The Axial Studio
In recent years, the blockchain industry has developed a much greater appreciation for regulation, operational excellence and risk management, as compared to the Wild West of its earlier years. Many of the serious players want to find ways to operate their businesses to serve their customers while also protecting them - arguably, the main goal of their regulators. Yet, in the past year, a few bad actors have set the relationship between industry participants, customers and regulators backward. Customers have lost trust in the industry, regulators are taking an enforcement-first approach and companies are trying to navigate the uncertainty. Unfortunately the dialogue between all these stakeholders have been dominated by the loudest voices, with each side talking past each other, not with each other.
Crypto is here to stay because of the fundamental value and efficiencies that the industry has the potential to create for the financial system, and no amount of enforcement will truly be able to completely wipe it out. As has happened in every other regulated industry, harsh regulation in one jurisdiction simply results in its players escaping to other jurisdictions with far fewer protections. But when we’re talking about a completely digital and therefore global economy with trillions of dollars at stake, this is a huge risk for the very consumers that regulators are supposed to protect.
What we need to do is create more opportunities for all sides to engage in good faith and communicate with each other, and Axial Studio is here to help with that mission.
The two of us have collectively spent 15 years in crypto & fintech industry focused on this mission:
Matt was the first-ever Executive Deputy Superintendent of Research & Innovation at New York Department of Financial Services where he oversaw crypto licensing and supervision, and Andrew was the COO of Paxos and co-founded Liberty City Ventures. We are both now focused on advising and investing to support the responsible growth of this industry.
Through Axial Studio we are collaborating on different concepts to help the ecosystem to mature, as individual players and as a whole. It is a place for us to work with others in the space who have a similar focus on the growth and maturity of the industry with a long term focus.
About us
Andrew is a global tech investor, operating executive, VC, entrepreneur, board director and problem solver. He started in the crypto industry in 2012 as a founding partner at Liberty City Ventures and then serving as the COO of Paxos for 7 years.
In his time as Chief Operating Officer at Paxos, he grew the team from 8 to 190 employees, launched the first regulated blockchain focused Trust company and raised $500M in capital at a latest valuation of $2.4B. Paxos provides crypto/blockchain infrastructure products for companies, including powering PayPal/Venmo's crypto brokerage and powering fiat-backed stablecoins. He now invests and advises crypto/web3 companies.
Matt is a former regulator and now active venture investor operating in the blockchain space. Recently he was the Executive in Residence at Nyca Partners, a fintech venture capital firm. Prior to that he was the first Executive Deputy Superintendent for Research & Innovation at the New York Department of Financial Services. There he oversaw the Department's licensing and supervision of crypto currency companies as well as strategic efforts related to fintech more broadly. He previously worked for Plaid and Quovo and has served as an advisor on fintech and financial inclusion for USAID, the World Bank, the United Nations, Aspen Institute, and the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance. Matt received his bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Utah and an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School.
