Understanding the Investment Landscape in the Crypto Market The co-founder and CEO of Krypital Group shares her tips on what to look for when investing in cryptocurrency.

If you're trying to figure out what's a smart investment in cryptocurrency, Maggie Wu the co-founder and CEO of Krypital Group, wants to help. She sat down with Jessica Abo to share her thoughts on the current market and what's trending.

Jessica Abo: Start by telling us a little bit about your path to crypto.

Maggie Wu: I was born in China and came to the U.S. 15 years ago. I've been an entrepreneur for more than 15 years. Before entering the crypto space, I was in the investment field. Since 2017, I have started to pay attention to and invest in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry.

When did you realize you were so passionate about cryptocurrency?

I heard of blockchain back then from my friends. That's how I got my interest. I did a lot of research. I just felt like this is the future of Fintech. This is the next wave after the internet.

What were some of the steps you took to start your company?

We had a friend who started a crypto project and was looking for help. We were just helping them at the very beginning with it and that project became really successful. After that, they suggested to us, "Why don't you guys just start your own company?" My partners and I had a conversation, and we decided that we wanted to start this company together in 2017.

How do you define cryptocurrency, and how does it work?

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency. You can think about the currency that we use every day, we are used to the touch and feel of physical materials, such as metal or paper. Now you just need to turn your mindset to think of crypto as a digital version, a similar mindset as seeing digital numbers on any online banking. And in terms of the digital version, I want to talk about open DeFi, which is open finance, which means you have more control over your digital assets. For example, you can control your assets through a decentralized wallet. You don't have to go through the intermediary, and in this way it gives you much more flexibility when it comes to managing and allocating your own digital asset.

What investments do you think are smart investments right now when it comes to crypto?

So, for us, we will have different strategies. In the bull market, sometimes we will pick projects that have fast growth because in the bull market you have aggressive strategies. And so if the project has a good strategy, for example, they will have good go-to-market strategies and exchange listing plans. These are the types of projects that will be more attractive in a bull market. In a bear market, it will require totally different strategies, because in the bear market, it is really hard for projects to be listed on crypto exchanges. So we will have to stay with the investment for a much longer time. Just like traditional investment, you will do a lot of due diligence that includes the team background, the product positioning, and also their marketing strategies, corporations, their competitions, their valuations. There are a lot of things to look at during the bear market.

What advice do you have for someone who's on the fence when it comes to crypto?

Pretty much, I think, you just need to spend time learning about blockchain and cryptocurrency. Be more open-minded. Don't just say, "Oh, this is dangerous, this is scary, there's a lot of risks." Don't put that wall in front of you before you enter something new. Maybe just spend your $10, $20, like the money you buy coffee, right? And then just test. Buy something, Ripple, Bitcoin, Eth, even if there is just maybe a very small amount and just get a feel of what it is like, then you will see. Okay, once you have the first step, you will have a much easier time getting into this field.

For people out there who are really interested in investing in crypto projects, what advice do you have for them?

For investors, first of all, you have to have strong funding. Investors also need to do fundraising. So we keep doing fundraising, we always have a good portion of our fund reserved no matter if it's a bull market or bear market. And second of all, the investor has to have enough knowledge about this industry, because this industry is changing so fast. There are always new things coming out every day, so you have to learn every day, otherwise, we won't catch up. You don't understand what they're talking about. And third, I think you need to have a strong team to help you. And so you can catch up on a lot of good projects and you'll have enough capacity to review and close the deal and make the right decisions. And pull the trigger. Then you will most likely have a good return.