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Will Crypto Exchanges Replace Banks and Bring Stock Markets to 24/7 Trading? ft. Vugar Usi CEO, MEXC · Hardwired by AlphaWire

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, hello everybody.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of Hardwired.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: I am joined here with Vugar, the CEO of Mexic.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for coming on today, Vugar.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, Harry.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for having me here.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to interview.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: So the title of today's episode is Will Crypto Exchanges Replace Banks and Bring Stock Markets to 24-7 Trading.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: But before we dive into the questions we have, I always like to give people a little opportunity just to tell me a little bit about who they are, kind of how they've got to where they are today, maybe how they found crypto.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's always a fun question to ask.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: So please uh fire away.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Likewise, I'm very excited to be here.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a perfect episode because it literally reflects who I am and what I'm doing at the moment.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: For the background, I am a trained economist.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: I did my PhD in economics and ended up consulting at Bain with all these like a big traditional financial institutions.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm passionate about giving an opportunity to participate in finance to people who are unbanked.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And issue of unbanked were the core reason I moved to crypto starting 2016 when I first time you know touched the crypto 2019 onwards.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: I've been running crypto companies, and today I'm the CEO of Mexico.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: We proud to serve 40 million users, and we address around 170 plus markets globally, which makes us one of the primary touch points whenever people decide that they want to dip their toes into crypto.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you for that explanation.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: A real veteran of the crypto industry.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: There's not many people that have been here 10 years, so I'm sure I'll have some interesting answers to the questions I've got prepared.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: The first thing I want to dive into is crypto exchanges started as platforms for buying and selling digital assets, but they increase in the offering services traditionally associated with banks.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Do you see exchanges eventually becoming the primary financial platform for the next generation?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: My idea of future of finance is that banks doesn't have to disappear for banking apps to disappear.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe soon we are getting into the place where banking apps will disappear in a way we know them.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because today, if you open your bank app relatively today, if you open today a Mexis app, you will see services that are quite similar.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's earned products, there's opportunities to invest in gold and silver, tokenized stocks on our case, real stocks on our case, and also similar stock products in the banks.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Also, banks today offer a lot of crypto assets, especially for those joining us today from Europe.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: All these new banks like Revoluta and Monzos definitely bring this opportunity at your fingertips.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually, car products, right?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Banks were very strong on providing an opportunity, not just what we do with our money, but how we decide to spend it through the car systems.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And today at Mexi we offer the same.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually, I believe in a longer run, with AI coming into the place and regulations actually building a better framework, we are entering an era where who holds your money isn't much relevant.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is much more relevant who spends or makes that spending decision.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Today it is a user, but also I have a bold prediction that in very near future it will be AI.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And with AI, we will be having much more this discussion because it wouldn't matter if Mexi, if bank, if broker is in the picture.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: It is about who brings the most value.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I like to call it answer first finance.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are not answer first, today we are intent first.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: We want to buy car, we wanna spend money, we wanna pay for a service.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: But in near future, AI will decide for us what is the best way to do that, what is the best account to do that, what is the best return on investment, or maybe which card is better if you are paying for your burger that has a bigger cashback?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, kind of following on from that, I would say with kind of this intent versus uh was it advice um kind of user experience that you're talking about.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: If somebody can trade, save and invest and transfer money globally through a single crypto platform, what role will traditional banks play in that future?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Today banks run on loyalty, right?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us use one bank, maybe two, but we don't use all banks available to us.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't know what are the rates or competitive rates.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: What, in my opinion, the technology will enable the user to benefit the most is that the loyalty will go to the second place and the maximum benefit will become the ultimate showstopper.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: The way that today, if you have let's say 100 pounds or dollars or euros you want to invest, the AI can go and look into all available products and bring you the best.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it can also tell that, you know, first 60 days, X bank gives you the biggest return on investment, let's say 15% annual return.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then you can just keep your money there like first 40 days and then take it, move to another one to capture the most value.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: And that is where the game changing happens.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I can give you a great example on our case, we are at the forefront of zero fee trading.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the people who come today to Mexie, they come for two key reasons.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: First is because if they want to trade, they come and enjoy zero fee trading, which is the lowest among all our competitors.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you today decide to get one of the cashback cars that we offer, we offer up to 10% cashback capped in$800, but which makes us one of the best places to spend.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And imagine if instead of us being loyal to single bank and single card, we could have access to all banks at the same time and all cards at the same time.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: This way we could maximize our return.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this way, not necessarily players will disappear from the market.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: This will be most competitive market, and then everyone will have its own certain way where we compete, and user will be able to maximize.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that will bring a very big challenge to the banks that has been so many years running on a factor that uh the bank's users and customers uh have a loyalty to the bank, and they will choose within that bank's offer of the best choice rather than within the whole catalog of every bank within that jurisdiction available.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And also, when we think now big, thanks to tokenization and blockchain as a technology, we don't even have to limit ourselves to the let's say banks of our country.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: We can literally bank with everyone around the world, and that is the beauty how the more and more user centricity will be thanks to this tokenized economy, whether it is powered by AI or blockchain as a technology.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's something I've I've kind of thought about a lot, especially where I'm I'm from.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: There was um quite a famous film called The Bank of Dave, around how in the UK, for very, very long time it was almost impossible to set up a new bank.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: And he kind of proved that story.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: We won't dive into it too much.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: But this idea that for a long, long time banks were kind of almost unimpeachable, they were beyond reproach, that you couldn't really break away from them and you didn't have that much choice unless you were at the kind of very high end of the wealth spectrum.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: So, in light of that, kind of looking five to ten years ahead, do you think the distinction between a crypto exchange, a bank, and a stock broker will gradually disappear?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: It will disappear in a way that each of these players will need to reinvent the way they operate today.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: For me, for example, brokers, right?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Today at MakeSe we offer real stocks, which literally does everything that your regular broker does, and you can eventually buy that stocks using USDT or stable coins, and then take back to your broker, right?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is the way, because we kind of took that opportunity from the brokers, then brokers will be able to offer more opportunities to maximize the lifetime value of their particular users.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Same with banks, we have already seen how banking uh reinvented itself through the new banking, and today they offer more and more products, which is an again an amazing advancement.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: But there's one key point that we always, when we talk, uh, in my opinion, more and more this technology advances.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: It is not about going and fighting for an existing customer, but it's more about tapping to the new customer.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Almost half of the world's eligible population doesn't have a bank account.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's more than 1.4 to 1.7 billion people who are unbanked.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're not unbanked because they're gatekeeped, they're unbanked because in traditional banking settings, they're not a profitable customer.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is not profitable for a bank to service them because banks have a lot of uh cost, whether they're setting up a licenses, building offices, serving the clients directly, and that cost doesn't allow them to service half of the world's population.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if through the modern technology, thanks to blockchain technology, thanks to AI and thanks to what's available there, us, let's say, the players that have been around only 8, 10, 15 years through the crypto, we can go and service a whole new uh generation of the customers that never had this opportunity before.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And in my opinion, it is not necessarily crypto exchanges or exchanges in general uh competing versus banks for an existing customer.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's about how we can bring a new customer and make the new customer enough money that they will be profitable.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a very big challenge for us as an exchanges to solve.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And while we solve this question, it means every other customer will become much more valuable to us, and it will be much profitable for us to serve an existing customer who already banks with XYZ bank because it means they are above that unbanked threshold.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: They already make their bank enough money.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And in the opposite, banks will be needing to compete for these new customers we bring to the market, and eventually every like the pie will grow bigger and more and more people will participate in global economy.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And imagine the people who've been in, you know, sub-Saharan Africa or Indian subcontinent that never had a bank account.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now they have a crypto account, they have some sort of money in them, and then they want to make a best decision using AI, using friends and family, using some sort of recommendation, and they decide to go to sign up for, I don't know, SpaceX IPO, and eventually they make more money.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think that is just building this huge global economy that is fueled by the speed of the money.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the speed of money or velocity of money will be the next big answer to most of these questions that traditional banking just can't solve this problem, right?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: This problem was here forever.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that that is my perspective.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I don't think that banks will disappear.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think like banks will still have their own place in this global market, but the way users access the services, I believe there will be this like a new layer of the service providers.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And to wrap it up, like I can give a short, you know, very brief imaginary answer.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: The same way that Uber came, but it is just the new way we order cabs.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And if you live in London or Europe, anywhere in the world, the cabs still exist, right?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: The way we just hail the cab is different.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Same applies for Amazon, right?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Every store, every market is still there, uh, every seller is still there.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a different platform.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: The same way I believe all the players will kind of lesser more stay, but the way user accesses them will change.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's something I consider quite a lot.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's something of a personal interest to me, is just the ability to engage in financial activities has fundamentally changed.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And has changed for hundreds of years if you go back to Roman times.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like a lot of lending, borrowing, credit, something I always like to go back to.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: It existed, but it was limited to the people that were allowed to do it.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now there's been this kind of opening of access.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Still need a device, you still need some understanding, but that knowledge barrier with AI and that ability to ask what kind of the simple, stupid questions of what does this mean for me and how do I get engaged, regardless of your position in society or your amount of wealth, is just becoming so much easier.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of something I'm excited about.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: But to wrap up this question, wrap up this section, sorry, I've got one final bit on this, which is what do you believe will drive the next wave of crypto adoption?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is it people just investing in the digital assets or is it using the crypto exchanges for everyday financial services?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: We we've kind of gone over this, and I think I know the answer to it, but I'm interested to see if you've got a little nugget of information to add.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Just a full cycle moment, right?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is about what you can do with your money.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because if it is fragmented, that traditional finance was always fragmented, it means you don't have the full power.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Today, you can invest, you can earn, you can do savings account, and eventually you can go spend.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that is how you have a full power.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: And also, it is the first time ever that thanks to this full cycle moment and no interruption, you can make decisions that you could basically was not available for an average user before.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: This year, first time we saw how an average retail user could sign up for a pre-IPO because it's it never was possible like technologically.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now we see how people can trade uh outside the New York hours because if you used to live in Asia, you couldn't simply do it, right?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you had all the technology in the world, you couldn't just do it.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: Or you had to wake up at I don't know, 2 a.m.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: And recently, one of the fascinating numbers is that on our platform only, like since August, when Nvidia had this like uh earnings report come out, we've seen around uh 53% increase in the trading volumes.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And only on our platform, the people who were somehow engaging in NVIDIA because we have tokenized stocks, you can buy, we have uh stock futures, but also we have the real stocks, which TV tempering stocks, and we saw around 5x growth in users who are engaging in the stocks that were necessarily and inherently crypto traders.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: It means this is not just giving you uh an access, but also it's bringing you an opportunity that was never available before for a user to explore.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is how the world is changing, and that's how we all become smart with our money.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm very hopeful that in near future, thanks to AI, we can make these decisions more informed and in a very faster way.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: I agree wholeheartedly.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: The the equality of opportunity in finance is something that has been a long time coming and not without its foibles, but something I'm excited to see how it continues to grow and how that distribution of knowledge, that distribution of inclusion, the ability to engage, to learn, and to act in financial markets is becoming more democratized.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: And something that Mexican, as I can tell from the research I've done and talking to you, is is very, very conscious of and supportive of.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: You made a point there about 24-7 trading, which is something I want to dive a little bit deeper.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, as many people know, or maybe some people don't, crypto markets they never close while stock exchanges still operate with fixed trading hours.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think 24-7 trading will eventually become the standard for all global financial markets?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you still think we'll be in a scenario where there's still some restrictions forever or time frame kind of irregardless?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just like a hypothetical case.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: I believe both uh Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange are planning initially to launch by the end of the year or next first quarter of the next year, 23 hours a day trading.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: They still will need to close for an hour.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Probably it is about technology, it's about things in place that need to be in place.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually, probably we all will live in this 24-7 trading world.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: While technologically it's been fascinating how it is done, and while crypto markets prove that there is a huge interest, and today we see that most of the market action actually happens outside of the New York trading hours.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: One key difference is that previously news was kind of confined with the printing press and TV.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: You would get like a 9 morning news and 8 p.m.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: news, and even if the big things happen at night, you will only get to hear about them or read about them in the newspaper in the next morning.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today we all have the notifications, our phones bing, and news travels faster than ever.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the we see the market action actually happened this year or this past two years over the weekends.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we see these whole gaps between close and opens in the market while the whole action happened.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: What this 24-7 trade will change, actually, it will bring this global liquidity to the market, making this night trading or 24-7 trading much liquid and easier, and I believe there will be more and more opportunities.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: This will go also both ways.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just mean there will be a lot of people who will access to their financial markets, but also it gives a financial market a huge audience because thanks to tokenization, the financial markets wouldn't only rely on the investment within that particular jurisdiction, let's say New York Stock Exchange wouldn't rely on US customers, but it will also be able to bring customers from the global front, which is more money coming in and more opportunities created for everyone.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think it goes and it works both ways, and it will also create a lot of hedging opportunities.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: And in my opinion, one of the big wins for the retail customers at Mexi, we are a retail in heart, our 90% of our trades come from the retail users who want to change their lives, right?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And for the retail, it is the first time is we will get an access to institutional opportunities that previously were reserved for very, very few.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Could crypto exchanges eventually become a gateway for investors to trade everything from Bitcoin to Apple and Tesla shares on one platform?
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are almost there, and I will give you a small uh statistics.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: As a crypto native platform, Mexi started as a crypto trading exchange.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: We have around 3,000 plus digital asset pairs to be traded.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: We have more than 7,000 pairs, which is more than double tokenized stocks available to trade.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then on top of it, we do have a real stocks, which is an actual stock asset similar to those you buy from your broker, uh, and that they pay dividends on the platform.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: On top of it, from precious metals to petroleum, from the commodities, synthetic commodities, and real-world assets, you can literally invest in whatever is possible.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely there is a regulatory aspect to this, how much assets we could provide, but it technically or virtually, every asset that can be tokenized could be traded on the platform.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe in near future, with a changing world, this will open an access to the capital markets to small, medium enterprises.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Previously, to raise funds, uh to raise capital, you should could go through the banks, you know, private banks, citibanks should take you private.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we will be getting more and more opportunities for the businesses to raise capital from the global markets with this speed of the tokenization that we are having today.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that way we will not only just talk about next time whether exchanges can compete with banks, but also it will be how the global exchanges like London Stock Exchange or uh Nasdaq's and New York Stock Exchanges, how they're gonna compete with other exchanges that have similar levels of liquidity and access and user base that can change and make the difference.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's something that, for unless you were at the really high end and ability to access finance on it on a very sophisticated level, unless you were just going to buy some gold from a gold dealer, you weren't really able to access that.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: But if you think years very slightly from the kind of external market um questions, going a little bit more internal to Mexican's vision and kind of the next generation of trading.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Mexican has built its presence around accessibility and a broad selection of digital assets.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: How do you see the platform evolving as the boundaries between traditional finance and crypto continue to blur?
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's look into the numbers, right?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: Back in 2024, like two years ago, tokenized treasuries was around 750 million, 10 million.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Today, or like mid this year, it's around 16 billion.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's from 750 million to 16 billion gross just in two years.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: With the speed we are going towards the tokenization, it is not just another digital spin of an asset.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is not just an opening, you know, door to have an alternative.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually becoming a main infrastructure and underlying technology.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Today we see that uh big stock exchanges, they actually offer tokenized version of the stock the moment the bell rings.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And probably more and more exchanges will move to blockchain as a technology, as an underlying technology, to do that trading because necessarily on-chain asset is actually the asset itself, not just a key to that asset, right?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is not that there's someone holding the shares and you have a key to that shares, it's an actual share itself, a tokenized version of it, uh once it's issued.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that underlying technology is propelling us to this new world where we have more and more opportunities, and in my opinion, like everything that could be tokenized should be tokenized, and this tokenization will give us an access to assets that never before, and that's what we are seeing today.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it is also a very key aspect to understand that it is the first time I think in uh 10-15 years of us discussing about how great a technology is.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, traditional financial institutions came to this kind of a realization that technology is very valuable and they start adopting the technology.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: Whether now banks having their own uh private chains and public chains, whether it's BlackRock using Ethereum to tokenize assets, or whether it is, you know, large banks settling cross-border transactions between themselves on a weekend using the blockchain as a technology rather than going traditional way.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: And recently I saw that even Swift is planning to build its own chain and offer the cross-border on-chain transactions.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that is again verifying the idea that technology works and it works efficiently, safely, and in a much cheaper cost.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is now only a question whether this technology will democratize the way we access, or it is just we'll keep the same gate-kept, uh, you know, opportunities and make it just faster and give more margins to traditional banks.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is where these new players like ourselves, like Mexi, who come in place, where we are not here just to make an existing system efficient and make more money to the shareholders, we actually want to bring that opportunity to the retailer.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's something I I was watching you do another interview before this one, just to read up on you a little bit.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: And you made an interesting point around the ideology of crypto was to cut out all middlemen.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're now in a scenario where we're bringing in the middlemen, but there is still this underlying, probably from companies like your own, where you want a little bit of both.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: You want a little bit of that kind of democratization of ideology, but you also want to bring in the capital from these institutions and the expertise and to put on show the efficiency gains and the abilities that you have with blockchain technology that you don't have with traditional systems.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: But this very nicely brings me on to my next question, which is what opportunities do you see for exchanges like MEXT as tokenization brings more traditional financial assets onto blockchain infrastructure?
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, when we first uh start offering uh tokenized stocks, I because at this point I'm kind of a crypto native, I forgot all my traditional finance uh DNA, kind of, and I was thinking like this is such a great opportunity for our users to explore new opportunities, especially because crypto such is a new industry and it runs in a very obvious four-year cycle.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: We have a distinctive bull runs and bear markets, and you know, this tokenization and these tokenized stocks couldn't come anytime better.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love calling this era the best bear market we ever had because now there's an alternative.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: But when we actually dig into the data of our platform, we see that thanks to tokenization, there are more people who are moving from traditional financial platforms to ours just to trade tokenized assets in an easier way because it is fast and quick, and then within a single platform, they can actually move between asset classes.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you today go through a traditional facilities, you have to go to the broker, you have to sell your asset.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: And especially if you are outside of US, you sell in dollars, there's an exchange fee, there's a broker's cut, and there's so many other fees that come in place, and then you need to move your money to another platform, and if you want to buy another asset class, again you pay the transaction fees, again you pay the exchange rate.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: While, for example, on Mexi, just using the stable coins like USDT or USDC, you can start your day trading Bitcoin or any digital assets.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: In the afternoon, you can go to the gold.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: If there's a news about politics, maybe petroleum is doing something, you can then put some money to NVIDIA stocks and close your night investing with gold or copper and then move things around in a single click while in a traditional assets, in a traditional way, even if you do it in a most efficient way, probably you can't do it in a single day.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the world is running basically transaction plus one day.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: It has its own benefits for institutions, but when we look from a retail aspect, I think today uh tokenized platforms like ourselves, who is trying to be trade everything platform, gives you an added edge that you can settle instantly, you can move your asset instantly, especially on Mexi, you can do it with zero fees.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: It means you don't lose in exchange.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: And thanks to our earned products, which is principle guaranteed, if you don't know what to do, you can keep your money and still earn uh interest on that, which is much bigger than any uh developed economy.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think in some cases we are able to pay up to 18% uh annual yield, which is the highest in an industry, and even if you decide to spend money with 10% cash back, you are still on the win.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it is all thanks because we are able to cut those middlemen and you basically save in all these transaction fees, commissions, exchange rates by staying in a single platform, and that's exactly what I was you know saying in the beginning.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Even though like banks wouldn't disappear, big providers wouldn't disappear, definitely the way they've been able to extract value out of a customer is disappearing, and that's disappearing thanks to blockchain as a technology.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's one thing that I think people maybe don't perceive the impact of enough.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: This to take the example of a hedge fund or a fund, they would have like multiple different teams to trade different assets that maybe across different brokers with different rules, different fee structures, which is inherently restrictive for the retail consumer.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have maybe that knowledge or that ability or that um funding level to be able to access all of those different assets, but with AI and the ability of the platform to allow you to trade those assets in a very fee-advantaged situation.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: How do you see as AI becomes more integrated into financial services?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Do you see it transforming the trading experience?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Could we eventually have AI-powered financial assistants managing investments across crypto and traditional assets?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Currently, Make C we are at the forefront of the uh AI adoption.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: We've been investing heavily to bring AI to our users.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: And my team recently conducted a huge research, and we according to that research, we had more than like 4,000 people to actually give us a feedback, and 85% of these uh people who we uh asked, they said that they use AI for trading decisions.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: At this point, we can bravely say that we are in AI assisted decision-making era of trading.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you want to understand the chart, whether you wanna consolidate what's happening in the news, whether you wanna look into the historic data, definitely more and more people using AI.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: The same way we use AI that replaced our search inquiries and all the other aspects of our life, we see a huge adoption in the trading, and that's a good thing.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, at Mexi, we recently launched our know your uh agent program where we allow users to connect to your agents.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, by the numbers, we see that almost half of the agents that's connected to the platform, uh, the tradings are capped around 20%, and this is uh trading we call AI assisted trading, which means AI still guides you, but you are the last one to call the shots.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: And only around 5 to 6 percent of these AI assisted uh accounts uh have uh more than half of your assets in AI to trade, and usually this are smaller accounts.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: It means not only adoption is high, but the way we would anticipate people use because usually when we talk about AI trading, it's always this extreme case AI putting all your money into the six single asset classes.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: But luckily at this point, AI is smart enough and there is enough card rates in place that could help us to make more informed decisions through AI.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned, like first stage was AI informed decisions, now it is AI assisted decisions, and I believe in the next three years by 2030, we will have at least 40% of global trade being uh initiated by AI.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: And also machine trading isn't something new, or as you mentioned, like all these big hedge funds and algo trading uh institutions, machine trading was always there, and actually machine trading was an edge.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Today it is just becoming more democratized and more available for many.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if an AI can solve Navier Stroke's theorem, uh I don't think uh there is a limit why AI couldn't trade.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe AI will actually help us to find the better opportunities.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: And for everyone else watching and listening today, I might say it is not just about finding the winning trade, but sometimes it's about finding a winning trade on a platform that that conducting that trade would make sense because it has a lower commission, it has a better condition to trade, or it has a better liquidity, because not every trade that is won can actually materialize because there's a limit in liquidity.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: And as Mexi, we are not just focusing on the winning aspect of AI or people's AI and agents joining, but we also want to be the condition where it is profitable to run that AI and make that money.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: And as I mentioned, we are the frontier when it comes to zero fee trading.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are the second best platform compared to Binance when it comes to the liquidity, which makes not just us a great place to trade or connect your AI to trade, but actually that trades can materialize because we have zero fees and we also have the best liquidity.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it's it's something I consider a lot about AI.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is it's not just, in my opinion, anyway, that you're going to use AI to enact your trades.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's that you're going to use AI to educate yourself about how you invest, what you invest in, how you've invested in the past.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's as much an agent to help you make better decisions, but also to understand the decisions you're making even better.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's something that maybe people miss a little bit, especially about for the unbanked, is a lot of finance for us who spend a lot of time looking into it, it makes sense.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: But for most people, it's a very unknowable, unkind of unlearned situation where AI can really level that knowledge gap.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: And it's something I'm excited to see more people utilize it for is this kind of teacher aspect, not needing to speak to a stockbroker or a finance professor or an economics professor to take you through some of the simple aspects of finance, but allow you to kind of take it at your own pace and bring you up to the level that you want to achieve, whether that's at the really high end or just like the basics.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: But you you talked about the the bigger picture kind of zooming out to 2030.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: So if we were having this conversation in 2030, what financial service do you think people would be surprised they once needed a traditional bank to provide that they may not?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I believe by 2030 we will have this answer first or intent first finance.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: It means they will not be about interface, it will not be about login and password, it will be about what is your current need.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that need will not be answered by a hypothetical I want a bigger home question, but it will be more based on your behavior.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine this hypothetical case where an AI can go through your past spendings and come and tell that, Harry, I saw that you are going to gym five days and you eat healthy, and this is your top five restaurant, and now there is this credit card and actually gives you 10% cashback on F and B.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: And on top of it, if you get that credit card, they have a partnership with these top five gyms that you can go and you can eventually save, I don't know, 20% more in your money.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: And or it can say that, hey Harry, I saw that you know, you get your salary fifth of every month, and by the end of the month you get extra 5,000 pounds left on your account that you move the next month to the savings account.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Let me help them put into this, I don't know, short-term savings account and let them make more money.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: But probably that account is not in your bank, is I don't know, another bank that I'll go open the account, and then it will calculate whether it is feasible to move money between these two accounts, is there fees involved, anything.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that could now scale it to a huger opportunity where it can tell that, hey Harry, you have this 5,000 pounds, uh, and you know there's this IPO is coming, and I think it's uh wise to invest in there because IPO will, you know, end before of demands, and then probably we can cash out at this point.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like all these hypothetical cases are that as a humans we are not a capable of doing it today.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the same could apply, for example, if your AI goes through your emails and says that Harry, you've been flying, I don't know, 10 flights a year, and this is the credit card that gives a mile per you know spending, and this is your spending, probably you can fly for free.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you you know use this particular credit card and there is this sign-up bonus, I can maximize.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: It will give you so many other options that we usually don't consider.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say in average country, if there are like a 40 top banks, how many and if they each offer 10 card products, it's 400 card products just in a single country, right?
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: As a humans, we don't have a capability to go research it, but AI can do it in a simple you know, query and actually go open the accounts and then help us to maximize the benefits.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: And this way we will reach this competitive era in 2030 that will not be about who has a good design, who has an easier interface, it will be who has the best product.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I believe we will have more and more specialized players in the market that does things much better than everyone else.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why, for example, at Mexi, we are so much focused on bringing the most affordable trade because we believe that that's one key definition that users will choose platform based on, and that's why we are it's our conviction we are so much invested in uh bringing zero fee trading to the users and making sure that our platform is at least 10 times much affordable than anyone else in the market, and that is our big differentiator.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I believe every player in the market will need to find a differentiator that is not just emotional connection, but also that is a tangible result.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's something that I suppose banks have traded on or financial entities have traded on with their customers for for kind of as long as they've been around.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: This we we trust you we're the best for this job, but we don't really show it.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like now, with the kind of advent of AI, but the ability to seek out these opportunities, and and it's something that I kind of coin as the the reduction of opportunity cost for the user, the ability to engage with all of these opportunities, which in the past maybe it was a knowledge gap or a time gap, an ability to seek them out or even understand how it might benefit them, is now with the advent of AI and this knowledge gathering that it can do, but contextually, not just there's an offer, but contextually, does this offer apply to me or to my family, and then be able to access it?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: I I love using AI to seek out opportunities.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: I use it for all my trading, I use it for all of my kind of reward structures and programs.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_01: Every flight I try and find the best deal, and it's great fun.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: I I enjoy it, but I'm a bit of a nerd about that stuff.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the same, right?
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Look how these uh catalogs change the way we book our flight ticket or choose our hotel because now we can compare price next to each other.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: I remember even like five, ten years ago, it was not the case.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: You would probably go to the airline office.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you, you know, someone will type something on some device, like the prices were not dynamic.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, today we make a much different informed in informed decision.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Also, for me, like I've recently was thinking about you know, most of the it products, financial products we choose are based on our assumption of the future rather than based on a data.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: But now with AI, we can literally feed all the information to an AI and get a result.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it can like definitely it's now a hypothetical case, but like it can be even as easy as you know putting all our commute data and AI telling if you leave 10 minutes earlier or later, you could save$20 in your you know monthly commute bill because there's a surcharge happening.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Or I'm using now AI on Mexic AI assistant to actually look into the order books because as a human you can't go 500 orders by yourself, even if you do, that decision is all already delayed.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because for me, order books is such a great example showing where the money is moving before the price moves, right?
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: How much buyers and sellers are out there, and this is only available thanks to AI and the computational power of AI, and for everyone else listening and watching us today, if they haven't done so, I think trying to use AI to make a better informed decision.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and especially for the very beginners, I think one of the hardest parts is to read the charts.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: And AI is doing such an amazing technical analysis that I have low-key stopped watching this technical analysis gurus.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: That I have a couple of my favorite friends uh that does an incredible technical analysis, but AI can do it in a couple of seconds and explain you in a much easier language than anyone else.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and even more detailed and based on way more factors than anybody who's kind of a beginner in technical analysis can do.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I've got a good analogy which I think you will like about AI, and it's something I do right now.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_01: So when you are planning a trip uh where let's say in your country and you're deciding between driving or maybe getting the train or walking, getting the train, let's say you put it into Google, usually it's either you drive or you take public transport or you walk.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_01: There's no mixture.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: However, I I live quite in the north of England and I have to go down south a lot, and it always suggests like get a bus and a train.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: It never says drive and then get a train and then get an Uber.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's never like a mixture.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I use AI to say I need to get from here to here, but I have the opportunity to use the bus, to use the train, to even maybe even take a flight.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like there was a story I followed about like a or a bike.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: And like I could cut down two hours if I just cycle from here to here, which takes 10 minutes, whereas driving would take an hour and the bus would take 30, and then get on the quick train.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: There was a a kid who was coming, I think, from London to the northeast in the UK, and he worked out that it was cheaper to fly to Berlin, have a sandwich, and then get on the plane to Scotland rather than get the train.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a nice analogy I use quite often to kind of demonstrate the power of AI and something somebody could do right now in terms of trading, is you don't know the fastest route.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe even like trying to figure it out yourself, it's a very complex area to kind of understand.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: But if you use the analogy of maybe it's quicker to take the bike there, and AI can kind of explain that to you and help you to take the bike.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, enough about travel and trains.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's something I enjoy, but maybe not the focus of this conversation.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you had to make one bold prediction about the future of finance, would you bet on banks becoming more like crypto exchanges or crypto exchanges becoming more like banks?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's funny, Harry, because a couple of years ago, I believe at one of the largest uh conferences, a journalist asked me the same question.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: I was very young and naive, and coming from traditional financial institution experience, I was saying that crypto exchanges will become like a bank.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: Today you ask me this question, I will tell you that I think banks will become like a crypto exchanges.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: But inherently, we both are becoming or competing to become your primary finance super platform.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: The same way that Ubers came first for our right hailing, but today you can order anything between Ivy drops to your groceries, food, and more.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: The same happens with Grab in Asia, Karim in the Middle East, Bolt in most of the parts of Europe, and so on and so forth.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is the same journey that we are passing as the financial ecosystem where the core decision maker is finally the customer.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the customer will dictate what customer needs and who can provide it in a faster way, most efficient way, and a most affordable way.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that is that is like the only truth.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think that is the only truth for a big bold future.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because for many, many years, who hold the money made difference, right?
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Bank holds your money, kind of a bank decides.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's why uh Amex visas and MasterCards were so powerful, could take up to 3% cut from the merchant because they held your money and they were the ones dictating the rules.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: But now, thanks to technology, blockchain, where you have the custody, you have the full say on your assets, and AI as a technology that can help you to make that decision faster and switch between the platforms faster, actually giving the power back to the users, especially in the retail case, back to the retail user's hand that was never available before.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that is one of the biggest things, and especially for everyone, whether you are in a like advanced economies like Europe, America, in Australia, today banks even hold your money as a hostage.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can't go take more than 200 euros or pounds in cash because you have to explain bank why you need that money, which is your money.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is the actually tipping point where we are changing and the global finance is changing, and actually, you as a user as a customer will have a final say where do you want to put your money as an investment?
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: I go back to that point a lot, and I and I about the ability to withdraw money from banks, and I see both sides.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like there has been this rise in opportunity and ability to engage with finance through platforms like MixT and others across stocks, assets, trading, AI-enabled trading, all the things we've discussed today.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I also see the bank side a little bit like a like a 1% little bit with regard to them wanting to protect users.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's a very important point.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_01: And something from reading your documentation and some of the previous interviews you've done that you're very conscious of at Mexicans is informing and protecting the user while still empowering them to make the decisions they want, not just proposing arbitrary controls or maybe controls that are just a blanket restriction, a bit like the banks have done with with Rejoin That Cash.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: They just say, unless you can really prove to us why, we're just gonna block it.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that's the answer.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: I can see why they've done it, but who knows?
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's gonna be um an evolving landscape of kind of opportunity and harm reduction and protection and all of the things that go into that.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure we could talk for another hour about how users are protected and how you go into protecting them, but it's not the focus of today.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to get stuck down that rabbit hole.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: I want to get to our final question, which is what is your long-term vision for Mexic?
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: When people think about Mexic five years from now, what would you like the platform to be known for, known for beyond cryptocurrency trading?
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I still little bit of time from here to kind of uh address the first question or first discussion point about the trust and banks.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: Since I became the CEO, I think it's been almost nine months, a year now.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want people currently think of Mexie as the most trusted platform when it comes about not just your existing wealth, but the wealth you're gonna build.
• 48:57
  unknown: Okay.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: The future opportunities.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: And how we do it, first and foremost, since I took office every month we partner with Haken, a third party.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's only two exchanges in the world that actually does it.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: We open our vault to a third party to come and audit it and tell the users that all your assets are one-on-one bank packed and it's guaranteed.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: Today we spend around 160% on stablecoin uh holdings and around 130% on uh Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot go to any bank anywhere in the world and do such an audit.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: Anything at all.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's not there.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like your money is not there, right?
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: With your bank.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_00: But here, not only your money is here, there's more available.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: Second, we have protection fund.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: That was$100 million when I took an office.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: Today, my pledge, because I want Mexi to become one of the third largest providers of the financial opportunities globally, I believe we should become also a biggest protector, and we want our Guardian fund, the user safety fund, to be at least one of the third largest global funds.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: Today we added 2,000 more bitcoins, and our my pledge is to invest another$500 million and bring this uh holding up to$600 million scale.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is very, very important for me, and this is our investment when it comes to protecting the user.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_00: And on top, we have around$750 million worth of futures trading insurance.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_00: With all these aspects together, we are definitely robust than any other bank when it comes to the user trust.
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: While I want users to feel the trust and we call it verifiable trust within ecosystem, I think it is a question of today.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: As a young industry who've been, you know, going through different phases, it is very important for today.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to future, I want Mexic to be a place of an opportunity.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we love calling it gateway to infinite opportunities.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: As an economist, as a mathematician in heart, for me, I believe having an opportunity isn't enough.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_00: Having a right access to opportunity, being able to capture that opportunity and finally materialize that opportunity is very important.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: And usually people assume whether it is a global economy or trading opportunities as a zero-sum game, but it is definitely not.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't need someone else to lose for you to win.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: And markets operate, could operate in a way where we all can find an opportunity that fits our needs the best.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a beautiful analogy I recently saw uh on TikTok.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: It said the most fair way to split a lemon between two people probably is cutting into the half, but maybe one needs a lemon juice, the other just needs the lemon zest.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that is our analogy of building this gateway to infinite opportunities where everyone could find an opportunity that fits their needs and eventually bank on that opportunity and build the future that they truly deserve.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's kind of a recaps of everything we discussed today.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is about building an opportunity and it's about building a platform that gives the right opportunity to the right uh user, and eventually we all can find the opportunity that fits our need rather than having this uniform way rather than like traditional banks, right?
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you go to the bank, they have a single saving yield for everyone, then they have a single way of buying stocks and single way of doing something, and I think that single way of doing something is so outdated.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: We need a unique opportunity that fits our needs.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny you bring up the the lemon uh TikTok.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_01: We must have the same for you page because I literally watched that yesterday as well.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's uh we have the soul, mate, Harry.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_01: It does sound like it, uh it sounds like we uh we are kindred spirits, but it but it's a good point, and it's a good it's an analogy that I was I was gonna use on another podcast, so you may have stolen it from me.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but it's it's an important point of if you don't ask what somebody's goal is or what they're trying to achieve, it's very hard to provide a tailored service for them.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that goes to your kind of last point there about how banks have this one size fits all until you get to the top end.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then it's a kind of a white globe and a custom service, and they can bend the rules a little bit.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_01: But they kind of have just said, well, because you're not the most profitable customer to us, we're not going to really help you or bend.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's being a little bit reductive and a little bit um kind of broadly mean to the banks, which I never I like to kind of keep a little bit of a balanced, a balanced opinion.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_01: But but it's an important note, and this kind of equality of opportunity around finance and this growing ability to engage, not only on the kind of the counterparty's terms, but a little bit on your terms as well, and and then then being somewhat forced and somewhat incentivized to really consider what the customer needs and how best to help them or protect them or push them forward, which pushes the whole market forward.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, but yes.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was the point, right?
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk this kind of a answer first, need first finance, because physically, like a traditional setup is not built for it, right?
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_00: There isn't enough bank tellers who could call each customer and ask what you need and what you need for each service, but AI can do it, and AI can even tailor the offers for every user, and then AI can tell the user, for example, you are a good spender, you make bank enough money from your spendings that now we can give you bigger yields on this end because you are bad at saving, or it could be the other way around.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_00: Say that you are good at saving and investing, but now you know there is more opportunities to spend, and this way each opportunity can be tailored to the user thanks to the technology and executed in a faster way, and you don't need to be the most profitable customer who is going for a private banking and then have this concierge service.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you very, very much for your guy.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: This has been great fun.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_01: You've you've touched on points that are very close to my heart and informed me about some things I didn't know about Mexic, and I'm sure our listeners will have learned something today about yourself and your kind of views on the on the future of finance, but but more importantly, I suppose how Mexic is serving customers and wants to serve customers in the future.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, before we kind of finish up, is there anything you'd like to add or closing statements or just anything you want to say?
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for having me here.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm very glad to find another soulmate who believes that you know the future could be a great place where we all find an opportunity that fits our needs.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't found yours, maybe you can go check Mexi out.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_00: Probably there is something that fits every need there.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I've been a user for a long, long time and will continue to be so.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_01: If that's a a little unofficial official vote of confidence.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_01: But uh thank you very much, Regarde.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: This has been hardwired.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for for coming along.