A Market in the Making Webinar Episode 1

Providing the Best Experience for Retail Traders

June 20, 2020

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A Market in the Making is a webinar series featuring the numerous players working together to build the digital asset trading infrastructure. Hosted by Woorton, the leading European market maker, the series welcomes some of their key partners to discuss macro trends, user experience and joint efforts to build the digital asset market.

During the first episode, PBWS welcomed Charlie Meraud, CEO of Woorton and Giulia Mazzolini, Country Manager France at Bitpanda for an exclusive webinar. Bitpanda, the leading European investment platform,  is a key partner of Woorton and a longtime friend of the Paris Blockchain Week Summit.  

Charlie and Giulia discussed what makes a crypto exchange stand out from the crowd, the particularities of the French crypto exchange market, and more.  

Here’s a preview of some key takeaways: ‍

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1. Market makers help exchanges to increase their liquidity and volume

2. Exchange users tend to be more price sensitive than broker users 

3. Exchanges need to stand out from the competition 

4. The French crypto market is evolving and attracting key players 

5. The challenge in the French market (and any market) is to show new users that crypto is legitimate and accessible to everyone‍

1. Market makers help exchanges to increase their liquidity and volume
   

Market makers are extremely important for an exchange, as they help to increase liquidity and volume.  More users means more volume, and the most efficient way to build up liquidity is via market makers.  According to Giulia, Bitpanda has seen a more positive effect on volume after working with Woorton for just 1 year.

2. Exchange users tend to be more price sensitive than broker users 
   

Users that are more price-sensitive tend to gravitate towards exchanges, making them less likely to use a broker, whereas broker users tend to be individuals who want to buy crypto assets, build a portfolio, and hold it for a long period of time.  Bitpanda noticed a need amongst their user base for an exchange platform, and decided to launch Bitpanda Pro. 

3. Exchanges need to stand out from the competition 
   

Given the huge number of competitors in the crypto exchange market, it can be a challenge to stand out.  Giulia talks about how Bitpanda has successfully done so by conforming to compliance regulations, making the platform easy to use, and hosting the platform in-house in order to resolve any technical issues as fast as possible.  

4. The French crypto market is evolving and attracting key players 
   

Charlie describes how French authorities were ahead of the game because they created regulatory frameworks for blockchain before the big players came to the country, and now because of that big players like Bitpanda are coming to France. Regulations have become a differentiating factor for exchanges, which makes France more attractive to them.

According to Giulia, France’s creation of a regulatory framework ahead of other countries “shows a willingness to progress and build something in some ways, it provides a framework for people to trust organizations like ourselves and other players that crypto is a legitimate industry and we are building regulations for it.”

5. The challenge in the French market (and any market) is to show new users that crypto is legitimate and accessible to everyone
   

Crypto adoption is rather low in France compared to other European countries, and the French market tends to associate investing with having large amounts of capital. At the same time, from a regulation standpoint it is easier for exchanges to launch in France, therefore the challenge is to show new users that cryptocurrencies are safe, legitimate and accessible.  

This was just a preview of the insights you can have from the webinar. 

Register here for on-demand access to the webinar: 
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/2NdpFpOv1T9LWreO9EfcQLEhWYHnT6a8hnBIrqINxEiQQryerUHGL2IupHcrSl_N

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‍About the Speakers: ‍‍

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‍Charlie Meraud‍

CEO of Woorton 

Charlie Meraud is the co-founder of Woorton, the Paris Blockchain Week and the French Digital Asset Association and has been active in the field since 2016. Before that, Charlie worked on a Credit and Forex Solutions Sales desk where he traded about €750M per year mainly in repo, forex and interest rates with CEEMEA clients ranging from banks to assets managers and insurers. After that, he was part of the launch team of Blackfin Capital Partners venture fund which raised €180M to invest in European fintech startups from early stage seed to Series B. He left a management position at the one of the fastest growing startups in Singapore to dedicate himself to cryptocurrencies in France.

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‍Giulia Mazzolini 

Country Manager France at Bitpanda 

Giulia is half French and half Italian and she is the Country Manager for France at Bitpanda, in Vienna. Her primary role is to drive growth in France. Prior to joining Bitpanda, Giulia worked two years at Bloomberg in London. She was part of the sales team covering French speaking territories such as France, Switzerland, and Monaco. She also has experience working with entrepreneurs. Giulia spent one year building a program to help startups with their fundraising in London and Paris.

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