Andrei Poliakov, CEO and Co-Founder at Coinberry – Interview Series

Andrei Poliakov, is Coinberry's chief executive officer and co-founder. Coinberry is a Canadian digital asset trading platform that provides users the easiest and safest way to buy and sell many popular cryptocurrencies.

You initially learned about Bitcoin when you took a trip to Florida with some friends, could you elaborate on this experience?

We were trying to settle accounts on the last day of the trip and ran into challenges as  the Canadians couldn’t send eTransfer to Americans, and the Americans couldn’t send Venmo transactions to the Canadians, plus the amounts we needed to settle were greater than what could be withdrawn at an ATM. My current business partner and co-founder suggested we settle using crypto currency, since he had some at the time. To my amazement, it worked and was very easy to carry out the transaction. It was at this moment where I realized that crypto is the future. This is why at Coinberry we’ve built a convenient platform to solve these everyday challenges.

Could you further discuss the genesis story of Coinberry, and why you felt it was important to offer Canadians the opportunity to purchase cryptocurrency in a safe and compliant manner?

We started out as a group of crypto enthusiasts meeting up every couple of weeks to discuss business opportunities in the space. Through our discussions, we identified a need for a secure and convenient trading platform in Canada. It became apparent for us to establish a platform built with a focus on compliance for the long-term viability and scalability for crypto investors.

Coinberry is a brokerage versus an exchange, could you explain what the difference is and why it is beneficial to Canadians?

In simplistic terms, at an exchange, investors trade their assets with other investors, whereas at a brokerage, investors buy and sell directly with the brokerage. At Coinberry, we believe the convenience of being able to transact without having to wait for someone else’s trade to be fulfilled is a benefit for Canadian investors.

Coinberry chose to run a tight ship and focus on running an actual business versus taking the easy route and raising money by running an ICO. What was the mindset behind this at the time?

Exactly that, we wanted to create a compliant Canadian business. Had we decided to raise money via an ICO, we would have had to focus on our own structure and token offering versus being able to focus exclusively on becoming compliant with regulators. Our goal has always been to offer the most secure and convenient trading platform in the Canadian marketplace.  We found running a tight ship and not raising money via an ICO to be the best option.

You’ve worked with multiple government entities such as the town of Innisfil, Ontario in order to assist them with accepting tax payments in cryptocurrency. Why do you believe this is such an important use case?

We believe in pushing the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies in Canada. Working with the town of Innisfil to accept Bitcoin for property taxes was monumental for Bitcoin’s journey towards legitimacy. Coinberry has been able to facilitate these transactions for Innisfil in a secure and convenient manner.

What is your current user base at the moment?

There are over 200,000 Canadian users on our secure and convenient trading platform.

You’ve previously stated that the key to success is to really ace and succeed in the local market, and after this international expansion can become an option. Do you believe you have aced the local market, and could you discuss Coinberry’s aspirations for international expansion?

There’s still a lot for us to accomplish in the Canadian market. We’re becoming the number one platform of choice for Canadians to grow their wealth with ease. We have many new features planned in the development queue. Once we’ve become the platform I know we can be in the next couple years, then we’ll set our sights abroad.

Coinberry recently received regulatory approval to trade crypto-assets across all of Canada by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). What does this imply for the future success of the company?

This allows Coinberry to continue operating as a secure and convenient place for Canadians to grow their wealth in the crypto market if they so choose. The registration is about the sustainability of operating within a regulatory framework. It will open up new avenues that traditional businesses take for granted: such as access to banking, insurance, advertising…etc. We’re very excited to take advantage of all the new opportunities that will open up to us due to this registration.

What is your vision for cryptocurrency in the Canadian market in 5 or 10 years?

Cryptocurrency will be going mainstream in Canada over the next 5-10 years with most Canadians having exposure to it directly or indirectly through pension funds etc… At Coinberry we’re constantly looking at ways to roll out new features to make it easier for the millions of Canadians coming to crypto to manage and grow their wealth with ease.

Is there anything else that you would like to share about Coinberry?

Stay tuned for a bunch of exciting announcements from Coinberry as we continue to list more assets, update the platform, and roll out new products. As well we are working towards going public by the end of the year. This will be huge news for the Canadian crypto-landscape! While the details are still under wraps, this is on the horizon.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Coinberry.