The following is a transcription of the above video, and The Market Online has edited it for clarity.
Bitcoin Well Inc. (TSXV:BTCW) is a non-custodial fintech company, with a primary focus on empowering people to interact directly with the Bitcoin protocol.
Joining The Market Online today is Adam O’Brien, founder and CEO of Bitcoin Well.
TMO: So just as a refresh, Adam, can you kick us off with a bit of background on Bitcoin Well?
O’Brien: Bitcoin Well ultimately exists to enable independence, and we do that by making it very, very easy to use Bitcoin. And that started with Bitcoin ATMs. That is our primary business unit.
We have nearly 200 Bitcoin ATMs across Canada. And then that’s also now branched into our second business unit, which is our Bitcoin portal. That’s live in Canada and the USA, and it really aims to couple the convenience of modern banking with the benefits of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin obviously you can hold it. It’s got phenomenal price preservation, but you can’t really buy a coffee with Bitcoin. You can’t pay your rent in Bitcoin. Bitcoin, especially here in the Western civilization, isn’t something you can actually use in 2024.
And we are aiming to provide the same conveniences of modern banking, right? Simple, tap your phone to pay for things, send money to your friends, etc. And tying Bitcoin to that.
TMO: So further to that, what then makes Bitcoin Well unique from other exchanges?
O’Brien: I think the fact that we’re non-custodial is our primary driver, and that’s kind of a technical piece that often times goes over people’s heads. But the way that I like to explain it is if right now at this very second with no warning, I unplugged all the computers, all the servers, we just disappeared off the map. There would be zero customer Bitcoins lost.
And I think that’s the important thing to realize is that when you work with a custodial exchange or a custodial platform, your funds are sitting on their servers. They have control of the money. When you work with a non-custodial exchange, which is Bitcoin Well, your coins are in your protection, your custody, your control at all times.
We’re more of a retailer, more of a platform than we are an exchange. And that’s the key differentiator. And so, I think there’s a massive trend moving towards direct ownership of Bitcoin. We’re seeing, you know, the custodial collapses of FTX and the ripples, the market that creates. I think that investors and Bitcoiners alike are going to be excited about taking their power, taking their money into their own hands and their own control. And Bitcoin Well is very happy to help that process.
TMO: So, let’s continue with this a little bit. Some exciting news announced last week. You have officially launched your Lightning network payments for Canadian customers. Tell us all about this.
O’Brien: Yeah, this is part of where the usability of Bitcoin comes into things. And so, we’ve created through the Lightning protocol, which is kind of like a layer two protocol on top of the Bitcoin network. It’s aimed at payments.
And so obviously us being a Bitcoin usability company, we are very excited to be implementing this into our Bitcoin portal. What it does is we give each customer a unique payment address. It’s going to be your Well tag, which is your [email protected]. And all Bitcoin that are sent to that payment address get automatically converted into dollars and sent directly to the customer’s bank.
And this is cool for a couple reasons. One, it is by far the fastest way to sell Bitcoin. But two, it’s kind of an interesting spot for merchants to be able to accept Bitcoin simply as a means of payment, not as a means of storage.
And so, merchants right now they accept Visa tokens for example, through, you know, people tapping their Visa card and then their credit card processor pays them one to three business days later and takes a 2 to 5 per cent charge. Well, with this payment address, a merchant can accept Bitcoin from somebody. I can send to, you know, [email protected]. I can send Bitcoin directly to that address.
Those Bitcoin will be converted into dollars and deposited straight into the golf course bank account, wherever that may be, instantly and for our 1 per cent fee. And so, it’s a cheaper alternative and it’s kind of an interesting way that we are finding the usability of Bitcoin from self custody can actually be better than the existing fiat payment rails, but also than Bitcoin stuck in custodial exchanges.
So (we’re) really excited to be exploring this and continuing to offer our customers the No. 1 Bitcoin experience.
TMO: So, you touched a little bit on custodial and non-custodial. OK, so Adam, there are so many people still learning about Bitcoin. Can you give us a little bit more knowledge of the difference between that custodial and that non-custodial count?
O’Brien: The key difference, the key driver is who controls the money. At the end of the day, we all know, we’ve all been told since we were like 4 years old, custody and possession is nine-tenths of the law. It doesn’t really matter who has legal ownership. Who has it in their hand, that is who’s going to be able to make the decisions in the short term.
And when you trust a custodial exchange, you are trusting and relying on that person or that group or that company not to, you know, first of all steal the Bitcoin, which of course has happened in the past and hopefully won’t happen again, but you are exposed there.
But I think the bigger risk is this honeypot that it creates, you’re reliant on that company’s security not to get hacked. And at the end of the day, if you are a black hat hacking group and you’re targeting to steal Bitcoin, who are you targeting?
An individual who has a small number of Bitcoin proportionately or a company who is publicly disclosing how much Bitcoin they are holding? I think it’s a pretty obvious choice.
And so, when you take your Bitcoin off of the custodial exchange kind of ring or group of wallets, you’re really protecting yourself. It’s like an insurance plan and you have the benefits of having full power and full control over your Bitcoin. And so, this is going to be the No. 1 trend in Bitcoin over the next five years is people educating themselves on how to take self custody and then learning where to buy Bitcoin and take it directly into self custody.
I think that we’re early in this, it requires some education, but we’re going to be ahead of the trend and we’re going to be the No. 1 product leader for non-custodial platforms.
TMO: That makes so much more sense now. Let’s jump back over to Bitcoin Well’s Q1 financial report. Recently, you spoke about most importantly revenue growth and growing strong at 30 per cent year over year, which is some really promising news. You also highlighted the Bitcoin portal growth with some strong quarter-over-quarter results that you will be really leaning into as the price of Bitcoin goes up and new users come aboard. Can you expand on this?
O’Brien: So, we just released our May numbers, which were awesome. Globally we had over $5.5 million in revenue on the Bitcoin portal, which is great. In the U.S. specifically we saw 48 per cent month-over-month growth, which we’re super happy with. We’re very excited to be leaning into this U.S. market as the only non-custodial Bitcoin platform in the U.S. I think it’s a massive market opportunity that we can continue to lean into.
We’ve been doing that through our media partners and our brand awareness. I think it’s going very, very well as evidenced by the 48 per cent month-over-month growth, which we’re again planning on leaning into and continuing to benefit from.
TMO: To close out, what can investors expect from Bitcoin Well for the remainder of the year and into 2025?
O’Brien: I think portal focus is still where we’re at. The Bitcoin ATMs are serving their purpose, but we are definitely excited to expand and grow the Bitcoin portal. This morning, we launched our new Bitcoin Well rewards program. The program features a retro-themed Wishing Well to be engaging to customers. This is meant to encourage customer referrals and try to gamify that experience for our new customers.
And so, I think we can expect continued growth and continued community engagement. Also, we’re going to be pretty excited to be looking at ways to expand outside of just Canada and the USA, finding ways to make Bitcoin usable around the world.
Again, we’re here to create the convenience of modern banking with the benefits of Bitcoin. One of the benefits of Bitcoin is that it’s got no borders. No one controls Bitcoin. It is truly borderless. It trades in every single country on every single day of the year. And we’re very excited to be capturing that ethos inside the convenience of modern banking.
TMO: Adam, there is so much great insight here, and I’d love to continue this conversation. It has been such a pleasure as always having you with me. Thank you for joining me again.
O’Brien: Amazing. Thanks so much. Looking forward to being back.
You can find Bitcoin Well Inc. on the Venture Exchange under the symbol BYN or head to its website at bitcoinwell.com for more information.
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