How adoption is changing crypto company structures

Crypto-focused companies have come a long way since their beginnings in terms of corporate structure, employee motivation, decision-making systems, compliance and other aspects of their operations. While the early 2010s saw startups founded by small groups of crypto enthusiasts, the space has since grown to become home to large institutional businesses.

Still, crypto companies are engaged in business, and business is alien to anarchy. The rapid growth of the cryptocurrency industry in the 2010s transformed small, independent businesses into huge conglomerates with thousands of employees and offices worldwide. Investment funds and professional investors own shares of them, many have functioning boards of directors, and their corporate structures have dozens of departments and divisions. But does all this bureaucracy destroy the very philosophy of cryptocurrency?

Like any other company, most cryptocurrency businesses got their start when their founders came up with the idea to launch a business. The difference, however, is that crypto is not only a new form of finance but also has an ideological foundation that combines the spirit of decentralization, freedom and anonymity. Over the last decade, cryptocurrencies have challenged traditional fiat currencies and rejected many of the rules of the financial world, causing confusion in the measured life of the global investment industry.

From the very beginning

The cryptocurrency exchange Huobi was founded by two co-founders, Du Jun and Leon Li, in September 2013. By November 2013, Huobi had already reached a Bitcoin (BTC) transaction volume of 1 billion yuan (around $6 billion at the time) and began receiving funding from prominent investors. In its first year of existence, Huobi’s headcount grew to exceed 100 people, and the exchange now counts more than 2,000 employees in its corporate structure. It has rapidly transformed from a cryptocurrency startup to a large company with a multibillion-dollar turnover….