Monaco: Cryptocurrency in Every Wallet

By James Gray·3 June 2018·3 min read

Key Points

Since Bitcoin's creation, digital assets have experienced wild price swings that have fundamentally shifted how investors view them—less as a tool for everyday transactions and more as speculative hol

Since Bitcoin's creation, digital assets have experienced wild price swings that have fundamentally shifted how investors view them—less as a tool for everyday transactions and more as speculative holdings. This departure from Satoshi Nakamoto's original dream of decentralized peer-to-peer cash is perhaps inevitable given the market's brutal volatility, which makes cryptocurrencies impractical for regular purchases. That said, merchant acceptance continues climbing, even if crypto still can't serve as a practical solution for every transaction. The real challenge emerges for those fully committed to digital assets or earning income in crypto: how do you handle ordinary expenses when your wealth sits in tokens that swing wildly in price? One approach involves using a credit card for monthly expenses, then selling crypto to cover the bill—but a sudden market plunge could leave you unable to pay. Alternatively, selling large holdings early in the month for spending cash might mean missing a price surge. Monaco sees an opportunity to bridge this gap, developing infrastructure that connects crypto holdings directly to traditional payment systems via the Monaco Card and companion wallet application.

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The Monaco Visa debit card lets users convert holdings into spending power through the Monaco app. The platform currently facilitates four digital assets—bitcoin, ether, Binance Coin, and the company's native MCO token—across seven traditional currencies including USD, GBP, EUR, HKD, SGD, JPY, and AUD. At Consensus 2018, Managing Director and Co-Founder Bobby Bao and Senior Vice President of Group Strategy Eric Anziani discussed the company's direction. Anziani stated, "Our vision is to power the future of money and to put cryptocurrency in every wallet." Beyond the card, Monaco is building additional offerings. Monaco Auto Invest aims to manage cryptocurrency portfolios automatically aligned with individual risk profiles and investment objectives. The company established Monaco University to build public knowledge through educational content and video materials on blockchain and digital currency fundamentals.

On working alongside Visa, Anziani explained their strategic approach: "What's important to the traditional fintech players like Visa is a clear distinction between the cryptocurrency services and the fiat services. If you say 'we can manage the crypto, will you help us with the fiat?' then it's easy to work together." Monaco's 2017 token launch proved remarkably successful, generating roughly $26.7 million in capital. When pressed for counsel toward other startups considering token fundraising, Bao offered straightforward guidance: "The best piece of advice I can give to a company [looking to launch an ICO] is 'listen to your community.' Cryptocurrency is community driven. You have to talk to people, not just online but offline, face-to-face. You have to be real. The great thing about being a cryptocurrency company—you're a startup, but you're also public. It feels like a family—you do business together." On whether their product addresses barriers keeping people away from crypto, Anziani shared his perspective on what must shift for mainstream adoption: "Less than 1% of the global population holds cryptocurrency. Access and usability are really two major challenges that are still present in the space. With our product, we are trying to tackle those challenges head-on."

Correction: An earlier iteration of this article incorrectly noted that Monaco supported Canadian dollars and planned to introduce a credit product. This information has been removed as it was inaccurate.

MiningPool content is intended for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice.

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