Daring to Do
This summer, we climbed a 4000-meter peak with 70 employees in Zermatt. Let’s be honest: There are simpler feats than that. What started as a simple idea turned into a thrilling three-day endeavor and defining moment for Bitcoin Suisse. In hindsight, however, it’s neither the journey, nor the summit that matters most, but the spirit we collectively carry forward.
The Big Idea
First things first: It all started with one big idea: Climbing a 4000-meter peak with our employees. Initially, this was planned as an informal two-day adventure with a handful of mountain enthusiasts (it turned out we have lots of them!). As the idea developed, however, it soon become clear to us that this could became something very special. So special in fact, that it was worth turning it into a flagship company event with all our employees.
The project took shape during an immense growth phase in the last year and a half. At initiation, 40 people would have accounted for 90% of our workforce, while at the event eight months later, 40 people would have barely accounted for 50%.
As the number of employees who signed up increased week by week, expectations, planning effort and risk rose almost disproportionally. We surpassed a tipping point where normal means of coordination wouldn’t work anymore, off and on the mountain. How do you lead 20 roped parties up an arctic snow wall? Yet even manage to reach and stand on the blustery summit all together? And while doing so, to coordinate a helicopter film crew capturing these incredible scenes for the company’s history books and, as if it wasn’t enough, also conduct the highest bitcoin trade ever recorded?
It’s seems crazy. And I must admit, initially, we thought so too.
A Unifying Spirit
So, in summary, here’s what we eventually did:
- Climbing Breithorn, 4164m a.s.l., with 70 of our employees (and 20 mountain guides)
- On the summit, conducting the highest Bitcoin trade ever recorded. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBUnt6Sp21I&t=9s
- Bringing the first Bitcoin ATM to a Swiss alpine destination
- Making Parkhotel Beausite the first hotel in the Swiss alps to accept crypto
It’s indeed a little bit crazy. Without everyone’s commitment the project would have been set up for failure — dangerously so. Climbing on that altitude is not a Sunday stroll and certainly not with 70 mostly non-mountaineers, even without the need for technical climbing. Conducting a trade on the 4164-meter high, stormy summit and filming the whole journey all required meticulous planning, hundreds of hours of preparation and an impeccable execution on-site. Heralding the start of crypto in Zermatt needed foresight and perseverance to engage with local innovators. Given our history, this event was more of a character test than anything else. Looking back, we can safely say: We passed it!
A thousand comfortable resorts would have waited for us. After more than six years in the business, this, however, is part of the spirit and the main, if not the sole reason, we still exist today. If I see, what Founder and Chairman Niklas Nikolajsen, together with Co-Founders Andrej Majcen and Fabian Hediger, have gone through in the first years, it becomes evident that pioneers require a little bit of craziness. “Pioneers dare to do what no one has ever done before”, is a fancy sentence that leads our carefully crafted brand story — not without reason. It may sound dull, but it encapsulates just that. Almost. It also requires a good pinch of bold foresight, creative flexibility to adapt to markets, dedication for a higher purpose, and most of all, humbleness to learn what we yet cannot do, and stand firm for what we can.
The Start of Crypto in Zermatt
We would not be Bitcoin Suisse if we would not have strived to inspire others to do the same — to dare to do. It’s a notion inherently familiar to many in this space, as crypto is still new, alien, and often belittled. And hey: Is there a better location for this than Zermatt, home to many pioneers and a vanguard of Swiss alpinism representing some of the most iconic things Switzerland has to offer?
Thus, we used this opportunity to herald the start of crypto in Zermatt. Together with Värdex Suisse AG, we brought the first Bitcoin ATM to a swiss alpine holiday region. Further, Parkhotel Beau Site, in which we stayed, became the first hotel of the Swiss alps to accept cryptocurrencies thanks to the point-of-sale system Bitcoin Suisse Payments. “[It] enables us to combine history and modernity,” said hotel director Roman Codina. Zermatt taking its first steps into the world of digital currencies, is what Romy Biner-Hauser, mayor of the mountain village, described as “innovation in and for Zermatt.” Symbolically, the handover of the Bitcoin ATM and the opening of the crypto payment station took place on Friday at the Matterhorn Museum, a place of extraordinary pioneering achievements on the Matterhorn, accompanied by a presentation by Klaus Tscherrig, an extreme alpinist from Zermatt. The whole event articulated our mission to make crypto accessible to the general public and to inspire people about the potential of crypto-finance.
Beyond Zermatt
Nevertheless, this incredible (now three-day)-endeavour was neither solely about the highest Bitcoin trade ever recorded, nor the start of crypto in Zermatt, and not even about reaching the summit of Breithorn. Yet, all those “firsts”, as we like to call them, became part of a much bigger, bolder narrative: To embrace the pioneering spirit that has been so characteristic for this company since foundation and to inspire others to do the same.
As such, months of keen anticipation were superseded by a rush of enormous joy and pride after the event. For some, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and for many, a true account of what it means to be a pioneer and do things that might seem unattainable at first. And I am happy to confirm: The spirit still lives on, day-by-day.
Confident that it will continue, I’m looking forward to future climbs and summits this company will tackle on its mission to bridge the world of crypto assets with traditional finance. As Dr. Arthur Vayloyan, CEO of Bitcoin Suisse, said:
“When you reach the summit, you have the opportunity to see all the other summits coming.”
Eventually, however, it’s neither about the climbs, nor the summits, but about daring to see new ones.
*Video produced by bsv-production GmbH
