Apr 1, 2020
Interview with Jonathan Leong, Co-founder & CEO of BTSE
BTSE is a financial technology company that utilizes Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies to develop solutions that empower you to take control of your financial freedom. As part of a suite of financial services designed to introduce innovative digital assets to the traditional finance landscape, BTSE’s developments include spot and derivatives trading, OTC, and lending services.
Jonathan Leong is the CEO and co-founder of BTSE with more than 20 years of experience in developing high performance, mission-critical systems. Over the past 6 years, he has built many successful ventures by fusing his deep knowledge of technology with business opportunities. A coder since the age of 15, Jonathan believes cryptocurrency will transform the way we do business, live, work and play.
Hey Jonathan, Thanks for joining me today. Can you tell us more about yourself and BTSE?
I’m Jonathan Leong, co-founder, and CEO at BTSE. We’re a multi-currency spot and futures trading platform that’s custom-built to bring liquidity, efficiency, and stability to the digital asset trading landscape.
We started the BTSE Exchange in late 2018. My background is in coding, which I started at 15, and I also developed a knack for problem-solving early on. So together with my co-founder Brian, we developed the exchange from scratch, which gives us the highest level of control to constantly maintain and improve the platform. Our goal was to bring our extensive experience from building and trading on institutional-grade trading platforms in traditional finance into the crypto space and to build an exchange that meets those standards.
How did you first get your start in the world of cryptocurrency?
I chose the cryptocurrency space as my next target of pursuit at the time largely because of Bitcoin itself. It’s important to note that Bitcoin, relying on the support of a global community, has grown from $0 in value to a peak of over $20,000 in little over a decade — all done without a CEO or a company. It is scarce by design, gives people autonomy over their own money, has novel economics to support its function (mining, halving, control of supply), and a peer to peer factor to engage and grow its community. Bitcoin is already a household name, and I believe it has immense potential to be a part of our daily lives.
My first contact with Bitcoin was actually through trading, in 2016. It was my user experience on the trading platforms then that led me to start working on BTSE.
I’ve been building high-performance trading platforms my entire career, so I noticed that cryptocurrency exchanges available at the time were not built to be reliable and efficient. When markets were highly volatile, these inadequacies were glaringly prominent, leading to many systems overloading. In traditional institutional trading, nobody would touch a platform like that There was a clear opportunity that Bitcoin and the digital assets market had to offer but exchange architects seemed to neglect the importance of a robust platform to facilitate trades.
Whatever you build, you can’t start at the top. It’s like building a house. You start at the foundation, you construct the base, so that you can then build on top of that. My team and I have built trading platforms for decades and are very familiar with the infrastructure required to facilitate institutional-grade trading. With BTSE, we’ve built a platform customized to today’s innovative financial landscape on top of that very infrastructure.
Trading is a major use case for cryptocurrencies, and if we want this space to grow, we need to open the floodgates for more people to use our platforms. We need to provide maximal security and reliability. The more people that can trade and buy with confidence, the more the ecosystem will grow.
Who do you see as your peers in this space?
With our flagship product being the BTSE Exchange, we see other crypto exchanges as our peers and understand that we will mainly be benchmarked against competitor exchanges. Each exchange has its subtle differences that play to its strengths. Our focus is tailored towards retail and driving liquidity with innovations like our multi-currency order book and a robust multi-asset collateral system as well as fiat support. However, in addition to the exchange, we are also building a suite of financial services designed to connect the digital asset with the traditional finance landscape.
What does a regular day for you look like working with BTSE?
As BTSE’s CEO, I wear a lot of hats. I spend the better part of the day in meetings, discussing the progress of our running and upcoming projects with various teams at BTSE. A crypto exchange is a complex business, and we need all teams at 100% all of the time. But whenever I’m free in between meetings, I tend to start coding on my laptop. I don’t have nearly as much time to do that as I would like these days, but I enjoy adding features and functionality to the exchange starting with feedback from our users. Currently, I’m working on our OTC RFQ.
Where are the BTSE team members based out of? How do they usually collaborate with each other?
The BTSE team is quite international and distributed all around the world. We have team members scattered across multiple continents, but the majority of our team is in Asia.
Can you tell us more about the BTSE team?
BTSE has a core team of three members other than myself, including my co-founder Brian Wong, who has had over 10 years of trading experience, mainly in traditional finance; our COO Joshua Soh, who brings his wealth of operational and organizational experience with a career lasting over two decades in the info-telecom industry; and YC (Yew Chong) Quak, our CTO who has a wide breadth of technological experience, from building robust systems infrastructure and networks to mastering agile software.
What are BTSE’s philosophy and values? What guides you and the team on decisions made for BTSE?
We work to address real-world obstacles while listening to our users, giving them what they want and need with convenience in mind. I would say that feedback from our users is at the core of our decision-making. Another part of our philosophy is to identify blue oceans rather than to compete in ponds. In other words, we strategize to identify additional and novel demand, creating products and features adhering to this demand with an efficient turnaround, rather than reinventing the wheel.
In the current cryptocurrency ecosystem with more and more crypto exchanges emerging, why do you think BTSE stands out from the rest of the pack?
We think outside of the generic box, and it shows in our products. BTSE is the first exchange with an all-in-one order book for spot trading which allows for higher liquidity, fairer pricing, and more efficient trades. We’re also the first exchange with multi-asset futures trading, which allows users to freely combine settlement and margin currencies, maximizing user capital on trades.
As I mentioned earlier, we put a lot of effort into building the infrastructure of the BTSE Exchange. When we built BTSE, we aimed for an exchange that is up to par with institutional standards while continuously delivering innovative financial products designed to evolve with the user and market needs.
We also care a great deal about user privacy, which is why we have features such as new address generation and Confidential Transactions the Liquid Network.
What do you think is the biggest problem BTSE will solve that no other cryptocurrency exchange is solving now, and why is that problem important to solve?
A true global liquidity pool. One of the key drivers in ensuring widespread adoption is addressing price volatility. Deeper liquidity reduces volatility. More efficient and fair markets also allow for better price discovery. Institutional funds play a key role in this development and the recognition of the value of digital assets as a hedge against traditional assets.
Why do you think a viable solution to this problem has only been covered by BTSE? Why were there no solutions before that could solve this problem before?
Platforms that started early rush through development to get to market fast. We came into the game much later, granted, but that gave us the time to leverage on our past experiences in building high volume trading platforms to properly architect a solid foundation and to build on top of that. Our exchange is built to support high-frequency trading — every component was built from the group up. We don’t use any open-source software or framework at the core level.
This gives us the ability to innovate at the lowest levels and not compromise on performance. It can be seen in the products we’ve rolled out (e.g. all-in-one order book, multi-asset collateral system, and real-time risk management systems).
Can you tell us what is currently possible with BTSE now?
Besides BTSE’s All-In-One Order Book and Futures 2.0 (our multi-asset futures), we are very happy to be able to facilitate on- and off-ramps for ten different fiat currencies, making it even easier for our customers to use the exchange. BTSE was also one of the first exchanges to list Monero futures trading in a time that saw many exchanges going in the opposite direction and delisting privacy coins. Additionally, we are just about to launch our OTC RFQ that will add to a growing list of options for users.
Over the past year or two, we have seen a trend of exchanges being hacked that had affected the entire crypto industry, tell us more about the security measures BTSE are taking to ensure confidence for users.
BTSE is built with multi-data center-capacity to prevent cyberattacks and stores 99.9% of all funds in cold storage with multi-tiered security protocols to ensure safe custody. The entire exchange is further self-hosted so we don’t rely on third-party providers.
The cryptocurrency world has seen extraordinary growth in the few years since the Bitcoin price peaked in 2017, what have you learned in the last two to three years that will inform the BTSE team into 2020 and the years ahead?
I think everyone on our team at BTSE is in the industry for the long haul, and we understand how quickly things can change. We focus on developing and expanding our service offerings, regardless of the Bitcoin price. We know that the next bull market run would attract another wave of new users, so we have built BTSE to be prepared for exactly that.
BTSE is looking to go after customers and win them over from other derivatives exchanges such as BitMex, Bybit, Deribit, and more, so how do you plan to do this? Why will traders want to move over to BTSE?
We build what our users want and need, and since we launched, we have seen that to be a key contributor to the growth of our exchange. While we are operating in a competitive market, we do see the convenience and comfort of user experience as our top priority. That’s also one reason why we joined the Liquid Network which allows for inter-exchange settlement and makes it even easier for our users to move funds between member exchanges.
Tell us more about the benefits of holding and using the BTSE token and can you tell us more about the use cases the BTSE token has?
The BTSE token is the exchange token that we launched on March 5th. The token is designed to fit into the suite of financial services BTSE is building like a puzzle piece — it connects the dots and functions like the fuel of the network. We’re working on several exciting things, such as an OTC desk, asset management, a crypto-enabled debit card, and Bitcoin mining. Additionally, being the first exchange token issued on Blockstream’s Liquid Network gives users the advantages of faster inter-exchange transaction times as mentioned earlier. It also supports Confidential Transactions, an upgrade to the privacy of assets transacted on the sidechain.
Some of the token benefits include reduced trading fees, increased limits and rebates for selected services, a higher referral bonus, access to special programs and campaigns, the option to participate in staking programs, and payment for additional services within the BTSE ecosystem, such as listing fees, advanced trading functions, enhanced data feeds and co-location.
What products does BTSE have planned to launch for the rest of the year?
2020 is a big year for BTSE. Besides the launch of our native exchange token, we are working around the clock to make our vision of deploying a suite of financial services enhanced by Bitcoin technologies a reality.
Our exchange users can look forward to more altcoin spot and futures listings, BTSE Pro Traders which is a program we’re designing to give back more benefits to our users, and even more fiat gateways for easy on-boarding.
To complement our exchange operations and offer more to our customers, we will also be launching services in other sectors of personal and institutional finance, including a crypto-enabled debit card that we’re very excited about, as well a few other projects that are just as exciting, but that I can’t disclose just yet.
What do you think are the biggest obstacles or challenges BTSE will have to face down the road as the crypto space matures? How do you plan to tackle those challenges?
A key factor that anyone operating a crypto business is all too familiar with is the lack of regulatory clarity and framework. Any cryptocurrency company needs to evolve with regulations that are being established, but for that, we need clear regulations to be established.
One reason why there have been many incidents of exchanges moving jurisdictions is because countries that looked to be ahead in the issuance of regulatory frameworks ended up not moving fast enough for the rapidly developing crypto ecosystem. At BTSE, we remain in close communication with regulators to help drive developments in the right direction.
The other factor that I think cannot be underestimated is simply time. We look at Bitcoin and think, “Hey, it’s been only ten years, and look at how far we’ve come!” But the jump to real adoption, however you may define it, is a completely different caliber. Some of the smartest minds in the world are working on Bitcoin or building products and services for various purposes. There will be more people joining in on these developments. But what is needed most of all is time. And I like to use that time to do my part and build.
Where do you and the BTSE team see the world of blockchain being in years to come, and how could BTSE the landscape of cryptocurrency exchanges in years to come?
We’re currently seeing extreme economic unrest around the world, and I believe one of the consequences of this will be that more people will end up losing trust in the financial system as it is today. This will drive more people towards cryptocurrency and digitizing their assets. Within just the past year, we have seen landmark positive regulatory development from multiple countries globally regarding cryptocurrency. For example, Germany recognizing Bitcoin as a legal financial instrument, South Korea passing a bill to regulate cryptocurrency, India’s Supreme Court ruling against the Central Bank to overturn the ban on cryptocurrency, just to name a few. Intergovernmental organizations such as the G20 and FATF have also recently held meetings to discuss regulations around crypto.
This, in turn, will grow the ecosystem that surrounds cryptocurrency, which will help crypto companies build their products and services and advance the space. At BTSE, we’re here to participate and drive innovation in the right direction — by listening to our users and heeding general public demand. We put a special focus on providing maximum efficiency, functionality, and privacy to our users.
What are your thoughts on the crypto market, short-term and long-term?
I refrain from making price predictions, but I think neither of us would be here if we didn’t see a significant upside in the long term.
What is one thing you would change about Bitcoin (changed because cryptocurrency is too broad a term) that would have a very positive long term result?
The way Bitcoin was created and introduced to the world was executed impressively, but that doesn’t mean Bitcoin is perfect. While I wouldn’t want to “go back” and change anything about Bitcoin in the past, I do think the addition of privacy features is more important than ever, and I think I’m not the only one.
Somewhat off topic, but what are some things you do outside of crypto that keep your mind sharp and keep you focused on the goals for the day?
I do enjoy spending time with the people I love. It keeps me sane, more than anything else ever could. Aside from that, I am running a few other businesses, which keeps me plenty busy. When you have concrete goals you want to achieve, it’s not that hard to stay focused.
Thank you again for all of your answers and taking the time to do this interview Jonathan. How can new supporters of BTSE get more involved in what’s ahead?
We care a lot about our users’ opinions and ideas. That’s why we do many interactive campaigns to get them involved. The best way to stay on top of what’s happening at BTSE and how you can be a part of it, it’s best if you check in on our Telegram group (t.me/btsecom) or our Twitter (twitter.com/btsecom) now and then. You can reach our team members, including me, directly in the Telegram group, and some of us are also on Twitter with our own accounts.
