Journalist: Teresa
Right before Circle announced its latest $110 million investment round led by Bitmain to issue stable coins this summer, PANONY interviewed Circle’s CMO Marieke Flament on Tuesday during Consensus 2018 in New York City.
Coming from a traditional marketing background and the experience living in Shanghai, Marieke Flament offered exciting insights about Circle and Circle’s operations in the Asian market.
Before $110 million investment round led by Bitmain , Circle had received investment from CreditEase, both of them are Chinese company. Marieke told PANONY “Although the regulatory landscape in China is not entirely opened up, it doesn’t mean Chinese government is oblivious toward blockchain technology. Quite the contrary, the Chinese government is aware of what to do and what not to do.”
PANONY in NY with Circle’s CMO Marieke Flament
She also mentioned that “Regarding working with Chinese investors, it is a relatively smooth process. The investors are more aware of what Circle is trying to achieve. Of course, working with Chinese funds do help building relationships in China. ”
In fact, Circle is targeting Asia as the next expansion frontier and recently set Hong Kong as a base for its Asian operations. Marieke pointed out that, Asia is a vibrant and active market. The speed of blockchain projects happening in Asia is unparalleled anywhere in the world. Asian people are also more aware of blockchain technology.
“We launched Circle Trade as our first product in Asia. The reason is the growing demand for over-the-counter token liquidity. Apart from that, we don’t want to be a direct competitor to major exchanges and payment solutions. As a result, having Circle Trade as our first product in Asia is an optimal strategic move. ” She said.
Circle is successful in obtaining government authorization. It’s the first company to register BitLicense in New York and also the first one to acquire e-money license from UK Financial Conduct Authority.
Marieke responded that they believe that the sustainable way of doing business in blockchain community is by actively complying with regulations.
“ Circle has made a lot of conscious efforts in the regulatory field. For example, Circle has its in-house legal team working closely on regulatory issues. We also work actively on anti-fraud and KYC model to make sure things are done in the right way, ” she said.
Facing regulations is full of challenges. Marieke thought the most significant problem working with the regulatory body is for both sides of the world to understand each other. Education and bringing people together are the most important thing.
“The UK fintech sandbox is a great approach. ”She also mentioned that Circle is engaged in multiple conversations with the governments, such as being part of IMF advisory group on blockchain and cryptocurrency.
When talking about the possibility of Nasdaq opening its cryptocurrency exchange, Marieke said, it is always good to have more legitimate players in the market.
However, three months ago, Circle finished the acquisition of Poloniex which is one of the biggest crypto exchange. “It is always hard to balance between organic growth and acquisition expansion. ”
“From Circle’s perspective, we don’t make acquisition decision lightly. The most significant drivers of acquisition decision will be cultural and strategic fit and talent acquisition. Poloniex fits into that box perfectly. ” She revealed.
As for the relation with fiat payment such as Alipay, Mariek’s opinion is quite clearly, “Instead of seeing them as competitors, we would rather see them as partners.”
Mariek said, “Circle Pay and other fiat payment tools operate differently. We’d love to see a future where Circle Pay is compatible with fiat payment and other social media tools, such as integrated with iMessage using API. We are also working on using social media to acquire more customers. ”
