The Wolf Of All Streets - How Bullish Is Building A New Generation Crypto Exchange | Chris Briseno, Bullish.com

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

From doorman/club promoter to Bloomberg to Bullish. Our guest today left the financial powerhouse Bloomberg to be on the cutting edge of tech and crypto at Bullish. Now the Global Head of Marketing, Chris Briseno explains how Bullish is bridging the gap between centralized and decentralized exchanges. Learn from Chris himself about the advantages of using Bullish and why he calls Bullish the Google of the crypto world. JOIN THE FREE WOLF DEN NEWSLETTER 📩 https://www.getrevue.co/profile/TheWolfDen THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS ►► I couldn't be more excited to announce that Vuori is a sponsor for the show. I've been wearing their clothing for years and can't get enough of it. Countless episodes have been recorded in Vuori, and I tell everyone they need their incredibly versatile and comfortable clothing. You can do practically anything in it. For our listeners, they are offering 20% off your first purchase. Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at vuori.com/melker. Not only will you receive 20% off your first purchase, but enjoy free shipping on any U.S. orders over $75 and free returns. Get your outfit today at: https://thewolfofallstreets.info/vuori ►► Have you ever had your exchange go completely offline during days of high volatility? Of course you have. We've all been through it. Those days are no longer with Bullish. Bullish is a new breed of digital asset exchange that empowers users to trade with deep and predictable liquidity across highly variable market conditions. They also have incredible automated market-making and industry-leading security. I can't get enough of this platform and it's fully regulated. Sign up here: https://thewolfofallstreets.info/bullish/youtube EPISODE LINKS Chris Briseno: https://twitter.com/chrisjbriseno Production & Marketing Team: https://penname.co/ FOLLOW SCOTT MELKER • Twitter: https://twitter.com/scottmelker • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmelker • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wolfofallstreets • Web: https://www.thewolfofallstreets.io • Spotify: https://spoti.fi/30N5FDe • Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3FASB2c

What's it about all of us old club and music guys that drove us into crypto? I think it's because again it's the same thing. We want to be on the cutting edge, we want to do something different, right? And honestly, crypto's got that great vibe, right? Like, I mean, look, we're here in Miami, we got people riding bulls, right? Oh, oh, oh, nice save, actually. Oh, yeah. Oh, there we go. You know, it is about the hype, right?

You know, crypto is a meme, right? And so, you know, so are, you know, exactly the hottest clubs, you hottest clubs back in New York and back in the day, right? And just like that, we want to give away, instead of coming to the club, let's give away one Bitcoin for riding the bull. This episode is sponsored by Bullish and Vori. Please stay tuned for more information on both of these amazing companies later in the episode. Centralized exchanges offer quite a bit of functionality and familiar platform to the exchanges that we've traded on in other assets, but not your keys, not your coins. On the flip side, decentralized exchanges allow you traded on in other assets, but not your keys, not your coins. On the flip side, decentralized exchanges allow you to custody your own assets, but they generally lack the functionality that you get on centralized exchanges. Well, that's changing now with

exchanges like Bullish. Chris Bersenio from Bullish broke down for me why it's so important to have this perfect, perfect mix of centralized and decentralized functionality and why that's so important to have this perfect, perfect mix of centralized and decentralized functionality and why that's the future for us of how we're going to trade and invest in our assets. And also, maybe more importantly, to earn yield as liquidity providers. First of all, we're at Bitcoin 2020. This place is absolutely bananas.

And we've got huge bull riding. I know. It's crazy, right? How'd you come up with the bull? So it's actually, okay. So we heard that we're going to actually have a mechanical bull. And I was like, we have to get it. It's fantastic.

Like, what better way for Bullish to come out and introduce itself to the world than actually sponsoring the bull at Bitcoin 2020. And so that's really what we're here about. This is really Bullish's coming out party. Yeah, I mean, you guys have been, what we're here about. This is really bullish coming out party. Yeah. I mean, you guys have been, as we're recording, a couple of weeks. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, you know, we launched almost four months ago and, you know, this is no one really knows who we are. We're not listed on any aggregators. And so it's like, you know, we're already a huge exchange and nobody even knows that. But that's intentional. Yes, it is. Actually, it is. Yeah, talk about that.

Yeah. You know, so, you know, we really strive to sort of build this business and we're focused on institutional clients first, right? And it's really just sort of, you know, to get the volumes, to really grow the exchange, you know. And so now it's really, we feel like we're at the stage where we want to let everyone know that we're ready and that we're here. So that's sort of like the opposite approach that I think we generally see in crypto, which is like create a shit ton of hype.

Exactly. And then hope that we can like catch up with products. Exactly. Exactly. And we've done the exact opposite, right? So we built a solid product. We made sure the product worked. And now we're hyping the crap out of it.

But you guys have like crazy volume already. We do. We have really, really crazy volume. So we've actually done over $14 billion in volume already in just four months, right? And, you know, when it comes to the BTC-USD pair, we're basically just below, we're number four, right? So we're actually below FTX and, sorry, we're below FTX,

we're below Coinbase, and below Binance. But that's all Switch anyways. Yeah, and we're already above Kraken and Gemini, which is fantastic, right? In just four months. That's crazy. Right, but that means it can't be retail. No. Right, because that's literally just a numbers game.

Exactly. So really, most of our client base right now is all institutions, right? We are open to retail. We're actually in already 40-plus jurisdictions. But it really is institutionally focused right now. Yeah. Yeah. And so how do you build, I mean, I guess that's a huge differentiator in this business, right? I mean, you're the head of marketing, so it's kind of a unique challenge. Yeah. I would say what's bullish is, so like most crypto, crypto started off with the people, right? We've sort of done the opposite, right? So we started off with the big players

first and our players to then go out to everyone else, you know, and really give them an opportunity to actually take part in that huge market action that's already happening, right? We really see ourselves becoming a really important part of the market structure, you know, of the crypto ecosystem. Right. And it's funny because I don't know, how long have you been in crypto? Since 2016. Okay, so literally the same as me. So you remember in 2016, 17, we had this narrative, like the institutions are here. We were so wrong.

That's what got me to leave Bloomberg, right? So I was at Bloomberg. It's actually pretty funny. I was saying we need to do actually a crypto index exchange. Everyone thought I was crazy. So I left, started my own crypto company. And that's exactly what happened. We hit crypto winter.

But I think we're here. I think we're falling at that tipping point, right? Like, the institutions are already here. They're coming in. You know, we actually have a lot of big institutional clients. And actually, at this conference, there's actually, even this is really retail focused, there's already tons and tons of institutions here, right? You know, the Goldman's, the J.P. Morgans, they're actually here walking around.

You can see them in their trader vests, right? They're already here. You can still find them. You can't miss them at all. It's like Steve Busce here walking around. You can see them in their trader vests, right? They're already here. You can still find them. You can't miss them at all. It's like Steve Buscemi walking in. Hello, fellow kids. Exactly. I feel like that's us, though.

Exactly. Those are the weird Goldman guys on the corner. I'm currently wearing the most comfortable clothing on the planet. Are you? Unless you're wearing Vori, then your answer is obviously no. Guys, if you've listened to my live streams, then your answer is obviously no. Guys, if you've listened to my live streams, then you've probably heard me rant and rave about this incredible company. We love them so much that we reached out and did a sponsorship deal after I've already been talking about them for months. Yes, it's athletic wear, but you can wear

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new exchange for digital assets that offers deep liquidity, automated market making, and industry leading security. Combining the innovations of DeFi with the regulated environment of traditional finance, Bullish empowers users to trade with confidence across variable market conditions while secure in a regulated environment that's backed by multi-billion dollar liquidity contributions from the Bullish treasury. Follow at Bullish on Twitter or visit Bullish.com slash Melker to learn more. All right. So you have a crazy story, right? And it's similar to mine. Yep. I know. I was a DJ and sort of music producer.

Yeah. You're a doorman club promoter. Yeah. So that's how I started off. I was actually a door. I was a club promoter, a door guy. Did like limelight, tunnel club back in the day. The church.

Early, early 90s. Exactly. And then, yeah, got into... I was actually then I became an early web tech guy, got into that. And then eventually actually got into Bloomberg, actually doing a startup within a big company. Actually, one of the first robo advisors called Bloomberg Black, which is pretty crazy. So then got into fintech. And then from there, got into crypto. So was that just sort of like a job evolution or was it at some point you orange orange-billed yourself or somebody orange-billed you and you said, I need to do...

I would say, actually, I always like being on the cutting edge, right? So I always want to be the guy who's involved in the next thing. And so, again, we're here. We're here. That's what we're doing now. So that's definitely what pushed me to get into the space. And I said that sort of doing that from the beginning, right? I always want to be at the hottest, coolest,

newest clubs. I also want to be in the hottest, newest tech. So I don't know when last time you were at Limelight or the Tunnel. Well, Limelight's now a shopping thing. It's totally ridiculous, dude. So I had DJ'd at both of those places way back in the day at some point.

And then I was doing some Food Network events in my later DJ years. And they were like, you come to this venue and whatever. And I realized it was the tunnel. And I started having these crazy like flex flashbacks or whatever. And then Limelight became the thing. It's crazy to see what happened in New York. It's so terrible, right? And the other thing is there's so limited cabaret licenses, right? So just to throw those away to like make some shopping centers ridiculous. What's it about all of us old clubbing music guys

that drove us into crypto? I think it's because, again, it's the same thing. We want to be on the cutting edge. We want to do something different, right? And honestly, crypto's got that great vibe, right? Like, I mean, look, we're here in Miami. We got people riding bulls. Oh, nice save, actually.

Oh, yeah. Oh, we're good now. And like, come on. We got you, man save, actually. Oh, we're good now. And like, come on. We got you, man, on tape. You know, and again, it's like, you know, it's the same thing. You know, it is about the hype, right? You know, crypto is a meme, right? And so, you know, so are, you know, exactly the hottest clubs, you know, back in New York and back in the day, right?

And just like that, you're like, we want to give away to give away, instead of coming to the club, let's give away one Bitcoin for riding the bull. Yeah, it's awesome. So, I mean, you left Bloomberg, which is arguably the centerpiece of every institutional legacy system that there is, right? Those are the guys selling everyone a terminal that they need. Exactly. But now those guys are following.

Oh, yeah. You could have stayed at Bloomberg and eventually gotten to crypto. Yeah, like four and a half, five years later. Yeah, exactly. When late to the game, not knowing what's going on, right? And be one of those guys bumbling around asking like, okay, well, what's the next big thing in crypto? Not understanding the DeFi space.

Again, exactly. You want to get in early and really understand the space. Just like you and I did, exactly. Like, you know, you want to get in early, right, and really understand the space. You know, just like you and I did. Yeah. It was like a forced transition. I'm just too old for that. My body, my brain couldn't handle it anymore. It has nothing to do with the fact that I just got too old

and nobody wanted to give me gigs. Nothing to do with that. Totally nothing to do with that. Yeah, I mean, honestly, Scott, like, I was bored. Like, at Bloomberg, like, it was just, you know, I always wanted to be in the next thing, and I was bored. I felt like they were just going to take too long to get into space. And so, you know, this is really my chance to come in and get in. And Bullish is a great opportunity, right? Bullish is really ahead of the game, right? You

know, it's funny, I often, like, people ask me, like, you know, how do you see Bullish with the other exchanges, right? So, I think of Coinbase as Gen 1, really focused on retail on the street. AOL. Yeah, exactly. We're going to go to the 90s browser model. Basically, it's Yahoo. Then we have FTX, which is more like all the next searches that came up next. I would really say bullish is like Google.

We're this third-gen crypto exchange. We're the next new thing. We're bringing the best of DeFi, but giving it that regulated framework that it really needs to make it accessible to a much larger audience. That's really the future. We're going to be somewhere in between. DeFi is going to

continue to be out there, go first, innovate. Some of us are going to have to take that innovation back and make it accessible to both institutions and also, let's be frank, right? And some of us are going to have to sort of take that innovation back and make it accessible to, you know, both institutions. And also, let's be frank, like down at the end of the day, your grandmother, she's going to get into crypto. It's going to have to be in a regulated, secure fashion that she understands. She's not going to, you know, download it.

She's not going to get a MetaMask, download a MetaMask wallet, get rug pulled, you know, understand gas fees. Well, she will get rug pulled if she gets her ass locked. She's going to absolutely get rug pulled. She can even figure out how to get her wallet to work, right? But yeah, she's not going to understand how to work in that world, right? So we need to have that balance, right? If we want to have everyone access crypto.

Right. From the marketing side. So people, obviously, we all know that centralized exchanges, people feel like are relatively safe. They're familiar with the order book. They have this robust orders, but not your keys, not your coins. Exactly. And then you have the decentralized side you talk about where it's like you have your

security, but you have no functionality. You guys are changing that, and you are obviously at risk of being your own bank and suffering a rug pull. So how do you guys thread that needle of, you know, offering the best of both worlds without, I guess, suffering the downsides of both? Yeah, so really that comes down to the fact that we are using an AMM, right? Like Uniswap, right? SushiSwap, any of the swaps, right?

Name a food. Yeah, exactly. Switch swap. Exactly. Exactly. But again, we have a regulated framework, right? And again, we also have our own liquidity pools, right? And in fact, I'll actually even put it one better, right? So we also put our own assets into it. We have about 3 billion

in the liquidity pools of our own money, right? That's how much we believe in this product. I don't know anyone else out in the space who's actually doing that, right? So we really do eat our own cooking and we really believe in the product that much. 3 billion is a lot. It is a lot. Yeah. And so I've done the walkthrough of the platform, obviously, and it's a really interesting model on how people can earn yield by providing liquidity. Yep. Can you talk about that a bit? Yeah, so I say, you know, Bullish has actually got a really interesting product.

It's not really a yield product, it's really an earn product, right? And so the thing with Bullish is it actually lets you participate in our liquidity pools, right? So you're actually sharing the trading fees that the pools are generating, right? And I'll add one even better on that, right? We're not going to pay in some weird shitty, you know, random crypto token. We're actually going to pay you in whatever you're putting in the pool.

So it's actually USD, for example, USD to BTC, right? So you're going to get back actually dollars and Bitcoin. So that's pretty exciting stuff. Yeah, and I think on that side, one of the things I was really impressed with when I did the walkthrough is that we have all these ways to sort of earn yield in crypto. Right. But you don't know what they're doing to earn that yield for you, right?

Exactly. But then you know, like even if you actually check the wallets, you see that your coins go out to somewhere. Exactly. And they're doing something, right? And so they might be actively literally trading your assets to earn the yield. I mean, this is very transparent and something, right? And so they might be actively, literally trading your assets to earn the yield. I mean, this is very transparent and obvious, right? Like, I'm a liquidity provider. I know exactly the coins are staying here.

Exactly. No, you totally know it, Scott. That's the thing. Exactly. We're not lending out to some random platform or some third party, right? And you're not staking your tokens and knowing where they're going, what pools are getting mixed in, what other assets they're being commingled with.

You actually know exactly where your assets are. They're totally safe, right? You don't have to worry about it. You're actively sharing in these trading fees, right? And really, because we have all these big institutions already here, right? It really is the real market making, you know, for the market, right? And so, you know, really actively being in it, right? But your average person can do it.

Exactly. Exactly that. Yeah. Exactly that. And so, you're the marketing guy for a very institutionally built exchange, right? The biggest money in the world can come here, can participate, but you still got to build hype. We still got to do this. And we're still crypto. I mean, you know, so we're going to do the bull and we're going to give away a Bitcoin. Yeah, that's awesome. What's the longest that anyone's done the bull yet? So right now, one minute, 50 seconds.

That is incredible. Yeah, it's pretty impressive. So anything I missed on the product that's worth noting that's definitely different? Because listen, like we're in an environment now, there's a lot of exchanges. Yep. Right? It's a lot of exchanges. There's a lot of exchanges. You guys have done it the right way, built it from the back,

but how do you... I would say one of the biggest things, also about Bullish, is really we're bringing market maturity. Because we have such deep liquidity, because we've actually put that $3 billion we mentioned to work in our liquidity pools. We have deep liquidity. And so if you want to come and buy,

you know that liquidity is there. It's going to be provided, right? And you're going to be able to really execute at scale, right? I've even jokingly said, you know, we haven't actually put this out on any marketing, but we're an OTC desk killer, right?

Because you can actually buy at such scale and it's not going to move the needle on the market, right? You know, if you go to these like traditional center or order book exchanges and you go put a big order

and you hear about these stories, the guy who buys a million in BTC, right? Oops, one extra zero, my bad, the fat finger. Exactly. And so, again, that's another big benefit of bullish, right? Is that because we have such deep liquidity, we're not going to move the market price when you buy a big order. That's interesting because that's not just good for you as a trader. That's good for the ecosystem as a whole. Because you're not crashing the market.

Exactly. And that's what I mean by price stability, right? And maturity of the market, right? And I think we're going to see this happen more and more, right? As the crypto markets mature, we're going to have more of that stability that comes with time. I love it. I just love the crossover between sort of centralized and decentralized. It's funny.

I think that people view this polar, you've got to be decentralized or centralized, and most of what works is probably like on a sliding scale in between. Oh, exactly, exactly. That you can't build an institutional grade product that Goldman Sachs is going to want to use that's purely DeFi. No, exactly. They will never go. They need the regulated framework, right? So that's exactly it, right? You know, and also, to be frank, they need the liquidity, right? Because they want to be, these guys are not playing, you know, a couple of statotions, right? They're buying, you know, they're buying, you know, big orders of Bitcoin or other crypto assets.

Yeah, man. Well, this is an incredible, incredible coming out party. You guys have absolutely nailed it. I love you. You got me into the club last night. I was out there. It was like Studio 54, Velvet Robe, Who the Hell Are You? You could tell that he had experience.

We actually did blow up all the crypto party channels. And a bunch of people were like, yeah, we can't get into the bullish party. The line's way too long. We're going to have to go to some other lame party. So, yeah, this is your guy if you ever need to get in. If you ever need to get in. Yeah, just let me know. I can't wait to see.

I mean, with this, you're only a few weeks into marketing. I can't wait to see when you kick this into full gear. Just wait, Scott. We'll have to talk again at the end of the year. All right. That's what I like to say. It's like, let's do a six-month yearly 18-month update. Let's do it.

Because it's always either we're dead wrong, like when it's like price predictions and stuff, or it's like way beyond our expectations. All right, man. Thank you. Thanks, Scott. It was great, man. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you haven't already left a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please do that now. Spotify just added ratings, so please go ahead and click that five star. I'll see you guys next time.