Crypto.com executive Karl Mohan bullish on future despite hack, bitcoin wipe-out

Major sport sponsorships, a $42m hack, signing Hollywood celeb Matt Damon all while investors have lost billions is not enough to perturb one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.

Crypto.com executive Karl Mohan. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

Bitcoin and ethereum have hit six-month lows with the crypto crash wiping out more than a trillion dollars from the market since October but Crypto.com top executive Karl Mohan is unperturbed.

Mohan, the Asia Pacific boss of one the world’s largest crypto exchanges, says it’s still early days for his industry and while the market is experiencing a near-term down trend, the year-on-year trendline is up – both in terms of the crypto total market cap, and total number of crypto users.

Investors’ patience is being seriously tested but Mohan points to Crypto.com statistics showing that the number of global crypto users almost tripled in 2021 from 106 million in January to 295 million in December and he says user growth will continue to skyrocket.

“It was a remarkable growth rate, and we‘re expecting crypto will reach 1 billion users by the end of the year,” Mohan says.

“We also saw record growth in terms of people working in the crypto industry too.

“Our staff headcount grew more than 4-times in 2021, and we’re now at over 3,000 employees globally.”

Aside from a crypto valuation wipe-out, Crypto.com has also had to contend with a recent hack, with the company admitting this week that a hacker made off with cryptocurrency stolen from 483 users’ digital wallets. The hack was reportedly worth $US30m though Crypto.com has not confirmed its valuation.

It was less than ideal timing for the company which was racing to compete in a high-octane land grab for Australian crypto users, last week announcing a high-profile $25m sponsorship deal with the AFL and AFLW, to sit alongside more than $1.5bn in sports branding deals including a $US700m ($971m) naming rights agreement for a Los Angeles stadium and partnerships ranging from soccer club Paris St Germain to the UFC martial arts championship and Formula One.

Staples Arena has been renamed Crypto.com Arena. Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images/AFP

It has also hired Hollywood star Matt Damon – also an investor in the company – as a brand ambassador. The company offers a cryptocurrency exchange as well as digital wallets and crypto-backed debit cards.

Mohan says that the recent hack affected 483 Crypto.com users from its user base of over 10 million globally and that no customers experienced a loss of funds.

“Crypto.com promptly suspended withdrawals for all tokens to initiate an investigation and in the majority of cases, we prevented the unauthorised withdrawal, and in all other cases customers were fully reimbursed,” he says.

“What we are doing as a direct result to ensure customer trust in future is to introduce the Worldwide Account Protection Program. APP is designed to protect user funds in cases where a third party gains unauthorised access to their account and withdraws funds without the user’s permission and restores funds up to $US250,000 for qualified users.

“The safety of our customers’ funds is our highest priority, and we are continually enhancing our Defence-in-Depth security and protection measures. While we are reminded of the existence of bad actors intent on committing fraud, this new Account Protection Program, along with our new MFA infrastructure, gives our users unprecedented protection of their funds, and hopefully, peace of mind.”

Mohan, the former local boss of failed German-based payments processor Wirecard, is bullish on Australia specifically, describing Australians as eager to adopt cryptocurrency, given over one in five already hold crypto in their portfolio.

“Crypto.com is already a market leader in Australia with a substantial user-base, and we are excited to further expand in the market with a growing Australian staff,” he says.

“Since the commencement of our Australian operations in June 2020, we have obtained an AFS Licence, obtained AFCA membership, registered with AUSTRAC.

“With its fintech-friendly environment, strong regulatory reputation and highly skilled workforce, Australia is one of the first countries where we are localising the majority, if not all, of our services and related operations for the local market.”