BitOasis CEO: "Nobody trusted crypto, I proved them wrong" I Ola Doudin

Yeah, so one thing I always say is that Web3 or crypto — there's different naming, but it all refers to the same thing from a technology perspective as blockchain — has better product-market fit in emerging markets or developing markets versus developed markets.

If we look between 2023 and 2024, the US continues being the dominant market in terms of receiving crypto and transactional volumes overall. From a size perspective, the US is the largest. But in terms of growth rates regionally, what we're seeing is that Sub-Saharan Africa, India, and the Middle East top that list. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest growth rates globally — recent statistics show 45% year-over-year growth. It's definitely leapfrogging, or growing much faster than developed markets.

Interesting question. I've been looking at that very closely. The lion's share of this activity is stablecoins. Stablecoin growth is exploding globally. Even in developed markets, it's a much faster way to send money cross-border, much cheaper. But what we're seeing is that the percentage of transactional volume going to stablecoins is over 50% in developing markets, but much less in developed markets — close to 30% or less in markets like the US, but over 50-60% in places like Nigeria, across Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Argentina.

100%. Also places like Turkey — we're seeing that the lion's share of transactional activity is due to inflation. It's access to stablecoins, tokenized dollars, for value preservation, cross-border payments, trade — leveraging tokenized dollars like USDT or USDC for actual utility, not just speculative activity.

What was exciting about the acquisition is that BitOasis maintained its brand and its regional local focus. That was important from day one in our conversations with CoinDCX. I think they understood the value of local platforms, especially within fintech. Users have affinity and attachment to local brands, and when it comes to fintech, trust is very important. Having BitOasis as the first and today one of the largest from a UAE perspective is important in terms of establishing that trust. We have similar playbooks in how we want to grow in our markets, how we want to grow our brands locally, expand them, and scale them. Ultimately, our philosophy matched, and it became a natural progression to be acquired and be part of that group so we could have more firepower to execute in our market with partnership with CoinDCX.

Yes, I think as a founder, you always have that in the back of your mind. Autonomy, being able to go out there, get the right capital, the right teams, and executing as fast as you can — that's some of the joys of being a founder. But at this stage, I realized what BitOasis needs. Given the changes in market dynamics and the fast pace of how things are moving in terms of competition, customer segments, and the market itself, I realized that was the right move for BitOasis.

A year in crypto feels like five or ten years with all the progress and volatility. If you ask my parents if they're surprised that I launched BitOasis or took that risk early on and continued the journey, they'd probably say no. There's an aspect of me that, ever since I was a child, I was a rebel but extremely intellectually curious.

I was kicked out of school when I was 15. I'm grateful for my parents for sticking behind me and supporting me in that journey, that crazy phase of my life. At the time, I was part of a school that was very focused on academic track record and graduating the best students. It had very little focus on extracurricular, social, cultural, or even political activities. I didn't like that because you're a human being, a citizen, a student — all these things in one. Having just one focus and not creating space for students or teenagers to express themselves in other ways wasn't something I was fond of. So I rebelled, and the school didn't like it. Ultimately, that taught me that you can still create and change systems from within, but in a more constructive manner. That experience had a big impact on me.

That was probably amongst the toughest chapters for BitOasis. The market was much smaller, we were the first ones, probably the only ones at the time. A lot of people in the space didn't have the conviction that we had — myself and my co-founders. That's the time when you started seeing a lot of companies pivot, some started doing enterprise blockchain, B2B payments. But for me as a founder, it was very important to understand where the real opportunity is despite the noise and market volatility. Every financial center in the world will need a local regional crypto player focused on market building, the right market structure, a regulated play. This is a long-term opportunity. You need to have it in the market to kickstart and scale adoption. I remember the banks started looking at crypto as super risky, so there was a backlash. But ultimately, it was the perception of the space from the wider ecosystem, the entrepreneurship ecosystem, and investors in and outside the region. Those are the times where you really have to believe in the mission, believe in what you're building, and more importantly, believe in the space. Crypto is going to transform financial services. It's amongst the most important innovations we'll see over the next decade. Investing in crypto is a viable asset class with a thesis behind it. Seeing other markets grow internationally — the Middle East is always lagging behind, but there was definitely growth in other markets, and emerging markets were following the same footsteps. Later, in 2021, 2022 onwards, we saw the rise of adoption in emerging markets, and that's where BitOasis started growing more significantly. It was important to stick to the mission and focus on that versus focusing externally on what people are saying. In that cycle, we saw a lot of companies pivot, some really wrong pivots in my opinion. When the market recovered, they lost on that opportunity. In crypto, it's different from other spaces like e-commerce or payments where you might be able to pivot. Here, you have to stick to the opportunity cycle after cycle, but at the same time be laser-focused on where the demand is and where it's going to come from. It's more of a survival play versus incrementally growing.

Funny enough, we tried some of those. We believed in building market infrastructure — liquidity, trading, wallets, broker-dealers — the centralized exchange play. That's the segment we play in. Centralized exchanges continue to be one of the most important opportunities in the crypto space. If we look at which crypto players are publicly traded, Coinbase has a similar playbook. They diversified into different verticals, but the most important part of the business is building that centralized market structure so you become a gateway for people to invest, trade, and use crypto.

Overall, I see it as a positive move for the space. Markets like the UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore — those are smaller, more nimble jurisdictions that are pro-innovation and highly competitive in attracting companies, talent, and capital. They seized the opportunity to position themselves as pro-crypto, creating pro-innovation environments for crypto companies to set up shop. The UAE executed fantastically on that opportunity, attracting the biggest exchanges and crypto players. Having said that, the US is a significant market, the biggest market from a crypto perspective, so it remains very important domestically and globally. What's going to happen is that markets like the UAE will be looked at as regional hubs, leveraging that to serve wider markets or closer jurisdictions. I don't see the US setting pro-regulation as taking opportunities from other markets. Ultimately, the space is growing — growing the pie. In fact, the US having pro-crypto regulation will drive pro-crypto regulation in other jurisdictions that have trade relations with the US. It no longer becomes something on the margins where they're taking a huge risk if the dominant player is already saying, 'We'll do this.' Particularly in India, US pro-crypto regulation will spill over as policy into larger markets that follow the footsteps of the US when it comes to tech regulation.

When it came to M&A, we needed longer-term, more capital, institutional capital. My number one goal was to align with a crypto player because our space is very different. It was very important to find a much larger player that is well-funded, has a strong balance sheet, but has a very similar playbook to us because they will go through the same ups and downs but have a long-term vision. Every founder, every company, and every market opportunity differs, and the type of capital at any stage differs. One tip for founders: understand your journey, your market opportunity, and the mission of your company. Based on that, understand what type of capital and resources you might need at every stage. In our case, crypto is a long-term opportunity. The UAE and Bahrain have taken the right steps to set up regulatory frameworks. Our opportunity is the wider Middle East and North Africa. Regulation takes time, so opportunities in crypto need patient, long-term capital, which typically comes from institutional players or corporates. As a founder, have that chat with your shareholders and understand the right capital and fundraising model for your company to continue growing and maintaining market leadership as the opportunity unfolds.

Myself on the board and our main shareholders had chats about how fast the market is unfolding, and based on that, what is the right model for BitOasis in terms of the cap table and what type of capital we need to bring in. That's where we realized we need strategics — much larger exchanges or crypto players that find the Middle East an interesting jurisdiction or opportunity. As BitOasis grew and the market developed, we understood this is a long-term opportunity. Aligning with your board is very important. We also had international crypto investors that believed in the first-mover advantage and the importance of the Middle East. Ultimately, we've seen that happen in other markets as well. Now, understanding how the market is evolving, a lot of investors are predicting a consolidation play to capture that opportunity and ensure market leaders continue being market leaders as the space grows.

One of the things that triggered that from a Middle East perspective is that you started seeing pro-crypto regulation, particularly in the UAE. That started attracting international players. As a regional player, you need to seriously think: do I get acquired, do I raise more funding, how do I compete? That was the point where we decided to raise money from a strategic, join forces with a much larger player, and then we can head-on compete with the Binances, the OKXs, the Coinbases. Some of them are already in the market or looking to expand. The Middle East is an important market for them. My thought process early on, because I know the founders of most market leaders, was that we want to be part of a larger company that understands the value of our market and the value of a local brand being close to the customer. In my discussions with different founders and companies, I saw that in CoinDCX and its founders. They were different from other companies where the market might just be one of ten. Being part of CoinDCX gives us the nimbleness and agility to execute, but also the autonomy as a local brand to be closer to our customers. We can tap into a much bigger pool of resources — tech, customer segments — and leverage their product suite that is as diversified as some global players, but roll it out as a BitOasis product in the market.

Yes. The top tips that come to mind: an M&A is really a marriage. You have to seriously think early on who the right partner would be and ensure that your mission and company culture align with the acquirer's. Building those relationships early on is important — knowing the founders, but also the management team because you're not only working with the founders. The acquirer will be a much larger company, so you need exposure to their wider company, and even shareholders and board if possible. Really understand how the acquirer thinks of your market and the importance of your market, and what type of resources, opportunities, and synergies that acquisition will unlock. Cultures don't have to be homogeneous as much as they do not clash. So long as the values don't clash, then you have the right setup, and everything else is process, structuring, and all that.

Not investment advice, and obviously a bit biased. I would say crypto. It's one of the most interesting wealth creation opportunities of our time. It is a risky asset, so depending on your risk appetite, you have to do your own homework like any other investment. But it's one of the most interesting investment opportunities given the upside and the growth we're witnessing — crossing $100,000.

A few things to be aware of. First, what to invest in. Typically, you go for the larger market cap assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Those have continued to grow cycle over cycle and are valid alternative asset classes. We'll potentially see the price go even higher than the $100,000 it hit in 2024. A lot of new allocation is going to Bitcoin or Ethereum. For anyone coming into the space for the first time, go for the larger market cap tokens — Bitcoin, Ethereum — what we call blue chip crypto. Then some allocation can go to altcoins, which are lower market cap tokens with more volatility. Some of those are Layer 2 scalability tokens, ZK rollups, NFTs, gaming, and now a new category of AI tokens — blockchains solving specific AI challenges. If folks are looking for outsized returns and willing to take more risk, they can look into those.

A lot of this knowledge is online. The research is not really centralized in one place. There are data analytics websites for investors that are crypto-specific, with on-chain data, price data from different exchanges, and trading values. The knowledge is out there for whoever wants to do that research, but it's not centralized. There's a lot of noise, so how do you filter the signal from the noise? You need to build a thesis. Figure out which categories within crypto outside of Bitcoin — like smart contract blockchains, Layer 2 blockchains, gaming, NFTs — will have the highest growth. Build a thesis on where the next growth will come from, then look at the top blockchains in that field, historical on-chain data, price data, liquidity, adoption, how many applications are built on top, security vulnerabilities. You have to build as an investor with continuous research. Based on that, pick the top ones per category. Institutional investors go for crypto funds, but for a retail customer wanting to build a portfolio, the information and data on how to build your crypto thesis is out there. It requires continuous research and self-education, but that's part of the joy of growing your knowledge and specializing in crypto. It's very different from investing in stocks, but it's not random. A lot of people come in and say it's like gambling, but in any space you go into, you have to educate yourself and build a thesis. Sometimes the thesis proves correct, sometimes wrong, but that's part of the investor journey.

If you're someone who wants to put that $10,000 and be a more passive investor, you definitely want to allocate more into the larger market cap tokens or the blue chip ones — Bitcoin and Ethereum. Again, not investment advice, but that's typically what we see with retail investors coming into the market who want some exposure but not become active investors. If you're just going to set it and forget it, go for the blue chips. If you want to get into this and be actively managing it, seeing what's going up and down, then you can allocate more of the portfolio to altcoins, but it requires being a more active investor.

Interesting question. DeFi has been growing cycle over cycle, but I still don't think it's at a stage where you're seeing direct disruption at the scale of traditional financial systems or banks. The challenge today is more on the regulatory side. Having said that, the way I see it, it could be a challenge, but there is huge complementarity when it comes to banking. Banks are looking to leverage that technology to digitize back office processes, provide more access, efficiency, transparency, and cost reduction. There are two scenarios: one where you leverage DeFi for more efficient FX swaps or streamlining back office processes, which some investment banks are experimenting with. But you also have almost a parallel financial system on the periphery that is growing — DeFi lending, DeFi derivatives — providing much faster or deeper liquidity for trading altcoins not directly available in the market. We see a lot of that still being leveraged for trading, loans, flash loans, and decentralized derivative markets. But it hasn't hit consumer scale yet. Will it ultimately? It would. Will it replace banking as we know it? Banks will still play a significant role. They are depository organizations, and you need regulatory oversight and clarity. In the long term, blockchain and crypto will be in the form of DeFi, tokenization, and stablecoins. You'll have tokenization of real estate, treasuries, bonds, and all that. Bitcoin as an alternative asset class, and some countries are talking about building Bitcoin reserves as currency reserves. Ultimately, you'll see alternative financial infrastructure growing outside traditional banking, but with this cycle, we're seeing more integration. You need both worlds — traditional finance and blockchain-based Web3 finance — to come together to hit consumer scale and global scale, so billions of people are using it versus a couple hundred million fragmented.

Definitely. Interesting question. One of the things that pulled me into crypto is that democratization — building systems outside of the traditional systems. The root of it is still that I got kicked out of school — disrupting systems and building new ones with better access and more democratized access. The dream is still there. But when you start building and get to a point where you need to hit scale, you understand that you have to work with stakeholders to build sustainable, resilient systems adopted by millions, hundreds of millions, and billions. You have to walk together; you can't walk separately because you're just going to keep hitting walls. To dismantle those walls, you have to work with all stakeholders in an ecosystem.

It feels like decades ago. A lot has happened since our first meetup. I think it was in 2015 at a co-working space in Dubai Mall. We were probably amongst the first adopters of crypto at the time. We thought maybe 20 people would show up, but we had over 100 people. It became more of an event than a meetup. The number one question people had was, 'How do I buy Bitcoin?' At that point, it was only Bitcoin; even Ethereum wasn't really traded. That's how BitOasis came to be — straight demand. We had 100 people in the room all wanting to buy it. I remember giving people Bitcoin just to try it out — probably the most expensive giveaway now.

Fractions for people to try it out. I have no idea how much. Probably an expensive, painful memory. I did some Bitcoin purchases at the time too, and in retrospect, probably the most expensive purchases ever. They were really small fractions. We were teaming up on meetups, and then we talked about how there are a lot of people who want to buy crypto and how we can help them. There was no way in the region to do it. If you used international platforms like Bitstamp, Coinbase, or Kraken, it was painful to get KYC done, and they wouldn't accept a typical investor from the Middle East or bank transfers from the Middle East. There was no way for people to reliably buy crypto and trust a platform. You would have done it peer-to-peer, meeting someone, and some of that still happens in some markets in the Middle East.

In retrospect, I was very excited about the opportunity. There's an aspect of every founder journey where you have some naivety, and if you didn't have that, you wouldn't have started. The naivety in the beginning — you don't know what you're getting yourself into. It's probably for the best. I often tell founders, 'Don't figure out everything from day one; it probably would work. It would be counterproductive if you had known everything you need to know starting out.' Sometimes it's really about spotting the opportunity, being early, understanding your customer, and then going for it. Things kind of happen. For us early on, it was really a survivor's game. In crypto, that's very relevant — you have to survive cycle after cycle and come out the strongest.

Several. Some of our early backers like Fadi Ghandour from DCG, Barry Silbert — there are several who early on shaped my vision of how to build a business in the Middle East. Fadi Ghandour and his fantastic journey and impact in this space, but also other crypto players in the market. Fadi was one of the grandfathers of entrepreneurship in the region, founder of Aramex, one of the big shipping and logistics companies. I think everybody who was early here has some story about the impact he had.

Price aside, you're going to start seeing interesting use cases really come up from crypto. We've had the blockchain layer, Layer 1 and Layer 2, focused on scalability for higher transaction numbers and easier ways to transact. Now there are more blockchain innovations to create abstract layers where a newbie crypto user doesn't have to deal with the complexities of the blockchain itself. These innovations at the protocol level will help founders and builders build easier-to-use decentralized applications that will go out to the masses — be it in the form of payments, stablecoins, gaming. We're seeing a lot of innovation in blockchain-based games, decentralized social media platforms, and identity online. That will help in voting systems and building blockchain-based voting systems. We're definitely seeing a lot of innovation and adoption on the institutional side.

Hard to predict. There's a lot of innovation in those verticals I mentioned — payments, DeFi, banking, gaming, NFTs, tokenization. My thesis is that every asset, physical or digital, will at some point be traded and transacted on a blockchain. How we get to that vision involves a ton of work on the protocol and regulatory level. Centralized exchanges will play a central role in unlocking some of that value. From real estate to equities, shares of companies, art, digital real estate, gaming, metaverse — everything will be transacted on a blockchain, traced, bought, sold, traded. Our relationship to value and ownership will change. The killer app at least in this cycle is really stablecoins and their growth for cross-border payments. We've been talking about that for years, and it's happening now. DeFi is also prime for further growth because you need stablecoins to power those transactions. Remittances and cross-border payments as well.

From day one, it's still the same: building more inclusive, open financial systems that allow for bigger participation of consumers and users internationally, particularly in emerging markets. That's been exciting for me from day one and continues to be. Also, what new business models might be unlocked and what companies might be built in markets that probably didn't have that opportunity in previous tech innovations.

The IPO market has been very busy in the Middle East as well with the TABOOD IPO. It's bound to happen. When and how is hard to predict. We definitely need more regulatory maturity in larger markets in the Middle East for that to happen, particularly Saudi Arabia, Egypt perhaps, for that full Middle East opportunity to be unlocked.

I bought coffee in San Francisco. I found a cafe in San Francisco that sells coffee for crypto. Probably the most expensive coffee I've bought.

I have no idea. I don't even want to think about it. I was so excited that I could do something with my crypto. Little did I know the price was going to go up.

Selling some of my crypto at some point. I don't think I've ever regretted buying; I've always regretted selling.

Failure. But I've come to learn that failure happens when the founder gives up, not when you have the wrong product, provided that you're agile enough. It's really when the founder gives up.

Inclusive.

'It's not going to work. Don't try it.'

I have no idea. I feel like it became irrelevant, really.

Thank you. This was a pleasure. Really nice to be with you.