Summary
Grey Hat is a next generation crypto app. It is a comprehensive wallet with built in, automated trading functionality allowing users unprecedented access to the crypto ecosystem without needing to sign up on risky exchanges or understand web3.
Business
Grey Hat's mission is to make crypto safer and more accessible to users. We have created a platform that allows users to store and trade virtually any coin or token currently available. By building back-end connectors to major centralized and decentralized exchanges, we have automated and simplified the tasks of price/fee comparison, asset transfer, and even web3 token swapping. This allows users to trade crypto assets without the need to sign up on risky centralized exchanges or interact with technically challenging decentralized exchanges, thereby reducing risk and simplifying the crypto ecosystem.
Our app will be free with premium subscriptions available which offer more advanced features. Users pay a small percentage on trades.
Market
Our target customer is anyone who wants to trade crypto assets in a simple and safe way. There is a specific need for easier solutions in this space as more mainstream users continue to come into it. The market is growing exponentially, with crypto asset holders predicted to surpass 900M in 2025 (up 791% from 2020), and global trade volume reaching 3.5T in November 2024 (up 942% from 2020).
While Grey Hat is certainly appealing to anyone wanting to trade and store crypto due to its comprehensive asset support and automated trading features, we are specifically targeting users new to the space by providing automating wallet address creation, simple trade and transfer operations, and access to web3 tokens.
Future Objectives
Our immediate goal is to grow to over 10,000 users in the first year, which we project will generate around $464,000 in trade fee revenue and $265,000 in subscription revenue. In addition to our CEO and CTO, we have identified 8 new hires for the first year to support the initial launch and growth.
We have already spoken with a well established marketing firm specializing in promoting crypto apps, and have outlined a complex marketing strategy including traditional online marketing, social media, promotions, and YouTube influencers. First year marketing spend will be around $280,000 and continue to grow each quarter.
In five years, we project over 500,000 users with a top-line revenue of almost 50M, employing around 80 staff.
Competition
While there are other crypto wallets on the market already, there are none that offer the innovations we have implemented. Some exchanges like Coinbase have their own wallet, but it is only capable of trading on the Conbase exchange, and is limited to the assets on Coinbase. Robinhood and Crypto.com have similar products. Our platform is able to connect to multiple centralized exchanges and route trades for the best price/lowest fees, and the user's crypto is then stored off exchange.
Metamask is a hugely popular web3 wallet. Our app is also capable of swapping web3 tokens. However, we do not require the user to connect directly to decentralized exchanges. Rather, we have implemented that capability on the back-end.
Team
Our team consists of two founders, Gary Groves and Rob Smith. Gary and Rob have extensive experience operating a startup as they co-founded Ledger Software (SaaS for Child Care Industry) in 2012. They are passionate about crypto and blockchain technology and have been investing heavily for over 6 years now.
In addition to the core team, Raj Chowdhury has joined as an expert advisor. His experience and lengthy success in the blockchain field adds a wealth of knowledge to the core leadership team. Raj also brings with him some of his own experts in crypto branding, marketing, and content management.
Gary Groves - CEO
Gary has a business management background. Prior to co-founding Prime Child Care, he was the owner of National Coupling, a large company subsea equipment company which he sold for 45M.
Rob Smith - CTO
IT leader with 25 years of experience solving complex IT problems and building scalable systems. Power crypto trader since 2019.
Co-founder and CTO, Prime Child Care – SaaS software for child care centers
IT Manager, National Coupling, Hunting Subsea
Velocity Engineer, Marathon Oil
Computer Science, University of Houston
Raj Chowdhury - Advisor
Raj Chowdhury is the Managing Director of PayBito crypto exchange and a Blockchain and Bitcoin pioneer. Earlier Chowdhury pioneered the first interbank Trade Finance and Remittance implementations of Blockchain between two of the largest global banks. He is an eminent voice on Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies globally and actively engages with policymakers in this area. He is a contributor to Economic Times, Business World, Business Standard, CNNMoney, Business Insider, Cointelegraph and advises industry leaders in the adoption of Blockchain.