Really nicely written.

Most of us in the crypto world have inhibitions that stop us from progressing. I'm from the EU too.

I admit that I entered the crypto world in 2012 for money. I figured I'd earn something. I paid off the loans with Bitcoin (relatively quickly).

Then, in 2015, a friend and I started a crypto exchange (a smaller European crypto exchange that is not even listed on CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap).
We founded it mainly because we believe that the financial world should be independent of banks.

We were a while ago. We already introduced prepaid cards in 2016 (before most others), and we also had product ideas at least two years before everyone else.

What stuck with us was that we were not (and still are not) 100% in the company. Everyone is employed elsewhere and we have that as an extra. We also did not accept investors because we felt that we would not have control over the company.We are a small group of enthusiasts.

Financially speaking, this is not good, but psychologically and morally we are satisfied.
Our service is ok, the customers who do business with us (mostly Europeans) are satisfied.

With a little bit of lying and data manipulation, we could be in the top 20 exchanges on coinchecko or coinmarketcap. We could manipulate data, just like others do, we could allow suspicious transactions, money laundering...but we decided not to.

Ever since I've been in this "business", I've noticed that if you work transparently and within the framework of legislation like we do - you can't succeed in the short term.

Most exchanges have inflated results (trading, revenue...), others inflate and deflate prices. Some borrow money from customers, some launder money... you can really make a lot of money with this, we decided that we don't want to have problems in Europe and elsewhere. Is that right? Morally certainly, but financially...

We still believe that cryptocurrencies, web3 and everything that comes with it makes the world a better place. Especially in the world of banks, CBDCs, transaction control, big brother...that's why we still persist. We hope and work to be able to offer services to our existing and new customers that will enable their and our financial independence from fiat.
But there are really few true enthusiasts, most of them only look at money in the short term, no one asks what all the company has to do in order to succeed in the crypto world (that it is legally regulated and not morally objectionable). Nobody asks.