00:00So, given all of that, you call Bitco the AWS of digital assets, but AWS, or Amazon Web Services, is
00:06high margins.
00:07What has to change in the infrastructure story for maybe Bitcoin to be AWS and for the story to show
00:13up in the financials?
00:16Well, thanks for having me on.
00:17Look, the entire digital asset industry is growing and has been growing over the last 15 years.
00:23It's the newest asset class that I think we have, and it does take time to build all of this.
00:29And, by the way, remember, the previous four years had a regulatory landscape where the administration was actively fighting the
00:36industry.
00:36So, even just in the last 18 months, we've seen tremendous growth.
00:40I mean, look across the traditional firms that are now squarely in on digital assets, from BlackRock to Fidelity to
00:46Citigroup to Morgan Stanley.
00:48Every single one of them.
00:49Vanguard just announced today that they're finally coming in as well.
00:52Like, everyone recognizes that this asset class is first class, should be first class.
00:57And then now we're finally building those, just starting within the last 12 months.
01:01So, look, in the center of all of this, the things that Bicco's been building for over 12 years now
01:07is, you know, how do you do this securely?
01:10How do you do this with a strong regulatory footprint?
01:12How do you do it out of an OCC, nationally chartered bank?
01:15You know, so the types of things that Bicco's focused on is right in the center of what every single
01:19one of those firms needs.
01:20And absolutely, we see tremendous growth.
01:24I'm very excited to see tokenized equities finally taking a strong route in digital assets.
01:31Previously, that was kind of not even a discussion that regulators were willing to have.
01:35It's nice to have regulators that are open to how do we build better markets in America.
01:39Yeah, certainly a lot of enthusiasm around tokenized equities right now.
01:43But I do want to go back to that recent announcement when it comes to that 15% workforce reduction
01:48that you announced.
01:50There was an interesting note from a KBW analyst who basically said that this move, it could suggest a more
01:56cautious view on crypto conditions overall.
02:00Is that a fair extrapolation to make, Mike?
02:05No, I wouldn't say so.
02:06Look, if this industry is known for one thing, it's known for volatility.
02:10And we have a responsibility to our shareholders to grow the business kind of in an up and to the
02:17right type of manner.
02:18Well, you've got a volatile business that goes up and down, market that goes up and down, you know, kind
02:24of somewhat randomly and all over the place.
02:28So the net result is like how do you manage that growth?
02:31How do you make sure that you're always poised to capture it as we're on the upswing and then also
02:36make sure that you're effectively positioned when things are not as good?
02:40So, look, I mean, I think you can look at the market and people can see where things are.
02:43We're a public company.
02:44You can see how we're performing.
02:45I think this is all about responsible management.
02:49My heart does go out to everyone that was affected.
02:51I never liked to do these types of things, of course, but I do think it's necessary.
02:55And then I don't want to blame AI.
02:57There's too much.
02:58I do think as you think about your workforce and you craft, you know, how do you build a great
03:03business?
03:04You know, the big part of it is how do you accumulate the top talent that's able to get the
03:11most done?
03:12And there is a change that's happening right now.
03:14So we hired a lot of people in the last, you know, 18 months, and some of them are better
03:18at using the tools of the age than others.
03:22And, yes, we need the most productive engineers.
03:26We need the most productive talent across the company.
03:29So, yeah, it's about focus.
03:31It's about making sure that we can accomplish everything we're trying to accomplish.
03:35And, of course, AI tools, some people are really good at it and just, like, running to the end zone.
03:40And others, you know, are not quite there yet.
03:43So, of course, we're refining our talent pool to make sure that we are as strong of a company as
03:48we can be.
03:48And we have to ask you, of course, about concerns surrounding quantum.
03:52So you've recently demonstrated quantum-resistant security for crypto custody.
03:56Is this something customers have asked of you or is this something that you're just trying to build one that
04:01is risk decades away?
04:04You know, a lot of digital assets over the last 12 years is education of, like, hey, what is this?
04:10What is hashing?
04:10Wait, what's it backed by?
04:12I don't understand this new technology.
04:15And the quantum computer is one of the latest fear factors that's come onto the scene, in particular from traditional
04:22finance.
04:23Traditional finance has mostly been on the sidelines up until the last 12 months.
04:27And now all of a sudden they're looking at digital assets and they're trying to understand, like, wait a minute,
04:31is this thing going to be safe?
04:32So let me make it very clear.
04:34Quantum computing is not an immediate threat, even a near-term threat, to digital assets at all.
04:41However, I do believe it's our responsibility, those of us in the industry, to make sure that we quell the
04:47fears.
04:48And so we are actively working.
04:50We've got a product coming for quantum resistance within BitGo's own Bitcoin wallets.
04:55There's a lot you can do here in terms of, you know, most coins at rest are not at risk
05:00at all.
05:01Even if a quantum computer showed up tomorrow.
05:03And we're making sure that we're employing that.
05:06On the Ethereum side, we demonstrated with a partner, Silence Laboratories, about two months ago.
05:12The first quantum-resistant on-chain transaction we did on the Ethereum network.
05:17The technology is here.
05:19It takes time to assemble it and roll it out.
05:22If a quantum computer were to show up tomorrow, we are absolutely ready for it.
05:26But I'm not worried about it.
05:28There's a lot of details to be done here.
05:30But, yeah, mostly we want to make sure that people know that the folks in the space are actively working
05:34on this problem.
05:35And they'll be okay.
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