Netcoins is a Vancouver-based cryptocurrency trading platform that supports over 35 different coins, allowing users to trade 24/7 on their web and mobile apps. We spoke with Fraser Matthews, President of Netcoins about new features coming to their mobile app and their recent milestone of becoming one of the first Canadian crypto firms to expand into the US.

Photo by André François McKenzie on Unsplash

What app features has the team been working on recently? How will these features be providing value to Netcoins users?

What we’re currently partnered with TribalScale on is the Netcoins price widget. The widget is going to be available on both iOS and Android, accessible on the lock screen or on the home screen of a user's phone. It will display price information for one or multiple crypto assets—Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc—in real-time and in the future will tie in with push notifications for an added layer of awareness.

“Essentially, Netcoins is now going to live on the front page of a user’s phone, giving them access to information directly at their fingertips and ultimately more control over their account.”

If you look at the industry, there's a number of different sources that people can go to for crypto pricing. You can find it on different websites, you can set up alerts, you can have it within a browser, etc. But having this information immediately accessible on your phone, without having to log into an app, or hit refresh, or search for it is a much more user-friendly experience.

Unlike the stock market that opens and closes every day at set hours, the crypto market is running 24/7. These assets are based on networks, functionality, utility, and some crypto assets have their own niche purposes, so there are many things that can cause fluctuations in the market. Over the past year we’ve also seen more market volatility so awareness is important for investors.

How has the process of expanding the app into the US been so far? What effort did that process involve?

The process has definitely involved a lot of work. To give you some background, we did two things as part of the build up for expanding into the US. The first phase was completely rebuilding the Netcoins mobile application from the ground up—this included rewriting code, rebuilding functionality, and implementing different technologies, frameworks, and languages to support that.

The second phase was implementing new branding, updating the traditional blue and white Netcoins look to a more Web3 look and feel. We launched the new branding at the end of last year with Netcoins.com in the US and this March we’re relaunching Netcoins.ca in Canada with our new branding as well.

This work was really important, allowing us to upgrade the look and feel of the app through the new user interface and improve the user experience combined with a lot of new features in the app. Also from a technology perspective, another interesting part of the build has been creating a mobile application that supports two different countries.

“We leaned into TribalScale’s expertise with launching one application in multiple jurisdictions—including how to route users through that and how to launch in different app stores. TribalScale’s experience with launching apps across multiple countries, not just Canada and the US, but also in the Middle East and outside of North America, has really helped us and we were able to take those lessons learned and apply it to this project.”

With TribalScale’s support we focused on the registration and onboarding flows, ensuring users were being pointed to the right place within the application whether they’re a Canadian or US user, and we also took a look at how user information was being gathered.

How do government regulations affect operations in Canada vs the US? What challenges/blockers has the team had to overcome?

In Canada, the regulatory environment is pretty robust and strong, so it gives us a real leg up. Netcoins is registered with the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) and we have what's called a Restricted Dealer license, currently there are eleven crypto trading platforms that have this license. The provincial commission support is holistic, so you register with one commission and that gives you the ability to operate across Canada.

We are required to be registered and comply with the various rules for the Restricted Dealer license, but there's relief within that because these rules tell us what we need to do and how we need to do it. There are also reporting requirements that we comply with and are part of our day-to-day operations at Netcoins. As well, we’re compliant with all the other regulatory rules—financial rules, money service business rules, anti-money laundering rules, etc.

In the US, it's a state by state model which is the main difference. We submit applications with individual states and we're able to launch in different states at different points in time. There are federal regulations and reporting obligations as well. Expanding into the US required a lot of safe business setup, a lot of work with our legal teams, partners, and defining new operations.

For our initial US launch last December, we went live in five states—California, Missouri, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. After that, in January we launched in Kentucky, Colorado, Kansas, and Utah, and in February we launched in Nebraska and Delaware. We’ll be applying for a Money Transfer license that some states require and others do not, that will open up additional states to us as well.

“Our value proposition is being compliance-first crypto, embracing regulation and not moving away from it. It’s our goal to be as transparent as possible with our users and with the market, so they know who we are and what we stand for."

What’s next on the roadmap for Netcoins?

We are working on launching our price widget and push notifications for our mobile app, giving users insights on price alerts, trading information, and market news. Netcoins recently launched in New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Indiana, bringing the total to 15 states and we’ll continue to launch other states as we get approvals throughout this year.

One item on the roadmap which is quite popular in the crypto space is coin staking, we are hoping to launch staking with Ethereum in Canada in the first half of the year. As well, we’ll be looking at different types of trading with coins, specifically, we’re looking to add coin-to-coin trading. Stay tuned there’s exciting stuff coming!