Why Lisbon Is Immunefi’s Crypto Hub

Crypto Founders on Crypto Hubs is a series of interviews with entrepreneurs about where their startup is located and why. It is part of Crypto Hubs 2023. In this installment, CoinDesk senior editor Jeanhee Kim interviewed Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of bug bounty platform Immunefi. Their conversation was transcribed and edited for clarity and length.

Tell me where Immunefi is.

Immunefi is all remote. We have team members in America, Central America, South America, Central European groups and a large British group. We are incorporated in Singapore.

But arguably the hub where we have the most aggregation is Lisbon and the wider area. We’ve got team members who are Portuguese, who are into crypto for a variety of reasons. We have foreigners, people who have made Portugal their escape. And now, this totally new class, nomads, who don’t live in Portugal but are here for x months a year.

Mitchell Amador is a Canada-born crypto entrepreneur who lives in Portugal, where he founded Immunefi in 2020. Immunefi is a bug bounty crowdsourcing platform for decentralized finance. An avid ecosystem builder, Amador is a core member and officer of the New Economy Institute that has been helping shape the technology and regulatory landscape in Portugal with the goal of helping Portugal become a better crypto hub.

If Portugal is your hub, why did you not incorporate there?

From a regulatory, taxation perspective, do we want to set up our corporation in a country where it’s extremely difficult to fire people – at-will clauses or contracts with a bunch of arcane taxation rules – complete with the general regulatory policy oversight of do-nothing-until-you-have-permission? These are deal breakers from an incorporation perspective, but where places like Delaware excel, Singapore excels.

So you aren’t incorporated in Portugal but what are the reasons you have made it Immunefi’s hub?

Portugal has made huge strides over the last year concerning the implementation of new and friendly crypto taxation laws, which is a huge boon to the community and among the most important things they could do to make Portugal a more effective crypto hub. The Portuguese state is actively engaging with the community, primarily through the advocacy non-profit Instituto New Economy, which I co-founded – to show serious skin…