Five years ago, Jirayut Srupsrisopa made the daring decision to leave his high-paying office job and follow his calling into entrepreneurship. He managed to secure his dream job and is now pursuing his passion of creating the world's largest digital asset exchange.
Better known in the business world by his nickname "Topp", Mr Jirayut has spent most of his career in cryptocurrency and blockchain.
The Oxford-educated 28-year-old began his career as an investment banker and financial consultant in Shanghai for three months before joining another company in San Francisco for one week. He then quit to start his own business with friends when he was 23.
He jointly founded Coins.co.th, the popular bitcoin exchange and wallet operator, at a time when few Thais knew about digital assets. Later he resigned to co-found and serve as chief executive of Bitkub Capital Holdings, a digital asset exchange that aims to provide the full range of services for the digital asset ecosystem, including e-wallet, cryptocurrency trading, investment advisory, an initial coin offering (ICO) portal and investment in startups.
Although Bitkub, recently renamed from Bitkub.com, was just set up in February this year, it's already the country's second-largest virtual coin exchange by trading value at 70 million baht a day, trailing only BX, the cryptocurrency exchange leader with turnover of 100-200 million baht a day.
Moreover, Total Access Communication Plc (DTAC) is Bitkub's angel investor.
"We aim to increase our cryptocurrency trading value from 70 million baht to 300-500 million baht per day next year to become the No.1 cryptocurency exchange in Thailand," Mr Jirayut says.
Bitkub is one of six cryptocurrency exchanges that applied for digital asset exchange licences from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The others are Bitcoin Co (bx.in.th), Cash2Coins Co Ltd (cash2coins.com), Satang Corporation Co Ltd (tdax.com), Coin Asset Co Ltd (coinasset.co.th) and Southeast Asia Digital Exchange Co Ltd (seadex.io). The Finance Ministry is expected to endorse the licences soon.
Digital assets are in the nascent stage in Thailand after a royal decree on digital assets was approved by the cabinet in May.
"We plan to develop stock exchange 2.0, stock exchange 1.0 being securities trading, but stock exchange 2.0 is securities token trading and will pay a return similar to dividends, and this exchange can raise funds across the world," Mr Jirayut says.
Utilities tokens will increase in number and will be used in bill payment for products and services, while asset-backed tokens will have features similar to those of common stock, he says.
The new digital era is developing fast. Line took 10 years to become a large social network, while Instagram, Uber, bitcoin and WhatsApp happened in less than a decade, but all are changing the world, Mr Jirayut says, noting that social media has a very low cost, while telephone communication was expensive from the beginning.
Mr Jirayut envisions a 'stock exchange 2.0' with securities token trading.
Inspired by blockchain
Mr Jirayut says he first heard about blockchain technology in 2013 when he was working in Shanghai.
"After reading the blog of Marc Lowell Andreessen, who invested in Facebook, it inspired me to study a bitcoin white paper, and this was my turning point when I left corporate jobs and pursued my dream, blockchain and cryptocurrencies."
Although he decided to leave investment banking, it wasn't an immediate leap into blockchain and crypto. He got a job as a financial consultant in San Francisco, not far from Silicon Valley, the hub of tech startups.
During a one-month break before starting the new job, Mr Jirayut spent time studying startups in Asia and around the globe.
"During that study, I met two friends from Silicon Valley," he says. "We talked about bitcoin and believed in the same thing, that blockchain and crypto would change the world."
With the new job feeling like a poor fit after a mere week, Mr Jirayut resigned to join his friends in opening a bitcoin trading firm in the Philippines in the second half of 2013, before launching Coins.co.th in Thailand a few months later.
"Before operating a bitcoin exchange and blockchain, my parents supported me in whatever job I did," he says. "If I still worked at a corporate company, I would earn as high a salary as my university friends do.
"Everyday I spent almost all my time on the mezzanine floor alone. My parents were concerned about my future and my new job, as they didn't understand the new technology and crypto assets. They thought that I might be working on something illegal or be involved with drug trafficking or money laundering, because none of the central banks accepted cryptocurrencies. They were quite upset that I graduated from the world's top university but I spent time doing strange things."
But he never gave up the dream and always took time to explain to friends and family that crypto has nothing to do with money laundering, drugs or black market trade.
At first, only a few people understood what Mr Jirayut did. Even the Anti-Money Laundering Office and the Revenue Department asked him for an explanation about the business. But his efforts paid off and crypto has become widely known with the public. The government issued a law governing digital asset businesses.
Mr Jirayut spent three years speaking on hundreds of stages to explain the issue to Thais and other Asean members.
As everyone should know, investment in any asset class involves both risk and return, so investors must understand the assets in which they want to invest, he says.
ICOs and cryptocurrencies are high-risk assets, so investors should prudently consider the circumstances beforehand. But such assets have plenty of room for growth, as cryptocurrency value represents a mere 1% of financial assets worth US$500 billion, Mr Jirayut says.
Cross-border money transfers cost those who send money a fee of 5-10%, but the blockchain technology created for Coins.co.th costs less that 1%, he says.
Furthermore, blockchain technology has utility beyond money transfers, and Mr Jirayut believes that physical assets can be digitised into tokens in the future.
The World Economic Forum estimates that 10% of the world assets by 2025 will be digitised in the blockchain.
"Products to be traded on digital exchanges are unlimited, including football clubs, charities, physical assets such as land, gold and diamonds, the value of famous people such as movie stars -- all can be digitised into tokens to trade on digital exchanges, and we want to do this as the first digital exchange in the world," Mr Jirayut says.
"We want Thai people to give us the opportunity and look forward to the technology. It may be the first time when Thailand will be the first creator, as opposed to being technology's end-user as we have been for a long time."