RockTree’s Omer Ozden and Kevin O’Brien: China’s Mammoth Blockchain Market Opportunity

Host Tom Shaughnessy talks to Omer Ozden and Kevin O’Brien, CEO and Managing Director of Rocktree Capital, respectively. They discuss the China blockchain market versus the US, tech innovation, the move to cashless economies, and more.

Key Points

1. US tech innovation is stifled by regulatory restrictions as compared to China.
2. It’s of the utmost importance to be sure you’re legally compliant from the beginning to avoid huge problems later.
3. China is at the forefront of a global movement towards cashless economies.

Episode Highlights

• Rocktree Capital’s biggest presence is in China.
• Presence in China is important for liquidity and capital.
• If New York is the fastest market in the US, China moves even faster.
• Rocktree Capital aims to be a bridge to unite the US and China blockchain markets.
• All Western companies need to have a China strategy.
• The best innovators come from the US but our regulatory systems are prohibitive and are making us lose to China in tech.
• Analysts in the US get very little of their research and analysis from China; maybe only 15% is reliable information.
• Bitcoin is just as important in Asian countries as it is in the US.
• DCP is the legal digital currency of China with P2P settlement, and Omer doesn’t predict it will take long for widespread adoption because China is already a primarily cashless economy.
• Other Asian and African countries will move in the cashless direction over the next few years.
• There will likely be some government investment in blockchain but there will be more private investing.
• What does coronavirus mean for crypto in China?

Quotes

• “You’re talking about a population unlike the West [that is] fragmented across other channels, whereas in the greater China market, people are unified across one social channel called WeChat, so you have 1.3 billion people across a single social platform.” –Kevin O’Brien

• “Everybody focuses on the tech, but if a company doesn’t pay attention to legal compliance, first of all from an investor standpoint, it’s not gonna hit the valuation, there’s a lot of risk and it could even go to zero.” –Omer Ozden

• “A day in the life of somebody in crypto is a year for anybody else.” –Omer Ozden

• In China, we say 币圈一天，人间一年 or “Bi Quan Yi Tian, Ren Jian Yi Nian” - Which means: “A day in the life of someone in cryptocurrency is a year for anyone else” - Omer Ozden

• In China, RockTree calls this investment theme “Hua Er Jie Er Dian Ling: “Wall Street 2.0” - Omer Ozden

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