom that year, I decided to build a product”.
Thus came the Warp Exchange, for companies to receive payments in cryptocurrencies. “But no one had cryptocurrency. When I had it, it was in a brokerage or pyramid”. In the first year, even with 1,200 accredited, there were four transactions 3 that gave rise to problems. “I took the technology to see what I could do. I saw that people didn’t have to use crypto in their day-to-day and safely. For that, they need a portfolio and an ecosystem in which they are inserted”.
And thus came Bitfy, which Shoch says is not only a non-custodant cryptocurrency wallet, but also makes integrations for use in payments. “It serves as a platform for investing and for payments on Cielo’s machine, on ifood and on Rappi”, he exemplifies. The wallet key is not on Bitfy. So if the user loses it, he loses the money.
At the same time, this means that cryptotech doesn’t have access to the user’s money. “The big problem with not having custody of cryptocurrencies at Bitfy, due to the lack of regulation, is that they leave the money in a brokerage. That way, if it’s hacked, they lose their money.”
Bitfy started offering bitcoin and a year ago started adding other cryptocurrencies. Currently, it lists the main ones, such as Ethereum (Ether), Celo Dollars (cUSD), XRP (Ripple), Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), Solana (SOL) and Dash (DASH). In addition, it plans to integrate with Transfero’s Brazilian Digital Token (BRZ).
“Bitfy is integrating BRZ, as well as integrating several other cryptocurrencies related to reais. We now offer the use of reais in our application. So, what we have in our app becomes available in currencies that people are used to, there is no volatility,” said Schoch.
Cryptocurrency sales by Bitfy’s accredited partners not only allow the use of digital currencies, but also discounts with the use of vouchers. This, therefore, lowers the purchase price and helps to attract and retain users. However, the idea is also to be a channel for learning to use cryptos. “We are partners for people to enter this world,” says Marchese, the CMO.
Investors already operate or invest in cryptocurrencies
From the investing companies, the Dash Investment Foundation is one of the largest global payment media and blockchain network companies. It also has its own token, from Dash. Borderless recently raised a second $500 million fund to invest in companies developed in the Algorand ecosystem. Bitfy will use Algorand, which has the Algo token and which is the BRZ’s supporting infrastructure.
“This investment came to drive the democratization of this ecosystem, which is still so obscure for most people. Our goal is to bring knowledge to everyone so that they acquire confidence in dealing with cryptocurrencies, offering users total autonomy in their portfolio and transforming the mindset that it is necessary to keep their money in a brokerage. We want to stay in the lead and become the gateway to the world of decentralized finance (DeFi)”, reports the CEO.
“We are excited to support Bitfy in its vision to allow all Brazilian users access to this new digital economy. Thanks to the integration with Algorand, blockchain payments and financial services will become a catalyst for innovation in the country,” said David Garcia, CEO and managing partner of Borderless Capital.
According to Rodrigo Ambrissi, Rodrix Digital, supervisor of the Dash Investment Foundation, “the partnership between Dash Investment Foundation and Bitfy fits like a glove. That’s because Dash focuses on payment due to its low rate usability and speed. A platform like Bitfy makes total sense for the Dash ecosystem as it has several integrations and possibilities for buying and selling using credit card and payment at various establishments through Cielo’s payment processor”.