In conversation with Ian Simpson

Rafael Gerpe Lorenzo is a Senior Relationship Manager at Bitcoin Suisse. Before joining the company, he worked at Credit Suisse and received a Master’s in banking and finance from the University of Zürich.

1. Did you ever think you would end up working in crypto – or have you always been a “crypto head?”

To be honest, not really. I always had some interest in new technologies and disruptive innovations, but I was more the traditional “banking and finance guy” and was very skeptical at the beginning about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But as you see, I changed my mind!

2. When you talk to clients at Bitcoin Suisse, what are some of the questions that they ask? How much do you think people REALLY understand about the potential of crypto assets?

They have a lot of questions… But one question I often hear is “What is the current market sentiment?” This seems to be an obvious one to answer since you can refer to the public available prices which everyone can see, but still clients like to ask it and it triggers further discussions about market dynamics.

Bitcoin Suisse has been around since 2013 and there are clients who got involved very early on in crypto assets and saw their tremendous potential already back then. What we see today is that more and more investors who were only engaged in traditional assets before, now see some diversification potential in crypto assets for various reasons. They do not necessarily understand the potential of the technology behind crypto, but they seem to attribute some future relevance to this new asset class and are starting to invest.

3. What do you read to keep up on the latest things in crypto? Any Reddit forums, Telegram groups, news sites?

We have quite some information sources internally at Bitcoin Suisse which keep me up to date. Our Research Departments provides excellent insights on cryptocurrency topics on a regular basis (Bitcoin Suisse Outlook, Decrypt, Weekly Wrap) and our Trade Desk publishes a daily market update which is worth reading through. Other than that, I follow some Twitter accounts in the crypto community and read through the Cryptocurrency forum on Reddit which sometimes provide some additional insights.

4. Can you give us some differences between Credit Suisse and Bitcoin Suisse?

Well, an obvious one is that one entity is a big bank and has been around for over 150 years providing traditional banking services and the other company is a rather new (<10 years) crypto service provider engaged in the highly dynamic and innovative crypto industry. Another difference from a more cultural perspective is that Credit Suisse is a large company with thousands of employees worldwide whereas Bitcoin Suisse has a much more focused and familiar work environment. When I started at Bitcoin Suisse, we were around 30 people but even today with already more than 300 employees, it feels very friendly and people are generally quite familiar with each other.

5. How often do you check crypto markets? Every few minutes, every hour…once a day?

It highly depends on the market situation. When I am working, I tend to check the prices every few minutes since I am frequently in contact with clients, and it is part of my job to know what’s going on in the market. In my free time I try to check them less regularly, but I am not very successful in doing that. ?

6. Favorite music to relax by? To get inspired by?

My taste in music is really a mix… I have quite a wide variety ranging from reggae to relax, over to Swiss and international pop, hip hop and rap as well as an endless reggaeton playlist. But I also just like listen to some old hits and find inspiration there.

7. How did it work for you during covid times, staying in touch with clients, having many more new team members join – how did you deal with that?

That was certainly a special time for everyone. It required some agile organizational changes at the beginning, but adapting to more virtual meetings and remote work for me went quite smoothly for me. Nevertheless, personal meetings are still very important, particularly to connect with new joiners and to establish certain client relationships.

8. Best advice for someone new to Bitcoin Suisse?

Be mindful and don’t get distracted by challenges. Concentrate your energy on what really matters – finding solutions which serve our clients.

9. The funniest or most “unlikely” story with crypto?

There are a lot of funny stories with crypto. One of my previous colleagues at my former employer invested quite early in Dogecoin and I told him back then that he will regret his purchase. Turns out that meme coin Dogecoin is still around, and it was one of my colleagues‘s best crypto investments so far!

10. Bitcoin or Ether? ?

Why “or”? If possible, you can go for both! ? Bitcoin and Ether are the two highest capitalized crypto assets currently and there are arguments for both. But if we start cherry picking than we should consider other crypto assets as well like Polkadot, Cosmos and others…