Robby Greenfield, CEO of Umoja Labs, believes Crypto’s biggest challenge is accessibility, not just recruitment.
“The biggest way to make money with crypto is to be technical, and that’s the problem,” said Robby Greenfield, CEO of Umoja Labs at Roundtable. “All yield opportunities, whether it’s staking or not, or locking up parts of the safe, are simply not accessible to retail investors, as well as institutional investors.”
Umoja is a financial technology company that aims to democratize wealth creation through smart money protocols.
Speaking to Roundtable host Rob Nelson, Greenfield has the technical expertise to navigate debt platforms by monetizing assets despite the massive adoption of Bitcoin. Noted that this is a challenge for many investors.
“I think the big secret in terms of allowing people to monetize Bitcoin and ETH is that by making these things easier, it’s just as easy as buying stocks on Robinhood. ” he said.
Aly Madhavji, founder of the Blockchain Founders Fund, repeated this sentiment, claiming that huge amounts of Bitcoin are sitting idle rather than being used.
“The amount of people who use derivative products within the cryptocurrency and are then to be liquidated has become a major issue,” noted Madhavji. “But I think (Greenfield) has continued to monetize Bitcoin, for example. This is a very important aspect. There’s literally billions of dollars of Bitcoin and you’re sitting around it. They’re just there, they’re not monetized.”
Bitcoin holders, particularly long-term followers, are often hesitant to make their assets work due to risks such as liquidation, counterparty failure, and regulatory uncertainty.
Greenfield acknowledged these concerns and highlighted the need for compliance.
“In fact, I just called on Coinbase Prime and am preparing to allow for penetration of the assets underlying the ETF,” he said. “So, it’s definitely coming. For us, how do you do it in a compliant way? I think a lot of people are scared because it’s the other side of the code.”
Security is another major barrier, especially when it comes to Bitcoin.
“It’s an asset you believe in in the long term. You think it could potentially become a reserve asset. You don’t want to lose it,” Greenfield said. “So, for us, it’s merging these three things: you can simply monetize, you can adapt to not get a subpoena and you’re afraid people will get them. I’m doing it firmly so that there’s no need to.