At the recent FMLS, whilst the dust from the FTX collapse was still settling, Jonathan Wykes, the MD for the UK and Europe at CEX.IO, took time out to sit with me and chat FTX, governance, CEX.IO and how to rebuild trust in crypto.

Jonathan explained the secret to CEX.IO's longevity: "the key thing is we've always put the customer first we've always been customer-centric," he explained, pointing out that CEX.IO was "the first ecosystem to allow credit card and debit card payments" and "were one of the first to do direct purchases using Bitcoin and Ethereum."

CEX.IO's Jonathan Wykes on Why We Need "More Governance and More Regulation"

Talk then moved on to governance and the regulatory paths that CEX.IO has taken before the subject of the FTX collapse came up.

"Unfortunately, these things... they put the industry back, these things shouldn't be happening," he lamented. Jonathan then made the case for "more governance and more regulation and standardized regulation " and described the FTX drama as "a wake-up call for the regulator."

The former Head of eCommerce at Standard Chartered Bank then discussed in detail what needs to be done to rebuild trust in crypto: "a lot of it is to do with education," he explained, telling of how education is a central pillar to the CEX.IO ecosystem.

Jonathan Wykes Chats with Ben Myers at FMLS

Jonathan then mentioned that CEX.IO doesn't try and compete in the world of sports and celebrity crypto sponsorships: "These very big exchanges having their associations with NFL and NBL and so on and so forth and actually you know you get a lot of users that would come on to the platform because of that, but the reality is they don't necessarily understand what they're getting into and for us, our belief is that it's better to take their money and to invest it into our products on our ecosystem."

UK Getting More Crypto-Friendly

The talk moved to the UK and the then-new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (there were a lot of new Prime Ministers in the UK in 2022). "It's [the UK] getting a bit more crypto-friendly" and pointed to the presence of Dr Lisa Cameron at FMLS as proof of the advances being made in the UK.

Jonathan then ended an interesting interview discussing the state of the crypto industry in general, and what he describes as "crypto Darwinism" happening in the market right now, before teasing us with some potential developments for CEX.IO in the coming year.