Our guest today is Darshan Bathija, co-founder and CEO of Vauld, a crypto trading exchange and lending startup. In this conversation, Bathija, who comes from a long line of financiers, talks about his disillusionment with traditional finance to make positive change, and his ambition to make loans from the crypto world accessible to anyone who needs them, anywhere on the planet.

(00:40) Intro to The Daily Tech Conversation

(01:00) Our guest today — Darshan Bathija, co-founder and CEO of Vauld

(01:32) How Vauld was started

(03:18) Starting off in 2018, wanting to build for the world — identified the gap between traditional finance and crypto finance

(04:34) First MVP didn’t take off at all, and led to a pivot to a more straightforward credit product on the lending side of the business

(06:15) Vision for Vauld’s place in the crypto world — customer centricity for crypto-based financial services

(07:05) Ambition to become the Revolut of the crypto world

(09:56) Explaining what customer centricity really means in crypto finance

(12:05) Erosion of the purchasing power of currencies — one more reason for the attractiveness of crypto

(14:00) A perspective on the volatility of Bitcoin

(16:25) Surge in crypto deposits and the number of millions of customers

(17:18) Innovative features at Vauld

(20:00) Native banking integrations in India, and “a lot of customers from India as well”

(22:47) Tax on crypto and other government regulatory clarity needed

(26:00) Expectations from India’s budget announcements

(27:11) Developments in crypto in 2021 — the rise of the ‘Layer 2’ blockchains, proof-of-stake, NFTs

(30:52) Next big steps at Vauld

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds:

https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds