Story highlights Founders of the cryptocurrency start-up are known for their sports expertise.
The Boston-based team recently secured new stadium naming rights.
When you hear the name “Crypto.com,” chances are you have an association with some other cryptocurrency, alternative currencies or blockchain technology. Its co-founders — Ian Cohen, an entrepreneur and former Boston Celtics coach; and David Touretsky, a global strategist and former Merrill Lynch Global Wealth CEO — have made a name for themselves, both within the sports world and in the world of cryptocurrency.
For the past three years, they’ve been CEOs of Crypto.com, a cryptocurrency start-up that offers services for users, including secure money transfers, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and enterprise solutions.
Founded in June 2015, the company has been active since it debuted its initial coin offering (ICO), also known as the first online initial coin offering. Coins are an independent piece of digital currency that’s decentralized and independent from the central institution that facilitates them.
Crypto.com experienced a major boost in 2017, when it released a new virtual currency — called Camel.
The company took some of its core assets and assets-based tokens and unleashed them in what is called a “hard fork,” says head of marketing and business development Andy Wieder. In a hard fork, two of the company’s core assets are reallocated to a different virtual currency, so it can be differentiated.
“We determined that Camel would have a different value than Crypto,” Wieder said, “and it’s comprised of a different set of underlying assets, and has a different set of benefits than, say, Bitcoin.”
What makes Coin.com stand out is that it provides a “seamless payment and transfer system.” In that regard, it’s different from other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
“That’s our distinguishing asset that enables us to work as a payment network,” Wieder said. “And we find people on the consumer side using it for both purchase and use.”
The beauty of Ripple and Coin.com is that you can use any virtual currency to pay your bills, exchange your cryptocurrency and move your funds from one wallet to another, as long as you’re within the jurisdiction where the physical coins are approved to be used. And you can do all of this at a slower rate than competing products, such as bitcoin — Crypto.com brings all of that together into one go-to wallet.
With Crypto.com, the company has been active in launching several features — one of which is being the first payment network for Bitcoin and Ethereum, which launched with the evolution of these cryptocurrencies. The move made it possible for users to send, receive and store cryptocurrencies.
With its new partnership with the Boston Celtics, we’ll be able to see Crypto.com in a different light for 2019.
The Boston Celtics will soon be called the Boston CryptoCeltics, the team announced in January. As part of the deal, the team announced that its home will soon be called the BB&T Center. In turn, the sports team will receive an undisclosed portion of Crypto.com’s funds.
“Cards are one of the most popular sports brands in the world, and it’s particularly meaningful that we’re partnering with the Brooklyn-based team who are highly respected,” Cohen said in a press release. “Our collaboration builds on the team’s legacy of success and we’re proud to join forces.”