Crypto convos: Why crypto? Why now?

Crypto is a real conversation starter—so let’s talk about it. 

In our first Crypto Conversation, Sharesies co-CEO Leighton Roberts spills why Sharesies is getting into the crypto game. Why now? How have investors responded? What makes Sharesies Crypto different from what’s already in market?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Investing and involves the risk you might lose the money
you start with. We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor.
We also recommend reading product disclosure documents before deciding to invest.
Everything you're about to see and here is current at
the time of recording.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
It's a special week on Shared Lunch to mark the
recent launch of Shares is Crypto. We're going to be
diving into five conversations all about crypto, from how it's evolving,
to what investors me to know in twenty twenty five
and beyond. Just a note though some of these episodes
were recorded earlier in the year, so some market prices
and movements may have changed. In this first episode, we

(00:39):
talked to co CEO of Shechesy's, Leighton Roberts, and we
ask why crypto and why.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Now eight years it's pretty much being the number one
Wow requested feature on the platform, So it's always been
in our minds. It's always pretty much been when, not if,
and because of that, it's just been a matter of
working out timing and when that would work. So why now?
The first thing is that demand remains really high. We're
definitely seeing the collision between what you'd call the defile

(01:08):
or the decentralized finance world and the traditional finance which
is where we operate now, like that's starting to happen
more and more so even in the operations of Sheares's
a business, we're looking at ways that we might use
things like stable coins. And then finally, there's a you know,
basically a generation, particularly younger investors, who are super interested

(01:29):
in this. It's engaging them, and if we want to
be part of that conversation and part of the education
to support them and building their wealth, then we need
to have a products available that they want as well.
So it's a bit of a clision of things coming together,
a bit of timing, a huge amount of demand and
as I say, something that's been on our roadmap in

(01:50):
some shape or form for quite some time.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Cheesa's gave access to everyone a few weeks ago now,
so we've had a little bit of time. What has
the reaction been? Was it what you sought? Has there
been any surprises?

Speaker 3 (02:04):
I'd say remarkably similar to what I thought. We knew
it would be popular, and we also expected that people
would would use it to make up a part of
their portfolio as opposed to a portfolio in and of itself.
So what we're seeing is I think I checked just
a few minutes ago. Actually there's over eighty thousand people
have now gone through the flow. Huge amount of those

(02:24):
now own various coins on the platform, and yeah, by
and large, they're using it to supplement other parts of
their portfolio. So the thing I didn't touch on earlier
is institutions and wholesale investors are now using cryptoda, or
at least they are having some exposure and they think
it's smart to have some exposure in their portfolios. So

(02:47):
we're seeing that as well. So yeah, huge amount of interest.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
What's available on Cheesy's is slightly different to the normal
sort of crypto offering out there. Can you talk us
through the Cheesy's.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Model similar to others around the world, I'd say, but
a lot of people think about having owning crypto is
owning it in their own wallets and having their own addresses,
and that comes with some risk because if you lose them,
they're gone. And we've probably many of us have heard
those horror stories from people. So so we've taken a

(03:20):
custody model to it. So everyone accesses their crypto through
the shares platform and it's held in custody on Chares's.
We do over time want to look to having people
be able to move money on and off the platform
into their own wallets. But this is how we started.
We think it's a great way people get going. They

(03:41):
can ultimately speak to our team if they need to.
If the you know, there's the forgot password is not
an uncommon pattern on our platform either. But yeah, this
this isn't an uncommon pattern or way of holding crypto globally.
It's just a little bit different to what some people
might have might might think about when they think about crypto.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Now we've got a real range of investors on cheers E's.
What would you say to those that are perhaps crypto curious,
They aren't in there, they haven't done not some investing
in crypto before. What would you say to them?

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Same thing as I say with any investment really is
like just do your own reading, have a read about it,
work out it if you can understand, and then just
give it a go. And you know, you don't have
to use huge amounts of money, you don't have to
risk the family house, and I'd highly recommend you didn't.
It's no thinking about that and just giving it a

(04:36):
go with small amounts and getting comfortable over time. Like
it is volatile, so you can expect a huge amount
of ups and downs, but a bit of reading goes
goes a long way, a bit of googling and then
ultimately getting comfortable yourself and trying it with a small amount.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
So the crypto curious, then there's obviously a fear bit
to learn. As you say, they can do their own reading.
But how is Cheers's helping educate? Because that's all what
we've always done. When there's a new asset, class or
something new that people who have been invested for don't
know too much about, we try and educate first. So
how is Cheesy's going about that?

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Yeah, So, as you touch on, education's big part of
what we do, and we'll do that in a few ways.
The first way is just in the transparency of the platform,
so being able to see that what you're buying, what
you're selling, some volatility warnings and price history and things
like that. The next thing is, over the next few
days we're going to be doing a bunch of these
podcasts actually, and there'll be a great chance for people

(05:32):
to learn a bit more about this world. And then
we've got some education content as well that we've put out.
So look, chess is a great place to start for
those who are curious and hopefully it might trigger you know,
a few things that might be a bit more interested
in to go do some additional learning for themselves. And
we'd love any feedback. So for themes that we can
put out in content and education that we can keep doing,

(05:53):
because we'll absolutely continue to invest in this. You know
now that this is a product used by tens of
thousands of our customers.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
Crypto is generally considered a high risk investment. It's not
suitable for everyone, especially if you're uncomfortable with the potential
of losing some or all off your investment. For more
of the national crypto and its specific risks, check out
Chezy's dotting z slash Crypto Cheesus Crypto as offered by
Cheese's Krypto Limited,