Key takeaways

• The digital asset industry is poised for massive growth due to recent regulatory changes.
• Regulatory clarity could further expand the total addressable market for digital assets.
• Going public is crucial for crypto companies to attract traditional financial firms.
• Transparency through public listing builds trust with traditional firms.
• Timing of an IPO is critical, with a bull market significantly influencing its success.
• The costs of being a public company include higher insurance and audit requirements.
• Investment banks vary in their understanding of digital assets, affecting strategic decisions.
• Many traditional investors lack deep knowledge of crypto, impacting their engagement.
• GAAP accounting standards do not adequately cover unique revenue structures in trading.
• The complexity of accounting in crypto arises from various asset definitions and classifications.
• The IPO process involves managing investor expectations and pricing strategies.
• Overcollateralization is crucial for managing risk in crypto lending.
• The market will eventually identify successful products and business models from blockchain innovation.
• Stablecoins have the potential to disrupt traditional banking by providing interest to holders.
• Innovation will always win unless stopped by government regulation.

Guest intro

Mike Belshe is the CEO and Co-founder of BitGo, a leading digital asset custody and security company. He previously served as a founding engineer on the Google Chrome team, where he co-invented the SPDY protocol that formed the basis for HTTP/2. Under his leadership, BitGo pioneered multi-signature wallet technology and filed for a US IPO in September 2025.

The impact of regulatory changes on digital assets

• The digital asset industry is expected to grow significantly due to regulatory changes. “What I expect is gonna happen over the next couple years the digital asset industry just on the current crypto components is gonna massively grow” – Mike Belshe
• Regulatory changes have expanded the total addressable market (TAM) for digital assets. “We basically tripled our TAM last year as a result of the regulatory changes” – Mike Belshe
• Further regulatory clarity could double the TAM again. “Each time we get kind of another piece of goodness in it like clarity act if that comes through I think it’s gonna double our TAM again” – Mike Belshe
• The public process for crypto companies was closed for four years before reopening in 2021. “The public process had been closed for crypto for a solid four years in 2021” – Mike Belshe
• The regulatory landscape in the US is expected to improve, allowing greater participation from traditional finance. “In 2025 the regulatory landscape in the US changed and all of a sudden the new chair of the SEC says yeah most of these are not secured” – Mike Belshe
• Tokenized equities will gain traction with emerging regulatory support. “Now that we have the SEC willing to allow some of this innovation to happen… that’s coming I think very quickly” – Mike Belshe
• A lighter touch regulatory framework is preferable, but fraud needs to be addressed. “In general I’m in favor of a lighter touch regulatory framework but there’s no doubt that there’s a lot of fraudsters out there” – Mike Belshe
• Innovation will always win unless stopped by government regulation. “Innovation always wins maybe the one place where it doesn’t win is if the government just puts a stop to it” – Mike Belshe

The strategic importance of going public

• Going public is essential for attracting traditional financial firms to the crypto space. “The reason for us to be public where we sit is about bringing everybody in the industry into the ecosystem” – Mike Belshe
• Being public increases transparency and builds trust with traditional firms. “This is just our next evolution of being transparent… it gives a lot of comfort to traditional firms” – Mike Belshe
• The timing of an IPO is crucial, with a bull market significantly influencing its success. “The number one thing you want in an IPO is a bull market” – Mike Belshe
• Going public can provide more business opportunities than the associated costs. “We actually think we get more business by being a public company than it’s gonna cost” – Mike Belshe
• The costs of being a public company include significantly higher insurance and audit requirements. “The insurance that the company’s required to hold the prices just go through the roof” – Mike Belshe
• The cost of being a public company can range from $15 to $20 million annually. “It’s probably more like 15 to 20,000,000 a year for a company like BitGo” – Mike Belshe
• The IPO process involves managing investor expectations and pricing strategies. “You basically generate this list of what’s gross demand which is way oversubscribed” – Mike Belshe
• The investment banking division is typically the most lucrative part of large banks due to their role in IPOs. “There’s a reason why the investment banking division is usually the most lucrative division” – Mike Belshe

Challenges and opportunities in crypto accounting

• GAAP accounting standards do not adequately cover unique revenue structures in trading. “GAAP doesn’t really cover it so you end up with a just a terrible thing” – Mike Belshe
• The SEC requires special exceptions for non-GAAP metrics, complicating financial reporting. “You have to get a special exception from the SEC to do that” – Mike Belshe
• The complexity of accounting in crypto arises from various asset definitions and classifications. “There’s a lot of little details that are defined in strange ways” – Mike Belshe
• The pricing process during an IPO involves negotiation and can result in issuing stock outside the initially set price range. “We ultimately issued the stock at 18 which is outside of that range” – Mike Belshe
• BitGo’s approach to risk management is crucial for its lending operations and overall business strategy. “We take a very risk mitigated approach” – Mike Belshe
• Overcollateralization is crucial for managing risk in crypto lending. “We do borrow and lend today what we do however is 250% collateralized” – Mike Belshe
• The crypto markets are still relatively small, contributing to their volatility. “Crypto markets are still pretty small that’s part of why they’re volatile” – Mike Belshe
• The market will eventually identify successful products and business models from blockchain innovation. “The market shakes out the good products the good business models” – Mike Belshe

The role of BitGo in the evolving crypto landscape

• BitGo’s business model is often misunderstood as merely custodial but encompasses much more. “I think it’s convenient for some competitors to like try to push us down into a custodial bucket” – Mike Belshe
• BitGo’s focus is on providing infrastructure rather than just custodial services. “We’re calling it infrastructure is what we’re calling it right now” – Mike Belshe
• BitGo’s ‘crypto as a service’ combines software with regulatory compliance for secure infrastructure. “It’s not just software as a service that you’re buying, it’s buying software plus the regulatory” – Mike Belshe
• BitGo provides better prices than any single exchange by connecting to multiple market makers. “We give you a better price every day of the week than any single exchange” – Mike Belshe
• BitGo is one of the largest staking providers in the world due to its extensive custody of assets. “I think we’re one of the largest staking providers in the world” – Mike Belshe
• The complexity of integrating multiple staking providers is due to differing APIs and blockchain accounting methods. “Every one of them has different APIs each blockchain by the way has different ways” – Mike Belshe
• BitGo’s network allows for seamless transactions between fiat and digital assets across regions. “The reason we’ve set up this network and nobody else has this network or custodians” – Mike Belshe
• BitGo’s service is superior to previous banking solutions like Silvergate and Signature. “Yes it does it does replace it but it’s also way better” – Mike Belshe

The future of digital assets and financial systems

• Every asset can be tokenized, which is a fundamental premise for the future of finance. “Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, says every asset every bond every token everything can be tokenized” – Mike Belshe
• Institutions require fiduciary protection for their assets, often using trust companies alongside exchanges. “Institutions won’t simply put $25,000,000 on your balance sheet” – Mike Belshe
• The Go Network enables instant settlement for transactions, ensuring either both sides of a trade go through or none do. “This is basically instant settlement off chain for any two clients” – Mike Belshe
• Stablecoins will revolutionize payments and could redefine the banking system. “This is better payments man this is absolutely going to be the way you do payments in the future” – Mike Belshe
• Web three represents a shift towards monetization and regulatory considerations in the digital space. “Web three is money right so we are starting to extract away the data and the application” – Mike Belshe
• Web three has the potential to create better financial systems but requires individual responsibility. “The systems we are working on are gonna give us better banks… it’s gonna have to come with a lot of individual responsibility” – Mike Belshe
• The focus should be on building value rather than just seeking acquisition or public listing. “I don’t really think about that actually think about like is there an acquisition route where you’d be combining a and b” – Mike Belshe
• The perception of founders as superheroes is misleading; success requires both intelligence and perseverance. “There’s too much glory around you know being the founder and it kinda creates this image of like the founder some sort of like superhero” – Mike Belshe

The intersection of traditional finance and crypto

• Traditional finance has a duty of best execution, which is not present in crypto exchanges. “Traditional finance thinks okay if I come into crypto I’m gonna go to this exchange they look pretty big they’re gonna give me the best price” – Mike Belshe
• Many traditional investors lack deep knowledge of crypto, affecting their engagement. “These big guys that participate in these IPOs and all of these guys have had a a deficit of crypto knowledge” – Mike Belshe
• The learning curve for traditional investors in crypto includes basic concepts like private keys. “We got the question what is a private key how does it work what’s it look like” – Mike Belshe
• Banks are failing to provide adequate returns and are self-serving in their arguments against disruption. “The idea that you can’t is absolutely insane and there’s no good argument for it” – Mike Belshe
• Wall Street is like the Galapagos Islands, unaware of the disruptive threat posed by innovation. “I view Wall Street as a little bit like the Galapagos Islands and there’s a bunch of animals on the Galapagos Islands that have never seen a predator before” – Mike Belshe
• Incremental innovation is driven by grit and adaptation over time. “It’s because innovation is increment by increment it’s that grit it’s the adaptation being smart over time” – Mike Belshe
• The current executive team has been effective, with no need to replace anyone for the IPO preparation. “I don’t think we replaced anybody actually been super happy with the people that are here” – Mike Belshe
• The company has a strong regulatory standing and market structure that appeals to large institutions. “We’ve got the best regulatory standing in the United States we’ve got it replicated across the globe” – Mike Belshe