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Bitcoin believer John: After years in the cryptocurrency industry, why choose Amber Group and WhaleFin?

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Bitcoin believer John: After years in the cryptocurrency industry, why choose Amber Group and WhaleFin?

John, who has been with Amber Group for over a year, is not a newcomer to the crypto world who jumped in from traditional finance, but rather a Bitcoin old miner, musician, and producer who entered the scene in 2012. These kinds of "old leeks" not only have faith but have also experienced the ups and downs of the cryptocurrency trends. Having been involved in different types of blockchain industries, why did he choose Amber Group? What convinced this seasoned crypto player? Below is our exclusive interview.

Who Was John Before Becoming the Regional Director at Amber Group?

In 2012, John, during his student days, became acquainted with Bitcoin while researching Tor, The Onion Router. This led him to become a Bitcoin miner starting from his dormitory. However, in 2013, as Bitcoin's value surged, mining difficulty increased significantly, and basic equipment quickly became obsolete. Upon returning to Taiwan in 2017, John worked in various sectors within the blockchain industry, including public chains, decentralized exchanges, centralized exchanges, and regulatory technology, before eventually joining the digital financial technology platform, Amber Group.

As a leading professional institution in the industry, Amber Group has a profound strategic layout in global markets, including Taiwan. After initial establishment, in 2021, Amber Group aims to further expand its presence in the Taiwanese market. John's diverse experience and network in Taiwan perfectly align with their needs.

John has a clear career plan in the blockchain field. He believes that accumulating knowledge and experience in various fields and job levels is essential to thrive in the rapidly evolving and information-explosive industry. Influenced by his family's background in traditional finance and his own tech background, John ultimately chose to join Amber Group, a top digital asset market player originating from the traditional finance sector.

Building a Diverse and Robust Market for Cryptocurrencies

"Amber Group's business is diverse, and understanding the overall structure of traditional finance world gives us insights into how the cryptocurrency market will develop," said John. Since John joined, Amber Group's business has expanded rapidly, with the team growing two to three times, and a wide array of services being offered.

The institutional services include three main categories:

  • Trading and Liquidity – market-making, OTC trading, trading execution services
  • Yield Products – lending and deposits, derivatives and structured products
  • Capital – collateralized lending, mining and staking, investment and DeFi

Founded in 2017, Amber Group's Co-founder and CEO, Michael Wu, was a former Goldman Sachs quantitative analyst, Morgan Stanley macro trader, and a portfolio manager at a billion-dollar hedge fund. He was recognized in Forbes "30 Under 30 Asia" in 2019 and awarded the "2022 Innovation CEO 100" in 2022. In February of this year, Amber Group announced the completion of a $200 million Series B+ funding round, with a valuation of $3 billion. Top institutional investors such as Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Paradigm, Tiger Global Management, Dragonfly Capital, Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Blockchain.com participated in the investment. Currently, Amber Group has offices in 16 cities across the Americas and Europe. John mentioned that Amber Group also has many traders, engineers, and customer service staff in Taiwan.

Through solid traditional financial expertise, the digital asset financial world at Amber Group becomes more diverse and robust, attracting John, a Bitcoin believer, to this job.

Focus on Retail Market! Introducing the Integrated Digital Asset Platform: WhaleFin

John's role involves not only facing institutional investors like family offices but also retail investors. Amber Group's newly launched integrated digital asset platform, WhaleFin, aims to transform stable services enjoyed by institutions into digital asset financial products suitable for retail investors.

"If I were to recommend, you can't miss the online card purchase of coins without handling fees and the 50% APY new user registration promotion!" John enthusiastically said. New users can enjoy high returns for a limited time, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, etc. Users can even use Apple Pay and Google Pay to purchase USDT.

John also noticed that Taiwanese investors prefer financial products like "deposits" and "regular investments." He said, "I know many loyal believers of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the best long-term strategy is to deposit and invest regularly." WhaleFin offers various cryptocurrency deposit products such as BTC/ETH/USDT/USDⓈ/BNB, allowing users to customize the "minimum deposit amount to as low as one US dollar value," "deposit period of 30/60/90/365 days," and even the settlement currency "BTC/ETH/USDⓈ," with varying annual returns, providing significant flexibility.

Furthermore, WhaleFin offers "regular investments," a must-have financial product for exchanges, with a "zero handling fee" policy. Regarding "savings," John proudly introduced, "Once you deposit funds into the app, interest starts to accumulate."

John mentioned that these are just WhaleFin's basic functions.

WhaleFin's "Dual-Currency Investment" product brings the concept of Dual-Currency Investment from traditional finance's foreign exchange investments to the cryptocurrency world as a derivative product. It is an options concept product where retail investors can profit, take profit, and buy the dip between two currencies, such as BTC/USDT, within a certain period. Although this still requires strategy considerations for retail investors, compared to high-risk perpetual contracts or options markets, it is a relatively safe and stable product, aiding educational efforts in the options market.

We questioned whether retail investors using WhaleFin's cryptocurrency platform need to plan autonomously rather than passively accept the platform's products. John explained that CEO Michael Wu stated Amber Group's core mission is to empower and assist people through digital assets. A significant part of cryptocurrency's essence is to grant financial autonomy to individuals, and these unique product designs, distinct from traditional finance, are necessary and healthy.

Limited-Time Offer: Deposit as low as $1 and enjoy 50% APY interest

Why Does John Trust These High-Interest Financial Products?

"Where do the high-interest rates in financial products come from?" This is a question almost everyone asks.

After the recent LUNA/UST event in the crypto market, people have become more cautious about high-interest rates, whether from fixed-income protocols like Anchor Protocol, liquidity mining prevalent in the DeFi world, centralized exchanges, or financial platforms offering fixed and flexible deposits, or even private wealth management funds introduced by friends. Are these so-called high-interest rates truly reliable?

Many other cryptocurrency financial products guarantee high-interest rates by investing funds in higher-risk DeFi protocols to earn spreads or through fund managers taking risky actions in the volatile market.

We were curious about how John, a seasoned investor, convinced himself to work for WhaleFin.

John explained that the reasons are simple. With Amber Group's expertise in institutional services, quantitative trading has always been a strong suit, finding spreads between spot and derivative markets to generate stable income regardless of market conditions. In addition, lending is a core business, where institutions and corporate clients provide over-collateralized loans, generating interest income, similar to the basic concept of banking. Moreover, clients engaging in leveraged trading pay overnight funding fees for unsettled positions.

"It's a robust financial tool with a solid profit base," John elaborated.

John, with a technical background, emphasized that technical evaluation is a crucial aspect when assessing financial platforms. He mentioned that the platform is protected by top global security institutions like Fireblocks, and Amber Group is one of the world's first digital asset platforms to pass SOC 2 compliance. SOC 2 is a standard set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants used to assess IT, security, and privacy controls in traditional financial institutions.

As a Bitcoin Believer, Why Embrace Centralized Platforms?

WhaleFin offers various trading functions, including exchange, spot, leverage trading, and algorithmic trading for optimal large-volume trades across major exchanges through Amber Group's intermediary role, as well as staking and lending services.

As a devout Bitcoin believer, one would assume John would support direct usage of decentralized finance (DeFi). How did WhaleFin persuade him?

In this regard, John shares sentiments similar to many crypto veterans. For blockchain newcomers and traditional finance users, the complexity and risks involved in on-chain operations, such as flash loan attacks, smart contract vulnerabilities, oracle issues, developer exploitation, are significant drawbacks. While WhaleFin acts as an intermediary, it provides advantages such as zero transaction fees and high security, aiding newcomers and risk diversification for experienced users. Additionally, Amber Group designs products with a risk-conscious approach from traditional finance, avoiding offering excessively high rates or leverage, prioritizing user investment safety over profits. Moreover, Amber Group does not have any token issuance plans, which could bring additional risks and business distractions. Instead, they opt for a traditional stock listing route to further expand. DeFi, insurance, vulnerabilities, flash loans, oracles

For John, working for such products is also highly educational.

Finally, we asked John about his new expectations for work. He mentioned that Amber Group will soon integrate NFT applications and launch cryptocurrency payment cards in collaboration with Mastercard, venturing into more diversified and widespread products, representing the most anticipated and challenging aspects of his current role.

About Amber Group

Established in 2017, with operations across major cities in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, Amber Group serves over 1,000 renowned institutional clients, with a total trading volume exceeding one trillion USD across over 100 exchanges. Their assets under management exceed $5 billion, helping clients manage various cryptocurrency risks, providing flexible investments to optimize long-term value.

For product-related inquiries, please contact Amber's customer service team: [email protected]. You are also welcome to join the official Amber Group Taiwan community: