People Fundamentals #6: Hristiyan Hristov – From the Black Sea into Uncharted Crypto Waters

This week on People Fundamentals we have a true crypto veteran in the house. Hristiyan Hristov has been in the space since as early as 2016 and he’s seen it all from the initial days of Bitcoin adoption to the blunders of early DeFi. He’s the man who lives and breathes crypto and Nexo – we even have an inside joke that his blood runs blue, not because he’s a royal, but because that’s Nexo’s brand color. As our Account Management Team Lead, he has guided many through the uncharted waters of cryptocurrency so have a read of his story and advice in today’s article.

Hristiyan Hristov – From the Black Sea into Uncharted Crypto Waters

1) Who are you? Describe yourself in a few words.

My name is Hristiyan Hristov – a sea child (I was born and raised on the Black Sea coast) with five years of crypto and blockchain experience under my belt.

I currently lead Nexo’s Account Management team where we guide our HNW clients through our ecosystem of products and services. Think of me as something of a crypto shepherd – my focus is on introducing people to the space and equipping them with the right tools to effectively operate in it.

2) How would you describe your digital personality #Meta-Identity? (Ex. Internet Aficionado , Social Recluse, Digital Doggo Freak)

Being a millennial, I was lucky enough to live with and without digital spaces and social media. I still prefer real-life interaction so I would postpone the dive into the metaverse as much as I could.

3) You have all the resources you need. What would you create?

I’d love to create a machine that allows you to travel through time. I am curious to see how the pyramids were built and how life was during the Renaissance.

If that is not possible, I’d be happy to build a machine that can pause the crypto market for a week or two so all of us working in the space can have a break without secretly checking Twitter & charts (No joke, I feel like my family has about had it with me in that respect).

4) How did you get into crypto? What’s your Nexo story?

Back in 2016, I wanted to make a purchase online but the seller only wanted Bitcoin so I bought some BTC through a P2P platform to facilitate that payment. Not much farther down the road, I ended up buying my first two altcoins for 25 pounds each.

Some time passed, and I heard that you could buy a mining rig and mine an asset called Ether. I was bent on trying it out but there was an ever-so-tiny kink in my plan – I had no money to buy the rig. After a few weeks of research, I came to the “incredible” realization that you can also just buy/invest in Ether…no need to mine it.

The whole concept of the democratization of investing blew me away. I thought that only rich people and institutions could invest in high risk-return assets but in this new “crypto” space that simply wasn’t true anymore. Regular people like me could participate in the investment world. That’s how I stumbled upon Nexo: I had the opportunity to invest in the private token sale but it was the beginning of the most brutal bear market (early 2018) so I decided to pass. Not gonna lie, I regret that decision. Between 2017 and 2020, I invested in various crypto start-ups and read as much as I could about the space. At that point, I was bent on marrying my love of crypto to my career. Luckily, I re-met Nexo in late 2019 when I saw a job offer from the company. That’s when I decided it was meant to be and I put a ring on it. I always knew I was born to be part of something BIG - Nexo.

5) What is your biggest challenge?

My biggest challenge is to resist pizza on a Wednesday and a burger on a Friday, no joke. The bull run made me fat 😁.

6) What is your biggest fuck-up?

I believe I have had no significant fuck-up so far, but I wish I had learned earlier in my life that the most valuable asset we have is time so I could have used mine more wisely.

7) How many hours do you sleep?

Usually, I sleep 6-7 hours a night, but if I go to bed late, I cannot sleep after 9 AM.

8) What is your crypto survival kit?

• Experience – Riding out different market cycles is my secret sauce to understanding crypto.
• Persistence
• The ability to zoom out and think long-term

9) What coin are you most curious about?

Being in the space for quite some time, I have been through different stages of the industry: the ICO boom, the DeFi cycle, the rise of NFT and metaverse tokens. They all are exciting, but I am most fascinated by the assets that provide real value to their holders like Bitcoin (immutable store of value), the NEXO Token (numerous utility features within the Nexo ecosystem), and Layer 1s like ETH.

10) Who’s on your must-follow list on Twitter?

Naval, Elon Musk (his tweets move the crypto market occasionally), Pomp, wait for it…the Federal Reserve 😉.

11) Who are you outside of work?

I am a positive, energetic person who loves to laugh and make people smile. I’m a people person and my friends can’t imagine throwing a party without me. #LifeOfTheParty

To me, crypto and blockchain are… а way of life.