Zero Risk, Zero Deals: Crypto in iGaming with Max Krupyshev

[00:00]  1. Intro: crypto payments, 8 Bitcoin and hard truths

Host:  Today’s guest leads one of the most widely used crypto payment infrastructures in the world. Let’s get into how he did it.

Max:  I once spent about eight Bitcoin, which today is close to a million dollars. And when people say “we have everything, we are the best at everything,” that is complete [expletive]. Let me introduce myself properly.

[00:30]  2. Meet Max Krupyshev: from physics to crypto since 2013

Host:  A few facts about yourself?

Max:  I am originally from Ukraine. I studied physics, then business twice, and I got into crypto in 2013, which is considered early. I was 23 or 24 and it was pure curiosity; there was no established industry, no money smell to it yet, so my entry was not conventional. In 2019 we founded CryptoProcessing and CoinsPaid together, two connected brands, and it has been an amazing ride since.

[01:45]  3. Crypto and money laundering: the real numbers

Host:  Some people still perceive crypto as dirty money. What percentage of laundering do you actually see?

Max:  There is a market standard. Using databases like Chainalysis and Crystal, you can see the wallets of the big exchanges, and the flagged share sits between roughly 0.1 and 0.2 percent. That does not mean it is all laundering; these are transactions that need extra compliance attention, connections to sanctioned clusters, or false positives. Last time I checked, Coinbase was under 1 percent. The stigma says crypto equals dirty money, but the facts show the opposite, and it keeps improving. Years ago no one was even counting; now, with controls and regulation, it becomes less interesting even for criminals, and mass adoption adds more transparency.

[03:45]  4. Is crypto still anonymous?

Host:  Is there still such a thing as anonymous crypto?

Max:  Bitcoin was never anonymous; that was an early misconception. There can be a lag of a week or two before you trace whether a transaction touched a bad actor, but it is traceable. Truly untraceable coins do exist, Monero and Zcash are the best-known, and we do not work with them in any form. Accepting them jeopardizes your reputation, your licensing and your compliance, and most regulations require you to know your customer, which is impossible with anonymous coins. So we may lose some business, but we do not want that kind of business.

[06:55]  5. Real fraud in crypto: fake USDT and screenshot scams

Host:  Are there laundering patterns that are not observable?

Max:  I would rather talk about fraud, because laundering through us is hard: we are B2B and work with merchants who have clear models, sites, policies and licenses. The interesting stuff is fraud from our clients’ end customers. They pretend to send crypto without sending it, or send fake stablecoins, a USDT lookalike with an extra space or dash, anyone can upload a logo and mint something that looks like USDT. Some wallets show decimals differently, so someone sends 10 dollars and claims they sent 10,000. We have seen support teams fooled by very real-looking screenshots. Even our own reviewers make mistakes. We have not lost millions, but tens of thousands of this fraud is real. So to everyone watching: watch the small details, the fraudsters never sleep.

[10:15]  6. Speed vs security: the risk-management slider

Max:  There is a slider between doing quick, effective business and doing secure, reliable business. Go fully secure and you stop moving; go fully fast and you fail on the strategically important things. There are always people trying to defraud us and you, and honestly they are the best QA you have: they work for free, paid only when they succeed. They probe your blockchain implementations, your feeds, your sports bets, the weak points in your teams. As fraud rises, we move the slider toward security and slow the feature delivery a bit. The bigger the organization, the more of these small slider decisions appear.

[12:05]  7. What big enterprises look for in a crypto partner

Host:  What does a big business look at when choosing a crypto provider?

Max:  Big guys want to play with big guys. A serious organization has little margin for error and no time to experiment, so they need a reliable provider, and that is where reputation matters. Reputation means different things: some note that we were hacked in 2023 and survived, some ask our clients about service and transaction handling, some ask CFOs how clean the reconciliation and reporting are. Fees, licenses and contracts matter too, but for bigger businesses the caliber of the partner means more. iGaming especially is reputation-driven and trust-based.

[14:10]  8. The fastest way to win (or lose) a B2B deal

Host:  What is the real shortcut to winning a big deal?

Max:  It is easier to describe how to lose one. Winning is about selling your personal reputation: I have seen a lot, I know what you need, and you have to trust me, though it is still a bet. We process billions in transactions, so I sell that expertise. The fastest way to lose me is the opposite: people who say “we have everything, everything works, we are the best at everything, we already know everyone.” I literally never heard of you, you appeared last year, so that is complete [expletive]. Overpromising leads to underdelivery and frustration. Good references and clients who trust you are the best signal of a solid business.

[16:58]  9. Why “zero risk” is the worst promise in crypto

Host:  What is a promise you will never agree to?

Max:  Zero risk. Cryptocurrency has its own risks, companies have their own risks, and with stablecoins it gets complex: there is the issuer, the risk of the dollar itself, the blockchain it runs on, our system, the industry. There are many layers, some higher, some lower, some real, some imagined. Every big client has a risk department, so promising them zero risk is something we never do.

[18:30]  10. What is wrong with iGaming’s approach to crypto

Host:  What about iGaming frustrates you?

Max:  iGaming has brilliant, ambitious entrepreneurs, and many think “let’s build our own crypto business.” They do not realize it is not a side project, not a feature, it is a whole industry of complexity and risk. A good product takes hundreds of people and many years to make work, and maybe ten years to make good. Some succeed, most do not. The other thing: a lot of iGaming executives are young, very clever but inexperienced, and they still believe in magic a bit more than we do. I would prefer more weighted decisions, because when someone tries a small unproven provider first, has a bad experience, and comes back carrying that negativity toward the whole technology. Otherwise I like the industry; a lot of professional people doing professional work.

[21:16]  11. Web3 casinos: disruption or overhyped complexity?

Host:  What about Web3 crypto casinos, the current buzz?

Max:  I have a strong opinion: I have not seen anyone make it genuinely usable. People who gamble want fun on a platform they know and trust. Web3 casinos remove that trust and have you communicate with a smart contract, which today is more complicated in usability, cost and speed. A recreational player is not looking for a decentralized, auditable system to bet 20 dollars this evening, and professionals already have relationships with their managers, so they do not need decentralization either. Blockchain is not free, and you have to change the game logic, so there is no real pain point being solved. Most “crypto casinos” today are actually Web 2.0 that simply let you play in Bitcoin or Ethereum without too many conversions.

[24:30]  12. Three levels of crypto integration in iGaming

Max:  There are a few layers. The hardcore version is a blockchain casino with only a front end; I am not a fan, they tend to appear, spend money and close. The next is betting with crypto: you hold a Bitcoin or Ethereum balance and play with it, which does not change much for the operator, it is just another currency the game providers support. The lowest-disruption version is crypto as a deposit method: balances stay in euros, and Bitcoin, USDT or USDC just funds and cashes out that euro balance, converting on the fly. For the casino there is no operational disruption at all; it happens on the payment layer, and it is the smoothest transition into a Web3 user base.

[27:20]  13. Confess or Call: the Mustang paid in Bitcoin

Host:  New category, Confess or Call. Answer, or make a prank call. What is the dumbest thing you did in crypto, and how much did it cost?

Max:  There is more than one, but here is my favorite, and I do not even regret it. Around 2017 or 2018 I bought an old Mustang in very bad condition and restored it, funding the restoration with about eight Bitcoin. In today’s money that is close to a million dollars. A dumb way to lose eight Bitcoin, since the car did not appreciate like Bitcoin did, but it was a lovely experience and I do not regret it.

[29:22]  14. Confess or Call: selling the Sagrada Familia via crypto

Host:  Max spins the wheel and lands on a prank: call your Head of Sales and say you just met the mayor of Barcelona, who wants to sell the Sagrada Familia via crypto, and you urgently need to onboard Barcelona as a client.

Max (on the call):  Colin, I just met the mayor of Barcelona. They are considering selling the Sagrada Familia to a fund in the Middle East, and we need to onboard Barcelona as the client. Where do we start?

Head of Sales:  You cannot onboard a city, but you could onboard the city council, if they own the land and have the capability, then they could facilitate a sale.

Max:  Amazing thinking, Colin, but you are on the show, it was a prank call. Your answer was in the right direction, we can buy and sell anything.

[33:10]  15. The most remarkable partnership in iGaming

Host:  What has been the most remarkable partnership you can remember in iGaming?

Max:  It is special when you end up working with a brand you knew long before. Growing up in Ukraine, one brand sponsored everything, sports, recreation, events, the Red Bull of Ukraine, and I saw it everywhere since school. Being the key supplier of crypto payments to that brand now, alongside GR8 Tech, means a lot, because you feel you have reached the level to serve a large organization you admired as a kid. There are other great relationships too, like SoftSwiss. We host amazing events and treat clients to the highest standards; many become genuine friends, hugs when we meet, talking about kids and families, even if my team reminds me it is still a money relationship.

[36:15]  16. PayPal, Visa and big players entering crypto payments

Host:  PayPal is entering iGaming, and big names are moving into crypto. What is happening?

Max:  Big players like Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Revolut are entering the crypto space, mostly through stablecoins. They face a long road integrating this technology into systems that were not built for it, and they will do it in their own, slightly different way. It is competition, I will not pretend otherwise. But we provide a more specialized service where they provide generic ones, and when a business is big it usually wants suppliers who specialize rather than generalists. That is where we will keep building our competitive advantage.

[37:52]  17. Wrap up

Host:  Max, huge appreciation from me as your designated driver, and from the audience. You gave us a lot of insight and some fun; I really liked the prank call.

Max:  Thanks a lot for having me. I really enjoyed this Top Gear style format; I am passionate about cars, so an interview in a car is amazing.

Host:  This was yet another great episode of Bet It Drives. Take care and see you all soon.