Brands: NuMoney

An Inside Look At NuMoney: How First-Timers Can Buy Cryptocurrency Offline To Reduce Risk

Cryptocurrency has been a hot topic since last year.

Forbes in 2017 wrote that a main reason why crypto had so much hype was because people got curious and fascinated by this new digital currency.

This burgeoning interest then caught the attention of retail and institutional investors with deep pockets.

Now, startups and savvy businesses are raising funds through Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), which Forbes says, creates “new value for the cryptocurrency market”.

Early last year, Singapore hadn’t really caught on the crypto wave yet, so anyone looking to buy their first Bitcoin or Ethereum typically has to use an online wallet and an exchange that’s based overseas.

So when we learned that there’s a crypto exchange in Singapore that lets people buy coins over-the-counter (OTC), we decided to visit their office to find out more.

Shopping Online For Crypto

If I was worried about getting lost looking for a crypto office in an industrial building, it was unnecessary.

As soon as I stepped out of the lift, NuMoney‘s yellow neon sign and bright orange doors greeted me.

I met Lee Wei Ping, who is the Operations Manager at NuMoney, and she settled me into a seat to show me how to buy crypto OTC.

But before we started, I wanted to understand why they introduced an OTC service when buying online is more convenient.

“I think one of the reasons why people buy online is because there are a lot of options out there,” she began.

“With so much information up on the Internet out there, people can easily Google and find out if it’s real, and they can look at all the different price points from any vendors.”

People can trade anytime and anywhere they want to because it’s online, and transactions are quick and quite effortless.

But there is the possibility of getting scammed because for one, the buyer doesn’t know who are they buying from, and because it’s on the Internet, the buyer can’t tell where they’re from, she said.

For example, ‘pump-and-dump’ scams are rife in the western part of the world, and a research found that more than 80% of ICOs conducted last year were scams.

Another reason that keeps people away is the possibility of having your online crypto wallet hacked into.

That’s because anyone who wants to trade crypto has to have a wallet, which comes with a public key and a private key.

If they lose or reveal their private key, anyone will be able to access their wallet and take all their cryptocurrencies, or lose them forever.

Like this Australian man who, in 2013, reportedly lost his keys after the USB he had stored them in “died” and he lost millions.

Tax And Privacy

Wei Ping explained that because these virtual currencies run on blockchain, a digital ledger that records cryptocurrency transactions chronogically and publicly, anyone with enough skills may be able to access those information illegally.

Most people like that blockchain is decentralised because they want to be in control of their data and be independent of central authorities.

But for people who want to stay anonymous, especially those who are affluent, this reason could be enough to deter them from trading cryptocurrency, Wei Ping told me.

She observed that these people who trade crypto could be “done with investing or (trading) stocks, and they’re looking for new things to invest in”.

“Some people want to enter the crypto market but they are not sure if that’s legal in Singapore, and if they need to pay tax should they earn (profits) from (trading) it,” she continued.

For those who are concerned that their profits will be taxed, they checked with IRAS and MAS via email and found that if it’s for capital gains, then those profits are non-taxable.

Making Crypto More Approachable

Wei Ping explained that before the crypto boom in Singapore, buyers here had to get crypto via a US website, do wire transfers, and go through a bank before getting their coins.

Prices were subjected to foreign exchange rates and the process took two weeks.

So programmers Steven Goh and Bach Le, CEO and CTO of NuMoney respectively, set out to make buying crypto in Singapore easier.

When NuMoney first started, their initial business model was to first find a crypto liquidity provider, get funds via wire transfer, and then resell the cryptocurrencies at a spread.

Some time later, they realised that this model wasn’t sustainable, so that was when they decided to build their own exchange.

They tested their OTC service at the time when crypto was doing “pretty good”, and their crypto-reselling business was slowly picking up.

But it was still tough as they were relying on an overseas provider, spending about $50,000 to $100,000 to get crypto to be resold on their platform.

When their transfers got cut off and banks delayed processing their wire transfers, Steven and Bach suspended the business because there wasn’t enough supply.

They concluded that unless they are their own vendor or liquidity provider, NuMoney cannot survive.

Steven doubled down on building the exchange with Bach as they resumed business – and their efforts paid off, as the NuMoney exchange launched in April this year.

The purpose of their OTC service is to serve people who are not tech-savvy, like the elderly.

As it is so technical, people are afraid of doing it by themselves so they want a professional to guide them, she said.

Subsequently, they’ll encourage their OTC customers to trade online by themselves using their exchange because the spread is 5% when trading via OTC, slightly higher than trading on the NuMoney exchange.

“We’re creating an order book exchange so users can trade amongst themselves. With OTC, they trade with us,” Wei Ping added.

Buying Your First Crypto

“If you’re Singaporean, all you need to do is to come in with your ID, we’ll take a photo of it, and then we’ll register you using our website, for first timers to keep track of their record. And that’s it,” she said.

“For the exchange, it’s similar to all other exchanges. Upload your ID, a proof of address, then take a selfie of you holding up a sign that says ‘NuMoney’ and the present date, then upload it on our platform.”

Customers can use any free online crypto wallet or get a physical crypto wallet from NuMoney or from any other vendors.

If they haven’t set up their wallets yet, the NuMoney staff will set them up for free.

They recommend to get a free online wallet if customers are only trading small amounts, like $200.

If customers are serious traders, they can purchase a Ledger Nano wallet at the NuMoney store for S$250.

Customers can start trading once that is done.

Buying crypto with cash OTC:

• Customer visits NuMoney, carrying $200 worth of cash
• Gives her money to staff who will credit them into her wallet in the NuMoney exchange
• She proceeds to buy about 0.45ETH

To withdraw cash OTC:

• Customer visits NuMoney
• Requests to withdraw money; crypto will be sold and amount credited into wallet
• Leaves with amount of cash from the sale of her crypto

Customers can also choose to do a bank transfer when at their office, if they don’t have cash on hand.

Similarly, when they withdraw, they can request NuMoney to transfer their money through internet banking.

Wei Ping noted that when trading on their exchange, it takes two days for customer’s money to be deposited into the wallet.

Depending on which currency the customer is getting; they can get ETH in 15 to 20 minutes, and XRP (Ripple) and NEO in five to 10 minutes.

As for BTC, it can take up to one hour because it requires two confirmations to process.

Miners tend to not want to spend too much effort doing that because they don’t earn much from the sale if it’s a small purchase, Wei Ping explained.

Become A Coin Master

When I asked about the people who come to NuMoney, Wei Ping said customers range from “aunties and uncles”, to polytechnic and university students who are studying business and then got into crypto.

The oldest customer they’ve served was a lady in her mid-70s.

“She came for our seminar and arrived in a scooter bike and parked it outside our office then came in to listen to our seminar,” Wei Ping recalled, “I think she heard about our seminar from her friend.”

Perhaps one advantage NuMoney has over foreign exchanges is that they are based here, so they are able to better provide customer support for Singapore customers.

The team also set up a NuMoney group on Telegram where customers can ask them questions and others can participate in the conversation too.

Since launching in November 2017, more than S$10 million have been traded on their platform, and their team has now grown to slightly over 20 members, according to Steven.

NuMoney launched their own token, NuMoney coin (NMX), and is currently on public sale and you can participate in it via the NuMoney exchange.

At one point during our conversation, I was curious about their trade mining feature, and Wei Ping roped in Ted, their software engineer, to explain to me in detail what it’s about.

Knowing that NuMoney is also present in Malaysia and Indonesia was assuring, because I can trust that they are serious about their business.

I left their office feeling more confident about buying cryptocurrency on my own and excited to tell a friend about NuMoney.

To make an appointment with them, head to their website here, or check out the NuMoney exchange here.

This article was written in collaboration with NuMoney.

Featured Image Credit: Victoria Sek, Vulcan Post

Also Read: If You Want To Jump On The Crypto Craze But Don’t Know How, NuMoney Will Help You

If You Want To Jump On The Crypto Craze But Don’t Know How, NuMoney Will Help You

If you haven’t jumped on the crypto bandwagon yet, don’t worry, because it’s here to stay so you’ve got plenty of time.

Typically, one has to sign up for a ‘wallet’ and go through a stringent verification process in order to trade crypto on an exchange.

But online wallets and mobile wallets are not always the safest as there is the possibility of them getting hacked into, and waiting times to get verified can take a while. The quality of customer support for crypto exchanges are not encouraging too.

Singaporean startup, NuMoney, provides an alternative to these exchanges, and wants to simplify the trading of cryptocurrency so anyone can own a Bitcoin or Ethereum or Litecoin – you get it.

Problems With Buying Cryptocurrency In APAC

NuMoney is founded by Steven Goh (31) and Bach Le (27) who started Nubela Corp together in August 2014.

Steven graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with a degree in Computer Science and started learning programming since he was 14.

His entrepreneurial journey had begun more than five years ago as he tried to “out-Google Google” with a lifestyle app for food and activities that leverages off HungryGoWhere and Yelp.

Bach holds a degree in Communication and Media from NUS, and started out as a game developer then went into networking and distributed systems.

He has worked and built other products on Nubela together with Steven, and now, NuMoney.

They noticed that banks have been shutting down accounts of local crypto exchanges in the region, and cited Luno, Malaysia’s most popular exchange, as one of them that had their bank accounts frozen.

As local exchanges shut down, that means there is little to almost no access to customer support – and it is extremely frustrating when you need help but there’s no one there to give you answers.

Another problem they found was the extra costs incurred by customers when they want to cash out their cryptocurrencies from exchanges.

Indonesia’s leading exchange, bitcoin.co.id, “charges a high withdrawal fee of 1% for withdrawals larger than Rp 250,000,000″, according to them.

They also pointed out the long verification times with foreign exchanges like Gemini and Bittrex, stating that a “successful verification for a Gemini account can take up to a month”.

That’s a long time in the cryptocurrency world because no cryptocurrency is going to wait for you.

So, say you missed the chance to buy a cryptocurrency at a good price and you want to take a chance on smaller altcoins. After doing some research, you find out that the exchange you are using does not support those altcoins.

Signing up or switching to another exchange like Binance is troublesome and “expensive as exchanges charge high withdrawal fees”, they said.

The Region’s First Crypto Exchange With Retail Stores

Steven and Bach’s solution to all of these cumbersome problems was NuMoney.

NuMoney first started out as an over-the-counter (OTC) service for people to buy cryptocurrency “instantly” with fiat currency.

They sell cryptocurrency at a spread and also charge a small fee to cover the cost of the network transfer fee of the coin during the transaction.

But most customers are “happy to pay extra to receive technical support”, good customer service, and the immediacy of the service, according to them.

So, how do you get cryptocurrency at NuMoney?

Customers book an appointment, head to any NuMoney office, pay with either cash or through internet bank transfer, and show their IC or passport for verification purposes – and done.

Their office in Tai Seng is currently operational, and the other office at Raffles Place is due to be ready in 2018.

Their business model was straightforward: obtain a cryptocurrency liquidity provider, get funding via wire transfers, and resell cryptocurrency at a spread.

In their first two months of operations in November 2017, they crossed S$1.2 million in turnover, then S$2.5 milllion just last month.

The NuMoney Initial Exchange Offering

But rapid growth isn’t always a good thing.

Problems with banks and liquidity providers started to arise because of the rapid movements of the high volume of cash.

They believed it was necessary to build an independent crypto exchange themselves if they do not want to fail.

As they explained, “The building of an exchange is imperative as it allows fiat currency to cycle within an exchange without having to cross borders, which in turn reduces the need of a banking intermediary.”

In the long run, this removes the reliance on banks and external liquidity providers.

NuMoney accepts fiat money and lets customers withdraw fiat money without going through any actual banks as they store cash deposits in cash vaults just like a bank.

This allows them to stay operational even if banks decide to shut down their bank accounts.

They explained that an Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) is a means of raising capital for new startups, and NuMoney’s IEO will let users exchange any crypto of their choice or fiat currency (like Singapore dollars) for NMX tokens minted by NuMoney.

Users can use NMX tokens to pay for transactional fees on the exchange and as an incentive, users get close to 70 per cent discount when they buy or use it.

The purpose of their exchange is to make it easier for the “average Joe who wants to get his/her hands on some cryptocurrency” using fiat currency and vice-versa.

Their conviction: by participating in NuMoney’s IEO, you are backing their exchange which is a “ready-made product” and not an “idea”.

NuMoney is confident that NMX tokens “will appreciate in value” after the launch of the IEO as users trade the tokens on the NuMoney exchange.

Their exchange launches today, 6 April 2018.

NuMoney’s Future Plans

So, with the launch of their IEO due soon, how do potential and existing customers shop for cryptocurrency when that time comes?

First, the customer will arrive at a NuMoney retail store and do a Know Your Money/Anti-Money Laundering (KYC/AML) registration.

Then they’ll have a choice to either buy or sell cryptocurrency through the OTC service or through the NuMoney exchange.

With the OTC service, the customer will have a dedicated NuMoney staff to handle the process of trading, but at a “slightly higher premium”.

If customers choose to trade with NuMoney’s exchange, they can do it at their own time after signing up for an account. Customers deposit cash with NuMoney and credits will be deposited into their accounts.

They are looking to support as many altcoins as possible, saying, “We will explore the option to open up a platform for coin founders/owners to list on our exchange without much hassle.”

Right now, they are setting up stores across Southeast Asia, concurrently launching NuMoney Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, and NuMoney Indonesia in Jakarta.

“Having physical outlets instills trust and gives access to cryptocurrency to the general public which is crucial for cryptocurrency to go mainstream,” they explained.

Using cryptocurrency to make payments and remittance are some of the future services they want to provide to customers.

“Given our position as an international exchange, it opens up opportunities like such. Down the road I see ourselves becoming an ‘international consumer bank backed by cryptocurrency,” Steven shared.

Join the NuMoney exchange Telegram chat here to get notified of the IEO launch and participate in discussions on anything cryptocurrency.

For more information on NuMoney, visit their website here, and the exchange here.

This article is written in collaboration with NuMoney.

Featured Image Credit: NuMoney Singapore

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