CoinShares’ Demirors on Why Bitcoin is Misunderstood

Most people view bitcoin as an investable asset more than a disruptive technology, but Demirors is hoping to change that.

article-image

Meltem Demirors, CoinShares

share

key takeaways

  • CoinShares chief strategy officer has joined the board of the Stacks Foundation
  • As a Stacks board member, Demirors will devise and implement strategies for building smart contracts, decentralized apps (dApps) and NFTs

Meltem Demirors is the newest Stacks Foundation board member, and she is out to change the narrative around bitcoin. 

“We’re still in the early innings of the entire crypto space,” said Demirors, who is also chief strategy officer at CoinShares. “In the bitcoin community and outside of the bitcoin community, there’s sometimes these persistent narratives, and there are some I can’t stand.” 

As a Stacks board member, Demirors will devise and implement strategies for building smart contracts, decentralized apps (dApps) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are commonly built on ethereum, within bitcoin’s ecosystem through connections with the Stacks blockchain. 

“I love that Stacks is building on top of bitcoin, and I’d love to see more projects built around bitcoin,” said Demirors. “I really want to emphasize how important it is for people to build bridges back to bitcoin, particularly as people really start to understand how important proof of work is.” 

Starting in Carbon

Demirors started her career as a physical ethanol and methanol trader in Texas. It was the midst of the financial crisis and the world was just starting to move to decarbonization. 

“I started looking at the carbon market, because there were all these new carbon schemes being introduced, like the last time we did this whole environmental social governance and sustainability investing scam,” said Demirors. “I started trading carbon and learned a lot about how markets work.” 

She then moved into consulting before working in the corporate treasury department at ExxonMobile. It was while getting her MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that she first became interested in bitcoin. 

Demirors met Barry Silbert when he was in the early stages of starting the Digital Currency Group, the parent company of Grayscale Investments. 

“I said ‘I think I can help you, I think we could do some cool stuff together,’ and that’s really how it started,” said Demirors. “For me, it was just realizing that all the things that I’d worked on in the past, were dead. Those were dying industries.”

Demirors got involved with digital assets early. For the rest of the world, bitcoin’s latest run is serving as the gateway into the technology. 

Changing the bitcoin message

While those skeptical about digital assets may be growing more open to learning about blockchain technology, a plethora of misconceptions remain, Demirors said. One of the most notable is the idea that bitcoin is used to commit crimes. 

“Let’s move on from that, please,” said Demirors. “The most widely used financial tool for crime is the dollar, and then the second most widely used tool for financial crime is the US banking system, as evidenced by the $6 billion of fines that were paid by banks last year, an all time record high, in order to settle money laundering charges.” 

Another common anti-bitcoin argument is that mining is bad for the environment. Demirors argued the opposite. She cited a CoinShares study from 2019 that reported 77% of coin mining used renewable energy. 

“I’ve been spending a lot of time lately on highlighting why I think bitcoin will be a massive boon for low energy,” said Demirors. “Bitcoin is effectively a money battery that can help balance energy grids, and make our energy infrastructure more secure and more resilient, while also making it economically feasible to invest in large scale renewable energy production.”

Most people view bitcoin as an investable asset more than a disruptive technology, Demirors said, but she is hoping to change that.

“Part of what I’ve always enjoyed doing in this industry is trying to help people see what I see, where we are going, and what’s really been interesting over the last 12 months is that all of a sudden, people are much more open to having that conversation,” said Demirors.

“I’m really excited that we’re seeing a lot more talent flowing into space, a lot more capital flowing into the space, but also, some really intelligent people are now looking at bitcoin and cryptocurrency more broadly.” 

Tags

Upcoming Events

Hilton Metropole | 225 Edgware Rd, London

MON - WED, MARCH 18 - 20, 2024

Crypto’s premier institutional conference returns to London in March 2024. The DAS: London Experience:  Attend expert-led panel discussions and fireside chats  Hear the latest developments regarding the crypto and digital asset regulatory environment directly from policymakers and experts   Grow your network […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

recent research

Frax report cover.jpg

Research

Frax saw continued development in its frxETH liquid staking derivative and Fraxlend money market throughout 2023. Frax V3 introduces an RWA strategy to drive utility to the protocol's cornerstone product, the FRAX stablecoin.

article-image

Crypto as an “industry” could probably do without quite as many cults of personality

article-image

Bitcoin has rebounded 130% so far this year

article-image

Following layoffs at BAYC parent Yuga Labs and OpenSea, Tiger Global marked down its stakes

article-image

Recent SEC filings suggest the regulator could be lining up the approval of multiple proposals in early January, segment observers argue

article-image

A dinner back in September gave big traders a heads up about the DOJ settlement, Bloomberg reported

article-image

On-chain debt capital markets platform deploys on Coinbase-incubated layer-2 after structured investment products push