Bet on the Future
With Antoine Scalia, founder & CEO of Cryptio.
In September 2013, Antoine Scalia entered the prestigious Parisian school HEC. He had often been told it was the ultimate prize, the final step of an exemplary academic path. But when he arrived, he quickly realized it was not an endpoint—he had to write a new chapter of his story.
Antoine had two passions. The first was electronic music. He quickly joined the school’s electronic music association, HECSTASY—a well-chosen name. His second passion was entrepreneurship. As a child, he was fascinated by the entrepreneurs he met in his family circle—first-generation internet founders who could become rich by 30, lose everything, and then make ten times more ten years later.
Naturally, Antoine turned to tech, completing internships in data at a consulting firm and at Veepee (then known as Vente Privée). He later discovered tech from a different angle while working at the investment fund Ventech. There, the entrepreneurs he met reignited his entrepreneurial spark, and Antoine decided to take the leap. Not into music—though he would have liked to—but into a market he saw as highly promising: crypto.
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When Antoine first became interested in crypto in late 2016, the market was still in its infancy. That December, a single bitcoin was worth just $950. Like most of us, his first exposure to crypto was through investing. But very quickly, he became increasingly drawn to the vision behind it. Fuelled by his long-standing interest in philosophy, he delved into the origins of the cypherpunk movement.
“If I’m trying to sell to a CFO of a big U.S. company, speaking with my French accent from my office in Paris, I’ll start at a disadvantage compared to an American company that can smoothly chat for the first two minutes.”
Antoine about moving to London.
At the time, the market didn’t really exist yet, and the ecosystem’s direction was still unclear. But Antoine knew this was where he needed to be. “I obviously didn’t have the foresight to say that by 2025, crypto would be used for remittances with stablecoins. It was more of a naïve, optimistic belief that crypto was going to become something. No matter where it was headed, it was going somewhere—and if it was going somewhere, certain building blocks would be essential. So I figured I might as well start working on it now,” he tells me. A bet on the future.
Antoine teamed up to launch Cryptio and joined HEC’s entrepreneurship program, Startup Launchpad. At the time, ICOs were all the rage. I won’t go into detail on that trend—you can find more in a previous edition where I shared the story of Keyrock’s CEO. The two founders raised €50,000 from friends and family to help companies holding crypto assets tackle infrastructure, data, and accounting challenges. The early days were tough, slow-moving. The market was far from mature, and ICOs were riddled with scams. Despite this, Cryptio got the chance to join Consensys’ incubator in New York, where the ecosystem was more active. Antoine took a flight and settled there for six months, while his co-founder and the few interns they had hired stayed in Paris.
In New York, Antoine discovered new energy, new opportunities. But a rift started to form. His co-founder, stuck in Paris, didn’t share the same enthusiasm. In early 2020, he decided to leave. At the same time, Covid hit.
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Antoine was back in France, confined in Normandy, without a co-founder. A tough blow—one that made him consider giving up for the first time. But that dark thought lasted only an hour. He decided to refocus on the product, drawing from his conversations with U.S. players.
After a few months, things finally started turning in Cryptio’s favour. Between April 2020 and April 2021, the market entered a full bull run. Bitcoin surged 840%, and adoption grew. That resulted in more work for the young company. During this period, the startup raised its first funding round—€1.2 million led by Tim Draper. In just six months, Antoine went from being on the verge of shutting down to being set up for years to come.
From now on, Antoine’s challenge was to structure the company. The team, made up of interns and freelancers, needed to evolve, and he discovered both a passion and a talent for hiring. “In the hiring process, I look for energy and passion. I want people who genuinely enjoy what they do, who find fulfilment in it, and whose only goal is to grow as fast as possible in their careers. I wanted young, smart people who were hungry and who could put in the work simply because they loved it.” A pivotal moment was hiring their current CTO and VP Revenue, who transformed the company. Between 2021 and 2022, the company grew from 8 to 25 employees, quintupled its revenue, and landed major players in the ecosystem.
Early on, spurred by the U.S.-led funding round, Antoine made the decision to internationalize both the team and the company culture. For a long time, Cryptio had no French customers. “I had this belief that if I built the company in France, we’d be shooting ourselves in the foot—especially on the customer-facing side. If I’m trying to sell to a CFO of a big U.S. company, speaking with my French accent from my office in Paris, I’ll start at a disadvantage compared to an American company that can smoothly chat for the first two minutes.” So Antoine opened an office in London. Sales, support and marketing teams would be based there, while tech and product would remain in Paris. With his partner already living in London, it was the perfect opportunity to make the move—and finally cancel his expensive Eurostar subscription.
In 2022, driven by rapid growth despite a challenging market, Cryptio raised another funding round—$10 million, led by Point Nine. You may have seen that video of Sam Altman explaining that what matters in a market isn’t its current size, but its future potential. The bet Antoine placed eight years ago is a perfect illustration of this. Today, the startup has 85 employees across Paris, London, and New York. It has become the crypto back-office for governments like El Salvador, and crypto firms like Circle, the issuer of USDC, Uniswap or Consensys. One month ago, to fuel its growth, the team raised $15 million in Series A extension funding, led by Alven.
The future looks bright as regulatory frameworks take shape. I encourage you to look into the GENIUS Act in the U.S., which aims to establish a stablecoin regulatory framework. In Europe, there’s MiCA, and in Dubai, VARA. All of which will further strengthen trust in the crypto market.
A “blessing” for Cryptio.
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Thomas