Elijah, also known as Eli, is the VP of Coins. Previously, he worked for Goldman Sachs for over 7 years and Binance for 2 years.
What were you doing before Web3?
My name is Elijah and people call me Eli! I have been working at Coins as the VP for over a year now. I started my career in traditional finance.
Moreover, I spent more than 7 years at Goldman Sachs working on different teams such as settlement, margin lending/ trading and Fixed Income/ OTC product valuation. Following that, I joined Binance and spent 2 years working on several local fiat-crypto exchanges.
How did you get into Web3?
I joined the web3 industry back in 2020 just right before the pandemic (Bitcoin was 4k USD a piece!). What happened to me personally was just realizing within the traditional finance space there was very limited innovation and growth as an overall industry. This led to me exploring cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies in general.
At that point in time, DeFi was not a popular concept yet but I thought it was still worth the attempt given the potential. It was the best decision I ever made!
What was your first crypto or NFT project?
First crypto for me was Bitcoin! In terms of importance to overall industry and sovereign status of it is what led me to picking it over everything else.
How would you explain what you do to someone outside of Web3?
“In web2 you pay the company, in web3 the DAO pays you.”
It flips the mindset and removes the restriction for all projects in a sense that it opens participation of stakeholders to even pre-launch stage. It is fascinating to see how it plays out and I personally expect this to be a renaissance period not just for web3 but for tech overall.
Which creator or thought leader do you enjoy learning from?
Wei for sure.
Not trying to be cheesy but while there are many leaders in web3… not many leaders have taken the initiative to bridge web3 and general public the same way as Wei.
I also enjoyed many twitter space sharing and coffee chats with him on how the adoption of NFT/ Metaverse can be accelerated for the Philippines and beyond!
What is the biggest highlight of your career so far?
Launching Coins Pro and Coins Tradedesk was one of the most exciting thing for me.
Even prior to joining Coins we have been looking at the Philippines market and we thought it was time for us to stop wondering why has the market been underserved for so long. Long story short we decided to make the step and do Philippines justice!
What tech or crypto trend are you watching this year?
Bitcoin lightning and Bitcoin inscription. I’ve been spending most of my free time studying and hearing expert opinions on it, always love a good chat with people who are into bringing new technology and adoption.
What advice would you give someone starting out in Web3?
Take the leap. Less than 0.1% of the people I have met have regretted joining web3 which is great. That being said I have seen many people struggle with skepticism of whether web3 is going to be the future, how I personally see web3 is that it is a once in a lifetime opportunity which we have the opportunity to participate.
Think less about whether you should, think more about what you could contribute and build!
If you could do a TED talk on any topic, what would it be?
“All inclusive finance”. Afterall the barrier to it is managing 12 seed phrases, nobody should be left behind in banking/ finance with crypto.
What is the one thing you would bring if you were stuck on a deserted Island?
“The Bitcoin Standard, by Saifedean Ammous”, or maybe my cold wallet…
POW stands for “Proof of Work.” It is a new feature article series in The Mega Maxi to highlight the savviest builders in the Web3 space.
