Casa CEO on Self-Custody in Wake of FTX Collapse

There's been a lot of talk about self custody recently. There's always been a lot of talk about self custody in crypto, but it's been rising with first the implosion of FX, but then general rising suspicion of centralized exchanges in general for various reasons. So joining us now for more insights on this is Casa, Ceo Nick Newman, welcome Nick. So Cas A is quite relevant to this conversation because it is a popular Bitcoin self custody firm. So I was wondering, I mean, I've, we've heard a lot about this anecdotally, right? That, you know, self custody is rising, you know, people are, are seeing the importance of it. But can you give us some data to support that if that's true? You know, we're seeing some of the the biggest customer volumes that we've seen in months at CASA in terms of new people signing up for the for using the product, we're seeing the amount of Bitcoin overall that CASA helps our customers protect, going up repeatedly steadily every single month. And, and that's something that, you know, you don't talk always uh expect to see at a time when people are trusting custodians more than normal. And so as we're seeing the banking system having problems systemically, as we're seeing custodial uh offerings and crypto starting to are really imploding last year and, and continuing to be a little bit uh shaky, especially with us regulatory actions. Now people want that control and they, they want that certainty that their money that they've worked hard to save is, is gonna be safe. Interesting. And, and when did you see this, like when you're talking about this kind of surge or this, when did, when did it start? Was it with FTX or was it just kind of been, was there a specific event that, you know, really seemed to turn the tide? You know, I think really one of the interesting things that that's been fascinating to watch is the, how people have been responding to the issues at Silicon Valley Bank and some of the other banks in the the banking ecosystem right now in that legacy financial system, because you would think from a, you know, separation of crypto and the legacy financial system that, that may not affect people's desire to self custody as much. And that's just not what we're seeing. And so that's been something that we're hearing as we're talking to customers, people are worried about that and that's really been an event that's I think pulled back the cover on some of the things that have been lurking in the legacy financial system that people didn't really know where were such systemic risks sitting there, you know, uh, you, you'd spoken to us, uh, way back in 2021 and at that time you had said that, uh, casa clients had increased 3 25% in 2020 as a revenue, nearly tripled. Uh, and I didn't really hear a number from, you know, you and I was just wondering if you had any number after the banking crisis, uh, to just give us a sense of what's really going on. Uh How much interest there is any number, you know, I don't have numbers for you today and, and that's not something that we share are ready to share just off the cuff on a regular basis. But um you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's ok. That's fine. That's totally ok. Uh We get that now explain something to me. Where does this go? Because, you know, we've seen uh good uh moments of phases for the Qatar industry in general and, and then you've had a bit of a pullback from them like, you know, we've heard so many companies lay off people. This is your good moment. Are you, are, are you uh expanding, are you hiring, are you, are you preparing for, uh you know, something big? Uh And if not, then are you, are you just consolidating? And are you also, have you learned something in hindsight from what has happened in the past? Well, you know, we've, we've actually got a huge update coming for, for CASA customers and new potential customers towards the end of April early May. We're looking at uh bringing Ethereum support to Casa. That'll be the biggest update that we've released in a solid couple of years. And so that is something that our customers have been asking for for over a year now. It's something that we know is a real need, a place where you can store both your Bitcoin and your ether with using multiple keys and a really safe and simple self custody product. And that's just not something that's existed so far. And so from, from a team perspective, we've been gearing up for that launch for over a year now and we, we're very excited to see that roll out and bring that solution to the people that really have a problem today with, with safely uh securing their, their crypto and, and does that hinge in any way on how Chappelle's upgrade happens? Uh And like, what's it gonna look like also? Like, just tell us that. Yeah. So, um it doesn't really hinge on the Chappelle upgrade. A as a lot of the other guests that you have had on this morning have mentioned, we're, we're not too worried about that. We think it's gonna go relatively smoothly and it'll be good for, for Ethereum as a whole. Um As far as what the product will look like, it'll look very similar to what we offer in Bitcoin today, which is that most self custody products in, in Bitcoin and Ethereum, you've just got one private key, securing your funds if you lose that key, one mistake and everything's gone. And so that's why people have such a hesitation around self custody because people don't trust themselves. So we let you use multiple keys to protect one pool of funds and people really feel that that gives them peace of mind knowing that, hey, I can actually lose a key and not lose all of my money here. And suddenly the, the trade offs between self custody and using a custodian, especially in the environment that we have today, just start to tip much more in the favor of self custody and of having that certainty that you have control and access to your money whenever you want it. All right. Ok. Thanks so much for that. That was Casa Ceo Nick Newman. Uh We'll obviously see you at consensus, which is not too far away now, less than two weeks away. Uh There you have it. It is the most important conversation in crypto and Web three. And you're gonna see Nick Newman there with us. You can also register there still time. So do that.