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In today's interview at Permissionless III, we are thrilled to sit down with Mel Gelderman, a true pioneer in the cryptocurrency space. With over a decade of experience in this ever-evolving market, Mel is the co-founder of Monolith, one of the first Ethereum-integrated VISA debit card—a revolutionary product used by crypto elites. At just 24, he set a precedent for crypto innovation that continues today.
Now, as the CEO and Co-Founder of token.com, Mel leads a team of brilliant minds on a mission to make crypto investing fun, simple, and accessible for everyone. Under his leadership, token.com is transforming how people engage with digital assets, focusing on making tokens "snackable" and easy to understand—an essential step for mass adoption.
From pushing the boundaries of crypto integration to spearheading the UX revolution in crypto investing, Mel's vision and leadership are reshaping the future of finance. Let’s dive into his journey, insights, and what’s next for token.com!
James (CryptoBit Mag): To start off, could you introduce yourself and introduce the platform and why it was created initially?
Mel Gelderman: My name is Mel Gelderman. I'm the CEO and founder of token.com. We created it because crypto is still quite a long way from being meaningful to most ordinary people in the world. We're about 15 years into crypto now, which is expected. The Internet took 40 years to get to where it is today.
In my mind, the big consumer apps are still ahead of us, still to be built in our industry. One of them is definitely going to be about investing, as that has so far been the main reason ordinary people care about crypto. I think we can do investing a lot better than the big exchanges of today, like Coinbase and Binance. These exchanges have looked the same for a decade, basically. They're just lists of coins with tickers.
Normal retail users think that's what crypto is like - these boring coins, and that's about it. But the reality is that behind these coins are entire worlds, stories, passions, and visions. I think that needs to be brought to the front.
So token.com is basically a TikTok-style feed for investing in tokens. You have your own short video feed, and as you go through it, every single video has a token tagged and a buy or sell button right next to it.
James (CryptoBit Mag): Is the platform currently live, and is it accessible to everyone?
Mel: Yes, as of last week, it went live in the US as well. It's now global, pretty much. We launched about a year ago in Latin America, where we today have 110,000 KYC users.
James (CryptoBit Mag): Do people have to KYC?
Mel: There are two user flows. If the user is completely new to crypto, the easiest experience for them is to log in with their Google or Apple ID, then do KYC really quickly (30 seconds), and they get access to the fiat on and off ramps. Their funds are stored in Fireblocks. This is the most simple, seamless experience for truly new users.
However, for pro users, you can either connect your wallets or create an embedded wallet. This is a little more technical, or you need to bring your own crypto. There's a bit more chain management going on, but we give people both options.
James (CryptoBit Mag): Is the feed focused exclusively on crypto, or can it cover other topics as well? Are users able to engage in discussions about various subjects?
Mel: Slightly controversial maybe, but indeed, our system forces someone who's uploading a video to select a token. Videos that have flagged a random token and are not relevant get flagged automatically by the system, but also manually by users. The goal really is to have all the content on the platform in some way related to any of the tokens.
As time goes on, the way our system works is that the videos you're seeing in your feed are videos that made other people invest, like buy or sell a token. So a video that is irrelevant won't really surface for very long. Instead, it's videos about relevant content, like Uniswap launching their new chain, that get investments and surface more.
James (CryptoBit Mag): So, you'll be developing an algorithm on the back end and refining it over time?
Mel: Yeah, correct. It is algorithmic. We can use the same data points that YouTube or TikTok gets, like viewership time. But we can also do stuff that they can't do. We have a data point which is when someone invests - buy or sell. We know how much they're investing. We know if their friends have invested in something. So we can do some interesting stuff with how we bring content in the future. For example, I want to know if a big VC or some big trader has just bought something, so we can surface that in the future.
James (CryptoBit Mag): Do you currently provide user analytics on profiles, or is that a feature planned for the future?
Mel: That will certainly come more in the future. Right now, what the user can see is the same stuff they can see on YouTube, like views and comments, but also they can see how many dollars have been invested on a particular video. Everyone can see that actually. What's coming pretty soon is that you can see who has invested on a particular video. But more analytics are still ahead.
James (CryptoBit Mag): Is it only app-based, or is there a regular browser version for desktop?
Mel: It's currently on Android and iOS. A light web version does already exist, like the first early version of it. We will eventually have a full web version as well.
James (CryptoBit Mag): The domain is really great. Was it something else before? Did you specifically purchase it for this?
Mel: I purchased it in November 2017, but that was years before I knew what the app was going to be. I just knew back then that one day I'd want to build a truly mass-market consumer product, the simplest possible thing. After observing bull run after bull run over the years, and seeing my friends and family download Kraken and Coinbase and whatever, just landing on these extremely bland, technical kind of home pages - they don't know really what they're doing, why they're here, and what any of these coins are.
The reason I believe in Bitcoin isn't because of some page, it's because of all the stories that I learned about 10 years ago when I first got into Bitcoin. It's all about storytelling. I just don't understand how Coinbase hasn't already built something like token.com, so I just built it instead.
James (CryptoBit Mag): A strong platform along with a good domain will really help with marketing.
Mel: Yeah, the goal is that in 2025, we'll have a bull run. We want to be in a position where ordinary people are getting back into crypto because it's a bull run. And then the one crypto friend is like, "Dude, you're still using Coinbase? Check this out." And they show them token.com, and it's a much more vivid experience - much more exciting and simple and fun and social. That's how we basically end up, maybe not in one bull run, overtaking Coinbase. That's a really high bar, but I think by 2030 it's possible to overtake Coinbase. I'm certain.
James (CryptoBit Mag): Anything is possible. Many of these old companies don’t offer much value; they just charge high fees.
Mel: Yeah, and look, I'm not trying to hate on Coinbase or anything like that, but they've spread their business to all kinds of other domains. I just think retail consumer app innovation is not high on their agenda. They don't really have a vision for what tokens should be in the future.
Like in 2035, 2040, the world that I think tokens can get us to is one where you put on your Meta Ray-Ban AR glasses or whatever, and as you walk through a conference, above every booth is the token closing and their latest updates. Or as you walk downtown, you're walking past a hotel, it shows 27 rooms available, click here to buy the NFT for one of the rooms. That's the world that tokens can get us to. That's the world that I believe in. That's the world that we're taking a step towards with token.com, and I just don't really see that sort of leadership from the incumbent massive exchanges because they already make their money. They don't really care.
James (CryptoBit Mag): Many people seem to lack motivation these days, which is common across industries.
Mel: Yeah, it's the innovator's dilemma, I think. Another example of where I definitely believe it should go is that in the future, when our young Gen Z cousins and nieces and nephews have a business idea, whether it's for a yoga studio or a restaurant or a drone company, they should be able to pitch their idea on a social media platform like token.com through a video. If their video out-competes all the others, if their idea out-competes all the others, it should be funded overnight. That's the Gen Z tokenized economy that they will understand. They don't want to go to a bank asking for a business loan or to a VC. These are ancient concepts that we're still kind of at the tail end of.
James (CryptoBit Mag): They seek instant gratification and prefer simplicity.
Mel: Exactly. And so that's the world that tokens can get us towards, where every business idea can be very quickly funded, and all the people who love that idea can immediately back it. That's what we're trying to build here, ultimately.
Like today, if you're a brand new GameFi project, you know that if you add your token to token.com and you post videos tagging your token, we will show your videos to the users who are most likely to invest in GameFi. We're doing that algorithm work. The extrapolation of that means that the whole world can find people with ideas who can directly connect with people who might want to invest in them.
I'm a super massive believer in the next era of spaceflight. We're about to, in our lifetime, start building cities on the moon. That's actually happening. And so what I want out of tokens and out of our app is that when I open my feed 10 years from today, what I'm seeing is amazing new concepts for some of the businesses that need to be developed to facilitate these cities. That's what I'm interested in. I want to see this stuff. And why can't tokens facilitate these businesses to be instantly funded by people like me who really want to see something happen?
That's essentially what the ICO era of 2017 was like - an early example of that actually working in an initial, rudimentary phase.
James (CryptoBit Mag): Now we have RWAs and the ability to tokenize nearly everything, opening up countless possibilities.
Mel: And I think the way that all wraps up together inevitably is in the most simple social media. I feel frustrated when people assume in our industry that because our app is so simple, it can't work. No, the irony is the opposite. Like 10 years ago, people would have laughed at Twitter, like "You can't have serious discussions with short messages. What is this for, teenagers?" No, today, 10 years later, turns out the most efficient possible way we can be having global discourse is through short, efficient messages where everyone can easily engage. And it's these apps that time and time again win - the simplest, most fun, most entertaining win. And so to me, it's obvious that that's how tokens are going to turn out as well.
James (CryptoBit Mag): The simpler the platform, the more people can participate.
Mel: Exactly. And that is indeed why these big social media companies have all won. Because the moment you have a platform, even if on Twitter the quote-unquote "most important people" were the last to join, the reason they're joining is because everyone else is already there. All the ordinary people were there because this was the most simple platform for them. So it's going to be the same with crypto. Crypto Twitter isn't the end game. The way our industry works today isn't how my parents and friends are going to stay up to date on all the crypto stuff. It's limited what they will allow. It's kind of the lowest common denominator that wins.
James (CryptoBit Mag): Thank you for your time! Is there anything else you'd like to share? Also, do you have any social media accounts or a Telegram channel where people can follow you?
Mel: Yeah, thank you. So people can get the app very easily. Just go to token.com or search token.com in the app stores. Either way, you'll get the app. Follow us on Twitter, which is the best place. On X, it's currently @tokencom_.
And you can follow me directly: Mel Gelderman.
Follow Token.com on their website, X.com, Discord, and Telegram.
Get the Token.com App:
All interview transcripts have been meticulously transcribed by Stylo.Network, ensuring accuracy and clarity in every detail.
In the ever-evolving cryptocurrency landscape, Token.com has emerged as a notable player aiming to bridge the gap between social media engagement and crypto investing. This platform has gained attention for its unique approach to making cryptocurrency investments more accessible to both newcomers and experienced traders.
Token.com combines social media elements with investment functionality, creating what they call a "scroll-and-invest" experience. With a user base exceeding 120,000 members, the platform has positioned itself as a solution to the often overwhelming nature of crypto trading.
The platform's standout feature is its content feed, which integrates educational content with investment opportunities. Users can scroll through insights from crypto creators and industry thought leaders while having the ability to invest directly through the same interface.
Token.com has developed several proprietary tools to assist investors:
The platform supports multiple wallet options, including:
Token.com emphasizes user control over assets, operating on a non-custodial model where users maintain ownership of their cryptocurrencies. While they claim to prioritize security, potential users should always conduct their own due diligence regarding security measures.
Early user reviews appear positive, with customers highlighting the platform's practicality and innovative approach. However, as with any investment platform, individual experiences may vary.
Token.com represents an interesting evolution in crypto trading platforms, potentially making cryptocurrency investment more approachable for mainstream users. While its social-first approach and simplified interface may appeal to newer investors, experienced traders might appreciate the streamlined access to multiple tokens and wallet integration options.
The platform appears to be gaining traction, though potential users should carefully consider their investment goals and risk tolerance before engaging with any cryptocurrency platform.
Note: This review reflects current platform features and may not represent future changes or developments. Cryptocurrency investments carry inherent risks, and users should conduct thorough research before making investment decisions.
DISCLOSURE
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Nothing on this site should be considered financial advice. Always conduct your own research and consult with a professional before making any financial decisions.
